What’s Going On Here?
Zoom, video conferencing extraordinaire, is now worth more than the world’s largest seven airlines, combined! Other video conferencing software is available…
What Does This Mean?
When it comes to growth rate, Zoom has really lived up to its name!
Hardly a day goes by without our household using Zoom at least once. We’ve used it at work for client meetings. We’ve used it to spy on a potential property via a letting agent. Zoom is the cause of my quiz-night fatigue and keeps us in touch with the daily press briefings. We even use it here at curious.earth to bring you these banging environmental nuggets!
In contrast to Zoom’s market monopoly ‘take-off’, and its value skyrocketing to $48.8 billion, airline stocks have ‘nosedived’ amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Why Should We Care?
The combination of flexible working and opting for video conferencing over unnecessary travel has many benefits for us and the planet. Cleaner air, more time with families, a stronger work life balance, reductions in fossil fuel consumption and much more.
Research conducted by Global Action Plan found that
- Up to 11 billion miles of car journeys could be saved each year from people working from home in the UK.
- 87% of people want working from home to continue post lockdown.
- 54 % of lockdown homeworkers say they are less stressed and 65 % are happier not having to deal with rush-hour travel.
Put simply, less travel = less burning of fossil fuels = less greenhouse gases produced
Last month, we saw oil prices go negative for the first time ever at minus $37 a barrel as a result of a massive drop in demand! This shows that our collective actions (such as opting for video conferencing) as a result of the pandemic, can benefit the planet. As the lockdown loosens, our next challenge is to keep up the momentum.
Be Curious!
Can you set yourself the challenge of reducing your travel footprint in 2021? Perhaps encourage your employer to keep unnecessary travel to a minimum and why not opt for holidays closer to home.
P.S – If you fancy Keanu Reeves then this is your chance. The Matrix star is offering fans the opportunity to chat one-to-one via Zoom during lockdown with donations going to charity. The current bid at the time of writing is £13,326 with the auction still open until Monday June 22 – you can place a bid here – GOOD LUCK!
