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They say it\\u2019s a small world and getting smaller. In many ways that\\u2019s true. Thanks to the many advances in transportation and communication over the last hundred years, it\\u2019s easy to think sometimes that the world is more like a big town. Especially with the rise of social media over the last ten years, we can actually have regular conversations with people thousands of miles away. Even though TARTLE is a small company, we have team members all around the world. So yes, it\\u2019s very easy to think of the world as small and getting smaller. Yet, it\\u2019s still very physically big. When something happens on the other side of the Atlantic or even on the other side of the country, it\\u2019s very easy to think of it as not really affecting us, certainly not how it might be affecting our health.\\xa0

Yet, this where we have to realize that while the world may be big enough that things don\\u2019t directly affect us, it is still small enough that we are indirectly affected by a lot of things. There are plenty of examples.\\xa0

Turn the clock all the way back to 9/11/01 when terrorists flew a pair of passenger liners into the World Trade Center in New York. For weeks after, flights were grounded. That led to a measurable increase in the amount of sunlight reaching the earth, sunlight that normally is blocked by contrails.\\xa0

More recently are all the wildfires in the western United States in the summer of 2020. Dry weather and poor forest management caused what in the US was a worse than average wildfire season. The immediate effects were of course loss of millions of acres of forest, loss of homes for many and loss of life. So much burned that it also had a significant effect on the amount of sunlight reaching the ground. So much particulate went into the upper atmosphere that it affected the colors during sunrise and sunset at least as far away as Michigan. It doesn\\u2019t take a genius to recognize that the sheer amount of smoke and other particles in the air is going to have an effect on people\\u2019s respiratory health. In fact, it\\u2019s actually possible that the wildfires and the subsequent respiratory effects helped fuel the summer COVID spike that was seen in the United States.

Or recall the big storm that went through the plain states last fall, destroying millions of acres of crops. Fallout from that affects food prices which in turn affects people\\u2019s ability to get quality food, which in turn affects long-term health.\\xa0

One doesn\\u2019t even need to invoke climate change to make this point. If a water treatment plant is poorly maintained or its capacity is overwhelmed due to excess water usage or too many chemicals getting flushed down the drain it can cause a failure that leads to significant river contamination, which has a downstream effect on fish and other things, such as treatment plants that take water out of the river for nearby towns.\\xa0

A single cigarette tossed out the window or poorly managed campfire can turn into something that affects people thousands of miles away. One mistake in quarantine procedures can lead to an invasive species such as Asian Carp taking over whole river systems, causing significant effects on the overall food supply.\\xa0

How to track all of this and its long-term effects on the globe? We need data, and as always, the closer we can get to the source of that data the better. This is exactly why TARTLE is set up the way it is. We provide buyers the ability to connect not just with random information, but with individuals who generate data every day and who can generate more if need be. Want to know how food prices are affected by a big storm? Go ask people how prices are going up in their area. How is health getting affected? Go directly to the hospitals and clinics around the country and find out how many are admitted to the ER and for what. Or ask people if they are getting new prescriptions, or if exercising outside is more difficult since the wildfires started. Data like this is exactly what is necessary to determine the effects of our behaviors on the world and what things we can change to make a difference.

What\\u2019s your data worth? www.tartle.co