Should All Plastic Be Banned? Join The Discussion On Kialo!

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Engaging in an honest, factual and logical debate isn’t always possible, but the folks over at Kialo are on a mission to maximize the likelihood of a positive outcome, whatever the topic may be. Their platform was built to allow just about anyone to have a structured online debate about just about anything.

Kialo was founded in 2012 based on the idea of creating a platform to allow for user-moderated debate on the internet. 5 years of development later, the team launched their platform in August of 2017 and since then, they have built a robust platform on which some of the 3,000 public debates on the site have up to 3,000 contributors to them.

Kialo grew out of a desire for a forum that allowed for and enabled logical discourse. People turn into trolls online and unsightly comments fly from the fingers of the masses without so much as a second thought. Kialo hedged against this tendency by adding gatekeepers in the form of user moderators that enforce productive comments and discourage flame wars.

Over the next few months, we will be featuring relevant debate topics here on CleanTechnica, both to engage our readership in the discussion and to highlight what we view as topics relevant to clean tech, the environment, and the overall health of the planet.

 

This month, we’ll be diving into a discussion over on Kialo about plastics and talk a bit about whether they should indeed be avoided at all costs or if they do more good than harm and we really just need to put a bit more effort into the good old trio of responsible stewardship: reduce, reuse, recycle.

The digital debate opens with a topic at the top, flanked by pros and cons just below it. Each item in the main list can be drilled into to view the comment, add comments, get more information or dive deeper into the discussion.

In the debate on plastics, we can see the reduce, reuse, recycle themes very clearly playing out in the comments as participants pull in the timeless tools to fight plastic pollution. What’s intriguing about the platform is that new themes and angles are brought into the discussion like an argument against trying to avoid using plastic: ‘This is unrealistic as everything is wrapped in plastic.”

Angles and counter angles are brought into the discussion as the common arguments and rebuttals are brought into the discussion, and that’s what has me excited about Kialo. There isn’t any yelling, trolling, or nonsense mixed into the mess. Because all comments and arguments are user moderated, it forces productive discourse.

Instead, people bring up the logical reasons to avoid using plastics, and the doubters are similarly able to discuss their points of view. Discuss, not troll them about. People can honestly post that they believe alternatives to plastics are too expensive and people more informed on the matter can come back with specific reasons that it makes sense or not to move the conversation forward.

There is clearly room for more debate on the matter, and the platform begs for more informed parties to get involved. At least it does for me. Unanswered questions or uninformed points of view just call out to me for a response, and I’ve already submitted several responses and comments on Kialo for just that reason.

Everything in the debate is kept filed away in a very streamlined tree hierarchy that makes it easy to see where the conversation started and how the different branches sprout off. The site feels a lot like the comments here on CleanTechnica, but instead of being structured around an entire article, they’re pruned into an outline that’s been built around a specific topic.

The attraction is two-fold: the topics of interest to me represent an opportunity for me to learn more about the nuances of the debate and at the same time, present an opportunity for me to contribute my unique point of view to the conversation.

Get into this discussion over on Kialo, head to the homepage to find a topic that’s more exciting, or submit a completely new topic to debate.

Disclaimer: This feature article was sponsored by Kialo but resonates closely with our goals here at CleanTechnica of presenting topics in our articles and providing a forum for healthy discussion in the comments. 


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Kyle Field

I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. As an activist investor, Kyle owns long term holdings in Tesla, Lightning eMotors, Arcimoto, and SolarEdge.

Kyle Field has 1654 posts and counting. See all posts by Kyle Field