All the profits in the world won’t matter one tiny bit if we don’t have a climate we can live in. Money cannot buy anyone a ticket off this rock we call home when it becomes uninhabitable in the very near-term. Why is that concept so lost on those who believe making money is more important than taking care of our home?
I am not against the idea of anyone making their own money and living a comfortable life, far from it; what I am against is doing so at such a high cost to the comfortable existence of every other human on earth. From strip-mining mountain tops for coal, to forcing chemicals into the ground to gain access to hidden natural gas (and destroying drinking water all over the east cost in the process), to politicians railing against proven science at the behest of oil companies, I feel as though we have found ourselves surrounded by selfish fools more interested in lining their bathrooms in gold-leaf wallpaper than in a healthy future for all humanity. And that hurts to have to believe about our fellow humans.
If 2011 was any indicator of things to come, we are in a lot of trouble. Extreme drought in Africa, record floods on the east coast and in Thailand, dangerous wildfires in Texas, and destructive tornadoes in the heartland of America all combined to set a record in 2011 for the most billion dollar disasters in a single year. That’s scary. And because we as a nation refuse to slow down our consumption habits, limit our greenhouse gas emissions, and sign on to international climate treaties, destructive weather is going to be the norm for the foreseeable future, until we finally finish ourselves off. Remember, the planet will be fine — it’s us that’s screwed.
Nothing good will come from sitting on our hands while watching our drastically changing climate. Period. And yet we are living with some people and corporations still preoccupied with the archaic idea that they need more money than they could ever spend in a single lifetime, which many of them get through destructive means. Why are we allowing this to go on? Is there anything we can do?
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All I need is enough! Thank you for the profound article.
Well said!
Very true! It’s a shame that people haven’t realized this by now.
Well written, but companies won’t change. We would have to explain to a majority of shareholders, many not particularly wealthy, that they should help the environment by accepting less dividends. I just don’t think that will happen.
One important item to remember is the mutual funds people invest in. Those funds are made up, often, of the very companies who are doing the damage. We need to invest our money responsibly so as not to put the burden of our investments on our children.