Sometimes, just sometimes, you read something that puts everything into perspective.
So I’m going to share a excerpt from an email newsletter by a South African businessman and internet marketer, Peter Carruthers. (It’s from a few years ago, but it’s even more relevant today).
Mostly, Peter writes about business, and service, and marketing. Always interesting, always relevant. Recently however he tackled a different topic – one which resonated particularly with me, because it’s all about how we’re wasting resources.
He wrote that he had been reflecting on the fecklessness of the next generation – as parents have done for generations.
He then realised that in fact, they couldn’t do much worse than us.
It’s a sobering thought.
Here’s what he says:
In less than 100 years, and especially this past 30, we have taken the treasure that the earth has taken billions of years to assemble, and consumed so much of it that we are running out.
We have eaten, smoked, or burnt everything consumable, and a bunch of things patently not meant to be eaten. We have taken it out of the ground, processed it, and thrown it away, back into the sea, on the floor, and into the sky. We have tinkered with stuff we don’t really understand. And made a few places unfit for life, in any form, for the rest of time – at least for as long as we can imagine.
It has … taken millions of years to create the billions of barrels of oil we now use each year, en route to running out sooner than we want, all so that we can do urgent stuff like go on holiday in Turkey, or fly fresh flowers from Kenya to Norway each night, or iron our shirts so that we look good when we go to the bank to borrow ever more money to buy ever more stuff.
In a world where we do not pay the real cost for all that we consume, we consume all that there is.
Instead of looking at this earth as Granny’s home, a sacred place to visit, keep clean, and leave it as we found it, we have raided her fridge, burnt her house down, and then wizzled on the smoking remains.
We know it’s absolutely true. So let’s make sure we keep living green and helping to protect the planet – Earth needs help!
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What Peter says is absolutely correct. The staggering amount of just about everything we waste is overwhelming. It seems to me that it is the so called civilised first world wealthy who waste most!
Yes, that’s true, although it doesn’t mean that the developing world wouldn’t consume as much if they had the chance!
In a speech at Rio +20, the Uruguayan President explained that his country, which is well endowed with natural resources, fought for an 8 hour work day, then a 6. Now most people work 2 jobs (longer hours!) to pay off their new motorbikes / cars / houses.
People the world over want ‘stuff’, and the environment suffers – despite the fact that material possessions are shown NOT to increase happiness!
One of the differences though is that, in general, first-world inhabitants tend, on average, to have had a better education, and have easier access to information. Therefore, we should know better about environmental issues, so the responsibility lies more with us. Thus our wastage is much harder to accept.
Thanks for your comment!