Falling asleep the other day, I thought about a headline that I had read earlier.
Basically, the powers that be are going after the Endangered Species Act. Again. Why? It's in the way of drilling for oil.
I imagined debating with someone about why this news bothered me so much.
They might say -- so what, why should I care about species and the environment?
I could say that biodiversity is important. It’s like a hidden strength in the natural world that benefits people and nature alike.
I could say because extinct is gone forever. How does anyone think it’s ok for man to eliminate an entire species?
I could say it's just wrong. It shouts out one of the worst qualities in people: greed.
To extract those natural resources so a few billion dollar companies can make more money is an affront to basic decency. So a handful of shareholders can become even wealthier? That does not sound right.
There’s a reason we’ve been warned about greed throughout civilization. Why it's in every religions' moral code. It's easily a top threat to humanity.
If that doesn't register, my counterpoint person just shrugs for example, then I could say well, then let the companies that are doing the extraction and extinctions bear the external costs. Let's speak to what motivates them.
When the Exxon Mobil's suck out their oil, Earth gets hit with a trifecta. Extraction requires destroying habitat and the animals that live there; refining sends pollution into the air; and burning the refined product sends carbon into air already overstuffed with carbon.
All of these things are costs for people. If the companies paid for these costs on society, clean energy would be fully embraced, and be monetized as a billion dollar business faster than a NY minute.
The kicker is we have the ways and means to do better. We do not need to pull more oil out of the ground to continue to live happy and productive lives. There are other ways to do this thing called modern life without destroying the planet.
We’re smart enough to figure out these solutions and even put them in place all over the world, but often too exhausted to fight the relentless engine of greed that tells us that pollution isn't bad and that we cannot afford to stop using their dirty energy.
My eyes were still closed as I meandered through these points and grew sleepier.
They might say -- so what, why should I care about species and the environment?
I could say that biodiversity is important. It’s like a hidden strength in the natural world that benefits people and nature alike.
I could say because extinct is gone forever. How does anyone think it’s ok for man to eliminate an entire species?
I could say it's just wrong. It shouts out one of the worst qualities in people: greed.
To extract those natural resources so a few billion dollar companies can make more money is an affront to basic decency. So a handful of shareholders can become even wealthier? That does not sound right.
There’s a reason we’ve been warned about greed throughout civilization. Why it's in every religions' moral code. It's easily a top threat to humanity.
If that doesn't register, my counterpoint person just shrugs for example, then I could say well, then let the companies that are doing the extraction and extinctions bear the external costs. Let's speak to what motivates them.
When the Exxon Mobil's suck out their oil, Earth gets hit with a trifecta. Extraction requires destroying habitat and the animals that live there; refining sends pollution into the air; and burning the refined product sends carbon into air already overstuffed with carbon.
All of these things are costs for people. If the companies paid for these costs on society, clean energy would be fully embraced, and be monetized as a billion dollar business faster than a NY minute.
The kicker is we have the ways and means to do better. We do not need to pull more oil out of the ground to continue to live happy and productive lives. There are other ways to do this thing called modern life without destroying the planet.
We’re smart enough to figure out these solutions and even put them in place all over the world, but often too exhausted to fight the relentless engine of greed that tells us that pollution isn't bad and that we cannot afford to stop using their dirty energy.
My eyes were still closed as I meandered through these points and grew sleepier.
This is when whomever I’m talking to might roll their eyes and call me a tree hugger.
Hopefully then I'd respond with what's so bad about hugging trees?
Good night!
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