Saturday, November 29, 2008

Earth Overshoot vs. Black Friday

There is a day called Earth Overshoot Day. It is the day that humanity will have used all the resources nature will generate this year, according to Global Footprint Network data. This year that day was September 23.

There is another day called Black Friday. It is the day in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit).

There is something terribly wrong when companies cannot turn a profit until a full month after the Earth's natural resources have been used up.

I am 43 years old. I have at least another 40 or 50 years left in me. I cannot see putting my faith in a system that cannot turn a profit a month after the planet's resources have been exhausted. I cannot see continuing to invest my money in this system. It cannot last another 40 years. It simply will not be there for me when I am old. The system that we currently participate in, the one we've been asked to pump $700 billion or more of our hard-earned tax dollars into, the one that asks us to shop shop shop while our young men and women die in the Middle East cannot last.

I want a real change. I hope that pulling out of the consumer trap will help.

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