Investments.
Like many I invest through a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). In the States you know it as individual retirement annuity (IRA).
Recently I learned that part of my investment, about 30%, was funding the Alberta oil sands, refineries and other oil companies. My money. Sixty of my hard earned dollars every month supported the very thing I have rallied against on my little soap box.
Now here’s the rub - that investment has boosted my savings. But my conscious and hypocrisy gage have been beeping code red. Can I invest in technologies and businesses that strive for ecological sustainability and feel confident that I will not working as some film extra or selling papers when I’m 75 just to make ends meet?
More on that next week. In the meantime, I invite you to take a moment to take a look at what’s at stake….
TO Think About This Week
Once upon a time the land on our planet was very green. We Homo sapiens knew this lush land for 120,000 years when we were hunters and gatherers. Then about 10,000 years ago we dug in, cultivated the land and in so doing created civilizations. Iran and Iraq were once known as the “fertile crescent”. The lands along the Mediterranean were once populated with an abundance of plant species.
A few thousand years ago our species transformed these fertile lands into deserts. Two hundred years ago we began the industrial age.
Take a look at parts of our planet today.
Europe – Once thickly forested.
US East Coast – Then and now.
Yellowstone National Park – Clear Cuts.
Rainforest Plunder
Planet Earth - Check out the Straight of Gibraltar. The desert is the product of human activity during earlier civilizations. On the night images - where there is light, there is no more forest.
What are you doing to preserve our remaining forests?
Stop Global Warming
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http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/
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News from Nairobi.
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Other News
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Tree Hugger
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