Getting in the way

I’m sitting here in the dark, in a hotel room (travelling for work), having just watched the last episode of Planet Earth on my work laptop. My brain is buzzing a bit with all of the things I’ve been reading, watching and thinking over the last few days and weeks. I’m sitting in the dark, partly because the video is brighter with all the lights off, but also because here in the room there must be about eight lights that come on automatically when I walk in the room and put my electronic key card in the slot just inside the front door. Add to that the fact that the TV is always “on”, on standby mode, 24 hours a day and you’ve already got a pretty big footprint. Luckily, there is a (slightly platiscated) feedback card so I’m going to suggest they do something about that.

Planet Earth has been a pretty amazing series – I bought it with my Christmas money (!) and it’s taken me just over eight months to watch it all. It’s been exhilarating, yes, really, and also depressing. Sad that so much wildlife and wilderness is being destroyed all over the world, and it’s still difficult to see what we can do about it. I think one of the difficulties is that individuals are well-meaning but distracted by a lot of the day to day things we have to do – jobs, families, etc. (Big) businesses on the other hand, have people whose jobs it is to undertake activities that, sometimes by definition, conflict with what some of us consider important (the environment, justice, fairness etc). One of the chaps being interviewed in this last episode was a something-of sustainable agriculture for a large drug & hygiene products company. He suggested that part of his remit was to promote a balance between sustainability & production (in this case, of palm oil). I just don’t buy it. If you work for a business, you’re in the game to make money. The other things are only a by-product. If doing things sustainably is compatible with making money, that’s great; but if it’s not, then that’s the end of it, they will only ever do what’s going to make money, create profit & satisfy shareholders.

So, certainly the last few weeks has seen one step in the right direction for me – I’ve finally ditched my “evil” old bank and transferred all my dealings to the UK’s foremost ethical bank, the Cooperative Bank. They have a strong ethical policy and I can sleep soundly (when small daughters permit!) knowing that my money isn’t going into funding arms dealers and tin pot dictators around the world. My previous bank responded positively to accusations that they were supporting the remnants of Zimbabwe’s government, in defiance of the views of the rest of the world, and quickly shut off the money. But I wanted a bank that didn’t need to do that, that didn’t try to push the envelope of what they could get away with – I wanted one that had a moral and ethical stance built in. I’m only annoyed that I didn’t do it earlier. I’ve known for years and years that my bank was particularly “unethical” but never got round to switching. I think that’s one of the big things that prevents us doing the “right thing” – it’s not that we consciously choose wrong, it’s that other things get in the way.