We are Literally the Frog in the Pot
June 3, 2024
It is Monday. It is a hot day, only June; the hurricane season just started on the first. I had to think about the article in Vrij Nederland about how the Netherlands is the front-runner in tackling fossil advertising—advertising that might reduce the use of fossil oil. I had never heard of it. At first glance, it might make sense. However, it does not! In India, there is a heatwave. A few days ago in India, we registered the highest temperature on earth ever, around 53 degrees Celsius. During the elections of President Modi, it was over fifty degrees. That reminds me of the election of the first female president in Mexico and when Nayib Bukele officially started his second term as president of El Salvador. What is the impact of climate change in those countries?
In the last couple of weeks at night, I have noticed that many padel courts have been constructed out of nowhere. I play tennis myself, and until recently, I had never heard of padel. Locally, it has gained enormous popularity, and suddenly, there is much money to build courts for the happy few, the young, and the beautiful. However, it is confusing because we are in the middle of not only the climate crisis but also the crisis of inequality, and there seems to be no money for anything to help the less fortunate.
This brings me to a meeting on how to innovate a small office to make it sustainable as part of an effort to mitigate the climate crisis. The earth is boiling, we are late, and there is little we can do, but we sit and discuss a small project that will have minimal impact. We do not understand that time is up, and whatever we want to try must be done quickly and boldly because we are boiling.
Miguel Goede
Comments