COP28 is currently taking place in Dubai. On the territory of an important fossil energy having contributed to the wealth and economy of a great free world. It’s also the story of a little bird today.
Natural light hours are short. The deer hunting is over. The manure is spread, the seed is put away and the tractor is married with a snowblower for the winter. The leaves have finished falling. We are here. There are more and more Christmas trees on car roofs. Ho! Ho! Ho!, we say to ourselves. The magic will soon return and my parents will treat me to a fruitcake from the Optimist Club. Everything will be better. For real.
This week, I inadvertently pressed the wrong button (due to a pothole) and answered a call in the car instead of sending it to voicemail. A nice gentleman asked how I was, in English. He was calling from a bank. We’re going to chat, I said to myself, for the sake of it, and to pass the time in the still traffic of a city.
“Our institution has a special offer for you on our green financial products. As the future and the environment are at the heart of our concerns at Financial Services… we are concerned about ethics in our investments and our funds…”
He didn’t finish his sentence.
“It’s nothing against you, I said (still in English and kindly), but I don’t subscribe to green preaching. »
Because talking green, preaching, is in fashion. That and all the injustices of History that we have been trying to repair with a snap of our fingers for several years. But we’re moving away, let’s stay in corporate greenwashing. It sadly makes you smile (we resist cynicism very strongly here). And it comes with an adapted sales glossary: sustainability, renewable resource, plant-based, environmental, circular, fair…
In short, field efforts have joined the economic discourse.
We learned last week that the 12 richest men on the planet have the same carbon footprint as 2.1 million households. Ok, we say to ourselves. Everything is OK, I’m sure they care about the future of the planet, especially if it’s profitable. Sheltered, behind the decorations of their foundations.
We are not going to add a layer and pretend to be indignant here (indignation should become an Olympic discipline). But can we tell marketing strategists that even green overconsumption is not happier than the other? Who are we fooling in the end? Otherwise yourself. We. Bullshit speech.
Once, not long ago, it was said that a natural Christmas tree was more durable. The next day, more recently, it is the turn of the artificial to be a better solution. Will we really make a choice? No, it will be both; at least one of the decisions will be durable and long-lasting. And we will be aligned with the values on the poster of the perfect citizen. Values are important, especially as bait. Renewable electricity and energy at any price, electric tanks, fresh water in the sinks of virtuous public toilets… Symbols, like color, of prosperity, ecology and progress.
Behind the house, on the banks of the river, there are plovers. A beautiful bird (so named because it often announces rain) which cries and pretends to have a broken wing when one approaches its nest. A subterfuge to attract threats away from the brood. A diversion. And when you get too close to the injured person, he flies away. Job done.
We will hear several promises in the coming days on global warming. A pastiche of agreements snatched at the last second surely, to “save face”. A little self-congratulation, job done Again. The salvation of the world now requires the greening of its values. A green investment to be clean and eternal.
Consciousness like the plover which saved the moment. Until the next threat. But I saw several broods being unearthed by the tides, and no amount of trickery could do anything about it.
In the meantime. We console ourselves by dreaming of fruit cake. There are things which, far from the ambient discourse, can also help to improve the global balance sheet a little in themselves. Like avoiding the speeches of those who climb the pulpit.
Hanging up with the financial salesman, in front of me on a bumper, two bumper stickers : Resist hate to the left and the other, Shit happens.