| I sincerely hope your week is going well. 2020 has been a banner year of challenge for humanity and if you've been affected directly, we send our deepest thoughts, best prayers, and highest wishes. The virus, the fires, the political & racial division & hatred in our country, all force us to stop and reevaluate our path. Shopify sent me an email about their new eco program called "Patch". Intrigued, I dove in, but quickly arrived at a moral impasse... Shopify (the powerful platform on which our website is built) was offering an "out" (or maybe it's an "in"??) for companies to offset their environmental calamity through an arm called Patch that accepts money and uses it to do environmental projects. On the surface, this sounded amazing; an opportunity for more money to be pointed toward fixing real ecological problems staring humanity in the face. But in reality, is there any amount of good that can offset wrong? No amount of money can replace non-renewable resources or bring back the extinct or "untouch" a landscape. Patch is a noble idea; to offer companies an opportunity to put a 'patch' over their inflicted ecological wounds. The problem I see is this... Patch offers companies an opportunity to morally offset their "sins" with money, incentivizing them to do more harm and them to tout to their vulnerable consumer base, the good they're doing for the environment rather than actually forcing difficult, positive change that averts the harm upstream.
We can't continue this path. We are stewards of this precious earth and we must look into the mirror and ask"What is my responsibility?" And now,"What am I going to do about it?"
There is no buying our way into "grace". Either we're doing good or we're doing bad. And we must be honest with ourselves about both.
Patches don't fix real problems.
Honesty, Personal Responsibility, & Love do.
& those can all start in our own personal spheres of influence... at home. |
