Your Footprint: More Than Counting Carbs

This week on Footprint Friday I would like to take a brief respite from the normal "let's reduce our carbon footprint"... Instead I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers that there is more to the world than our ecological impact although this plays a dominant roll for our childrens' standard of living.

A few months ago I read some comments on a colleague's environmental website posted by an obvious critic. He observed that environmentalists tended to also be humanitarians and wondered why. Why not let those in hunger starve? By feeding them the problem is perpetuated and actually grows with time. Those people who are hungry are in some way responsible for their situation in life, and they are in this situation (hunger) primarily as a result of their cultural and religious beliefs. This is a position that actually disgusts me and I think the commenter was in actuality attempting to provoke an emotional response out of us humanitarians/greenies.

What I found amazing was that a very literate writer and apparently intelligent person could take the position that he did. Environmentalism and humanitarianism are intertwined and difficult to separate. And today I would like to bring some awareness of what we, in the developed world, don't want to hear about. We have more to deal with than simply reducing our carbon and ecological footprints. There is another dimension to all this. There is a term I would like to coin called our "ethical footprint". Next time you drive around in your SUV, instead of thinking about how you can reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, think instead about what is being done in third world countries to support YOUR standard of living.

Two recent news events prompted this post. The first event involves riots in Peru where more than 50 people have been killed. The issue is exploitation of natural resources on native land. Yes - oil pipelines, mining, logging, large scale farming by foreign owned companies - without the consent of the local natives. Why should you and I be concerned? The answer is that we are the end customer of all these activities. We are implicated in these activities.

The second event in the news I would like to bring to the reader's attention is entitled Shell settles human rights suit for $15.5 million. Royal Dutch Shell settled a law suit that alleged that Shell was complicit in the executions of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria's former military regime. Yes despite Shell's massive financial resources they settled out of court when they could have dragged the suit on until the other party ran out of money. So why did they settle out of court? To save money? I doubt it.

Next time you fill up at the gas station think about what is really going on in the world to support your lifestyle. You may not like what you see. And we in the developed world are complicit in some activities we may not like.