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More than net-zero?

Writer's picture: Mary Ann PantleMary Ann Pantle

There is a lot of buzz these days about net-zero, and how businesses need to attain this goal by 2050 to stop global warming. Have you considered that perhaps the goal needs to be higher than that?


Mostly because there are still significant levels of waste out there that need to be picked up, cleaned, and somehow disposed of appropriately if we are truly going to make our world cleaner. And that doesn't even include what may have happened to everything below those piles once it's gone.


Ultimately, the attainment of net-zero may sound positive as a marketing and communications strategy from big firms in order to convince you that they have "bought in" but that "achievement" doesn't really account for everything that we have already done.


All of those containers that we have gotten rid of, all of those car rides we have been on, and all the other expenses we have dumped on this earth.


And to be clear, it is a we because if you live on this planet, you are contributing to the destruction of it. Even if I don't take you into a completely over-blown end of world scenario where we all are wearing oxygen masks and living on a Mars-like habitat, there is still no denying that our actions are damaging the Earth.


Now we can continue to act as though we aren't aware and allow ourselves to be persuaded by these slogans OR we can take a deep look into who we are as local communities interwoven together in this wild web.


It may not be easy, especially when there are folks who actively profit from our division, but at some point our survival will need to take precedent over our petty politics that ultimately are all arguing for the same thing ---> freedom, autonomy, and justice.


However, don't let these folks fool you into thinking that net-zero by 2050 is the goal. Because there are a lot of messes that need to start getting picked up; it's just a matter of whether we will actually do it.

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