I refuse to accept the cockatoo refrain that I constantly hear in advertising and the media encouraging us to save the planet. I want to save my family, my friends, my neighbors, my fellow citizens, the good people, those of my country, those of my continent and those of my world. I don’t want – and I don’t think I can – save a giant ball that spins from here to there. They invite us to carry out a multitude of actions and sacrifices for the good of the planet, they never refer to The Earth, which would be its proper name. The planet is a strange way of referring to what you really want to save.
When we save the planet with small daily actions, we are actually saving administrations, institutions and, generally, large corporations that benefit from our free work. There is a very clear example with the large bottlers sector: they advertise green, they invite us to save the planet for free, they indoctrinate us with the color of the containers and they buy the will of the municipalities from a non-profit institution.
When we save the planet with small daily actions, we are actually saving administrations, institutions and, generally, large corporations that benefit from our free work.
We separate the cardboard, waste, bottles and paper so that they collect everything and achieve significant savings in their production costs. We have already said that the paradigmatic example of competitive advantage stated by Harvard professor Michael Porter is cost leadership. Every time we recycle, we help bottlers make more money. We, in return, receive the gratification of saving a celestial body in the very long term. Something doesn’t fit.
Because the long term should matter too. If in the short term we help others above all, in the future, it is assumed that we are achieving the survival of the human species on Planet Earth in the Solar System. What has happened to human beings? Why don’t we save humanity? Why don’t we save ourselves? Why must we save the planet?
We should ask ourselves what it means to save and why the planet needs salvation. Furthermore, those who run the issue want to significantly decrease the number of human beings inhabiting the Earth with their eugenic ideology and radical dogmatism. Who are we saving? I can’t stay calm when I hear all the time this nonsense about doing this and that for the good of the planet. And you?
