makes us feel better to say that billionaires could save the world if they wanted to, if their ethics matched our own.
Money will not save the world on its own. Talent, communications, motivation, organization and money, along with heavy doses of hope and fear will be required to save the world.
Rebuilding Notre Dame will be just a modern forgery of the original, even the one that burned was only a restoration. A copy of the Wright Flyer is not the Wright Flyer and will not have nuances of the original. A restored Notre Dame might be beautiful and carry much historic significance but it will not be a true reflection of the skills and artistry of the original craftsmen.
I wonder if preserving such a decadent church of a religion that at the time is was built was not doing enough to help the poor, was a tool of rich monarchs and was persecuting people it consider heretics.
We don’t have to be independently wealthy to start recycling or reduce our reliance on plastics. We don’t have to be billionaires to carpool or find other ways of reducing carbon emissions.
When billionaires car pool, I will. I will keep my carbon footprint under that of the wealthy. If the rich won’t lead by example then we are destined to fail unless we depose those who set a bad example.
I am not going to sacrifice only to have my sacrifice be offset by the waste and pollution of the rich. I am not into tilting at windmills.
That said I do recycle, reduce, reuse, conserve, do without, eat very little beef, eat very little at all, drive less and get high gas mileage, rarely travel or eat out, grow some of my own food but it seems to be futile effort when the population and pollution continue to increase and few of the Powers that Be are serious about getting on a more sustainable path.
We can do both but we need priorities. We need to rebuild the burned churches in Louisiana before we rebuild Notre Dame.
TEK
