Don't Mess with Nature - Don't Mess with Nature: Rising Tides

Don't Mess with Nature: Rising Tides

04/29/20 • 19 min

Sea levels have been going up and down for millions of years - but why are we so interested in it now? Because over the last 150 years, sea levels have started to rise faster than ever before. Why? The world’s getting warmer. The CO2 that was locked up by nature in rock or other products is now being dug up and burnt, we’re burning the oil, we’re burning the coal, we’re burning the limestone to make cement. That CO2 is going back into the atmosphere, it’s happening super fast, our atmosphere is super sensitive and sea levels are rising.

And this is one of the problems of climate change. It’s like a punch that someone’s giving you. But it’s so slow, it’s like a punch in slow motion. So you don’t take it seriously. Until it hits you.

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Previous Episode

Don't Mess with Nature: Reinventing Life.

The planet doesn’t need us. But as humans, we need the planet. We’ve been around only about 3 million years, and yet in such a short time, we’ve taken over the whole earth, and completely changed it. We’re harnessing everything to do with the earth and turning it for our own use. And that has consequences.

An example of that is COVID-19 which has suddenly broken out across the planet like Nature’s time bomb that will cost the world some $10 trillion dollars. Unless we change the movement of money, we’ll continue to finance ourselves into extinction. The finance industry has done a great job of dissociating ourselves from our own money. But what’s the point in having a pension fund if when it pays out, you can’t breathe the air? We have to get to a better state of equilibrium between financial capital and natural capital. And that is what has driven me to swim against the current of this river, right up to the headwaters to work with the financial sector itself.

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Next Episode

Don’t Mess With Nature: The Meaning of Life

We need to start thinking about how life is connected with money. Why? Because unless we can find a better state of equilibrium between natural capital - that’s life on earth, and financial capital - that’s the money that makes the world go around, there’s a real danger that we’ll continue to finance ourselves into extinction.

After all, we all invest into health insurance and pensions for our own wellbeing. So why wouldn’t we consider environmentally minded companies which nurture the planet for our families and future generations? These are the issues which the financial sector has to grapple with.

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