Most of us have heard about the problem of global warming and climate change. But have you heard about a global solution?
A solution that exploits human competitiveness and greed, changing the world to a sustainable one.
Not everyone agrees that humans are causing global warming, but no matter what your stance is in this discussion, the fact is that the earth is getting increasingly warmer and warmer, causing a variety of negative effects all over the world.
Before we talk about a solution, let’s break down the problem.
The Problem
Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Gas
The first question we should ask is; what is the number one reason of global warming?
Not surprisingly, greenhouse gases comes up as the number one factor according to www.epa.gov, and the gases that are the most emitted greenhouse gases in the world are Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Methane gas (CH4) that stands for 91% of all gases emitted.
An important aspect of solving a problem, is to focus on the parts that can be controled. In this case, the greenhouse gases emitted by humans is something we can control to a certain extent, and the solution should therefore be focused on the sources of emission.
www.epa.gov continues to state that the sources of greenhouse gas emissions can be broken down into 7 major categories:
Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Source
- Energy Supply
- Transport
- Residential & Commercial Buildings
- Industry
- Agriculture
- Forestry
- Waste and Wastewater
If we look at the sources of where those gases are produced, forestry, energy supply, industry, and agriculture are directly related to businesses – which adds up to 76% of all greenhouse gas sources.
Since the main purpose of most businesses is to make a profit, businesses are actually competing to contribute to the global warming – and eating up resources in a non-sustainable way.
So if the main problem of global warming is the emission of greenhouse gases, and almost 80% of the global emissions are related to businesses that wants to make a profit, how do we turn this from something bad to something good?
The Solution
Part of the solution is to know that it is estimated that the ecological resources of the planet sums up to around $50 trillion dollar for human purposes like filtering water and storing CO2 emissions. This means that it might actually cost us more money than we make when cutting down trees, since part of that natural process will be eliminated. In other words – we have to pay our reduction in resources in one way or another.
The solution to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions is to look at why business eliminates resources in the first place – which is to make a profit, and change the way a businesses makes a profit.
A profit is in it’s most basic form the result of what is left after subtracting all expenses from the revenue. In order to make sure that businesses work in a sustainable way, we have to add ecological resources to the expenses category, to make businesses compete to make the earth sustainable again.
I believe that what got us, humans, here in the first place was competitiveness and greed. Adding ecological resources in the financial statement would not only mean that expenses would be added, but companies can theoretically make money on i.e. planting trees to store CO2 – making ecological resources an income. Assumed that the government sees this as an opportunity to save money by having a long term mindset.
Imagining a world where businesses and people make a profit from making the earth sustainable would finally leverage the human potential of being a force for good. The new mindset of working FOR the earth instead of against it would definitely turn the world around, and at the same time make sure that we can put food on our tables for ourselves and our kids.
I really believe that this could be a global solution, and that if it change soon, we will experience a future that is suitable for the generations to come.
