Responsible investing momentum is strong. For me, and for many of my generation, the future is clear: we are well on our way towards the installation of a vitally important system-level force for good, one that will protect future generations, indeed the planet itself. We have laid the groundwork for a financial system which functions globally to protect people and the planet. It is the realization of a misty dream for me. My purpose in advocating what I called ethical investing, going back nearly 40 years now, was to build a large enough investor presence that demanded a clean and dignified future for all — that such a future would be guaranteed.
Responsible investing momentum is strong. For me, and for many of my generation, the future is clear: we are well on our way towards the installation of a vitally important system-level force for good, one that will protect future generations, indeed the planet itself. We have laid the groundwork for a financial system which functions globally to protect people and the planet. It is the realization of a misty dream for me. My purpose in advocating what I called ethical investing, going back nearly 40 years now, was to build a large enough investor presence that demanded a clean and dignified future for all — that such a future would be guaranteed.
We know that universal human dignity and ecological sustainability are not guaranteed. We have recently seen this, during the holocausts brought about by Nazis killing 12 million, the Cultural Revolution killing over 40 million, Stalin’s various gulags and purges killing 12 million, King Leopold II’s rape of the Congo killing 10 million, and so on through the centuries. And it isn’t only disregard for people. In 1985 we discovered a vortex of plastic trash in the Pacific. Yet we did nothing and that vortex is now somewhere between the size of Texas and the United States. In 1896 Svante Arrhenius wrote that burning coal was adding CO2 to the atmosphere and thereby raising the planet’s temperature; we did nothing. We know that God Almighty has not stepped in to prevent such things. We know that a single nation or even a coalition of nations cannot do so. Some sort of planet-wide, pre-existing, powerful and coordinated entity must be found, and must be convinced, to assert sanity. Finance is such an entity, and finance is increasingly populated by investors who give a damn.
“We must continue to stand together to demand that the search for monetary profits not come at the detriment of universal human dignity nor the undermining of ecological sustainability.”
Read more at GreenMoney Journal
Image: Amy Domini (Credit: GreenMoney Journal)
