Ways People Try to Make the World a Better Place That Do Not Work
There are lots of people who in the world who strive to improve the world. sadly, many of them are misinformed about how to go about doing so. Today I will outline these ways that people are failing to improve the world.
The first way I will outline, is the person who refuses to use plastic bags at the grocery store. The logic they use is the less plastic bags they use, the better the environment will become from lack of use. Lets ignore the fact that these people make it a nightmare for anyone who works retail, and instead look at the environment.
Plastic is made from oil. Oil is the main way that fuel is created in our society. When plastic bags are used less, then the production of bags goes down. Instead the oil is used for fuel which increases green house gas emissions. In addition, this slows down the overall use of the oil. So long as oil is a viable source of fuel, investors will be less likely to invest in greener sources. As much as idealists want to think that a majority of people care about the environment, what most people care about is how they can make as much money as they can as quickly as they can. Those who wish for the wealthy to invest in green energy, they do what they can to help the oil run out.
Plastic may not be good for the environment, but it does not contribute to greenhouse gasses like most other petroleum products do.
While we are on talks of clean energy, lets not ignore the one source of clean fuel that investors already stick a lot of money into, but that environmentalists are opposed to. I speak of course of Nuclear Energy.
People fear Nuclear Energy due to the risk of a meltdown which has the capabilities to destroy large swaths of land. What people forget though, is the chance of a meltdown is so small that there is a greater chance of being struck by lightning and attacked by a shark in the same lifetime than experiencing this disaster if one was to live near nuclear plants their entire life.
Still people carry their fears from the Cold War, where Nuclear apocalypse has been over dramatized and over romanticized. Yes Nuclear fallout is very very deadly, but we cannot put poison in the air from coal natural gas and oil just because we fear a nuclear explosion that it is more than highly unlikely to ever occur.
The third and the one that the most people do poorly, is donating to the wrong charities. There are a whole lot of charities out there that claim they are non for profit, but that just really means that they are not paying taxes on the money they earn. Always, and I repeat, ALWAYS check to see the percentage of money donated that goes to charity. If the charity does not list this information, do not donate. They cannot be trusted. By law they have to list this data.
If the money mostly goes to the business, once again, do not donate. It is sad that this rule of searching will eliminate most charities. Its an indicator that greedy people will do what they can to sucker money out of their pockets.
Hopefully as you read this, you can do what you can to help the environment. And also you hopefully will not fall for these tricks like so many others have.