Is this company worth it – the self-doubt post
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Sometimes, we get so lost in our little world of snowboarding, we lose sight of what else is going on.
Readers of this site would know I’m a really passionate environmentalist; I care, a lot.
One of my problems is I am always talking about the bad stuff. Hope sells, despair doesn’t.
Seth Godin had a great post about the enormity of something (i.e. an issue, global warming) here .
Enormity doesn’t mean really enormous. It means incredibly horrible.
The problem with enormity in marketing is that it doesn’t work. Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down.
Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won’t get a bigger donation, you’ll just get averted eyes.
If you’ve got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked. If you’ve got a generational problem, something that is going to take herculean effort and even then probably won’t pan out, we’re going to move on in search of something smaller.
Not fair, but true.
However, I don’t see any point in gilding the lily; our home is in big strife. Actually, strike that. Planet Earth will be fine. Its inhabitants – us primarily – are the ones in strife.
My constant highlighting of the climate’s woes can be a failing sometimes; turns people off. But more and more, snowboarding seems so unimportant to me. Not in terms of my, mental and spiritual wellbeing, but, in terms of taking notice of the greater world around us. And when I say it can be a failing, what I mean is, people come to this site for news on the snow, and a lot of the time, are disappointed. But for me, being like other snow news sites doesn’t make sense. None of that crap matters; who’s riding what, what flouro colours are in this season (”Oh my god, am I allowed to wear orange this season? ORANGE?”), what colour bindings are cool. Lame. It’s all become lame. There has to be more.
So today I thought I’d highlight some things that aren’t so cool, that happen under our noses. Unseen. Inescapable. Unrelenting. Happening around the world, RIGHT, NOW.
I hope it compels you to act and look at yourself, and examine how you frame the world you live in.
Here we have some video of wholesale forest destruction in Sumatra and Bornea; organgutangs are in strife. All for palm oil. Now, palm oil can be good, IF it’s grown responsibly (it’s not yet, at least not on a wholesale level). Read more here and here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2IG1nVljrg&feature=related
I’ve previously talked about the dire state of the planet’s water resources in the manner we use them here and here.
In Nepal – people are running out of water. Think that’s scary? . How about war over water?. Billions – BILLIONS – without water. Problem is, we’ve probably tipped past the edge and are now in an horrible warming cycle. Who knows where it will end.
Food production article from Grist about how the manner in which we grow our food, for an inexorably increasing population, is very, very bad.
Not just bad, but cruel.
What about how climate change is killing fish? Read more on the food chain here and here.
As I read stories of this type more and more, I wonder if it’s all worthwhile. Is trying to change snowboarding and the way it runs worth the effort, given the little return I get?
Is the heartache and stress worth it?
Does anyone even care?
Self doubt – it’s incredibly powerful, but a great opportunity for something to pop up.
What do you think? Post comments below!
One thing is clear, things MUST and WILL change. They have to, if we want to survive.
Similar Posts:
- The Effects of Climate Change – a reality check
- Our World is Melting, Fast
- Climate Change: not so good for anyone (especially for snow seasons and drinking water)
- The world is melting, faster
- Glacier NP to be glacier free 2020
