“[H]umanity was guided for most of its existence by the ideal of being. It is very recent that we have begun to be guided by the ideal of having. Mercantilism shifted the ideal of being to the ideal of having. Before the Greeks wanted to be wise and free, the Egyptians wanted to be immortal… Unfortunately, with this shift brought by mercantilism, we came to want to have things. The problem is that while there are no limits to being, there are limits to having. The planet cannot support 8 billion human beings with an infinite capacity to desire, all desiring to have things. Today, we only feel happy if we consume. In this urge to produce and consume, we are consuming ourselves, consuming the very conditions that sustain life on the planet.”

~Brazil’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva

Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, joined Christiana Figueres to share her call for an Ethical Global Stocktake – a reminder that sustainability is not only a way of doing, but a way of being: https://www.outrageandoptimism.org/episodes/inside-cop-brazils-climate-leadership-the-cop30-host-takes-centre-stage