Samstag, 19. Dezember 2009

Copenhagen and Money

The results of the Copenhagen summit are disillusioning. It seems that international diplomacy can't be relied upon to produce tangible results, as long as national and short-term economic interests are more important than the planet's common good. (Short-term economic interests, mind you, because it's by now well established that cleaning up the mess will be a lot more expensive than it would be no to produce it in the first place.) For the time being, it looks like it's up to us, the end consumers - you, me, everyone - to act responsibly and use resources in a considerate way.

On a slightly different note, it is also worth giving a thought to who you provide your resources to, in the form of money. Do you know what exactly your bank does with the money you put into your account? Frankly, I don't. However, there are banks which do allow you to choose which kind of projects are financed by loans taken from your deposits, giving you more transparency about where your interest payments come from. My favourite option, as you can guess, are renewable energy projects. If you're interested, have a look at Triodos Bank (UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium), noabank, GLS Bank, Umweltbank or Ethikbank.