Email #66: As the Environment Takes Hit After Hit, Some Hope (6/9/17)

We try not to make this a political space.

Politics are polarizing and we realize each individual reading our emails has their own beliefs. We don’t, however, see climate change and the environment as political issues. These are issues for all of humanity to embrace with ferocity, requiring us to do whatever we can – large or small – to help.

I was thrilled to read about Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Røkke – a man who shares that opinion – in this Huffington Post piece by Eleanor Goldberg:

…Røkke, who accrued his wealth in part through offshore oil drilling, announced this month that he’s donating the majority of his wealth to help save the oceans. Røkke is funding a 600-foot research yacht, which will tackle some of the most pressing environmental concerns of our time ― including how to rescue endangered species and eliminate plastic trash from our big blue seas.

“There may not be any economic rationale for the private construction of such a ship, but the case is compelling from the oceans’ point of view,” Røkke said in a statement. 

News of the research vessel comes at a time when environmental experts are growing increasingly concerned about the state of our oceans, while the public remains mostly uninterested.

Røkke signed off on corporate policies that polluted our oceans. He made a lot of money. But he changed, realizing a duty to mankind and his planet. He set major goals. He then acted decisively and with great strength.

It is abundantly clear that we need people – individually and collectively – and not governments to effect real change in the world. While most of us can’t marshal the resources Røkke can, all of can marshal SOMETHING to act.

It will take nothing short of that if we’re going to continue having clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.

Art Gurwitz.

Founder. Areena.
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AREENA

From New York, NY 10036

To find out more about the project, contact Executive Director Jeff Hughes
Jeff@TheAreena.com

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