7th Gen Blog

This just in… There’s a new petition from MoveOn asking Congress to do something meaningful (please!) about global warming right here right now.

Like most MoveOn efforts, it’s pretty simple. Add your name and a short message. Doesn’t take long. Everyone should do it. (These MoveOn things generate decent numbers and tend to get noticed more than most.)

Here’s my message:

It’s definitely a slow week here. (Can you tell?) We’re all away with families and friends slowing down for awhile and recharging our batteries. It is a good and vital thing. However, this guest post from Treehugger’s Jeff McIntire-Strasburg came in today so I thought I’d put down my book for a few minutes and get into post mode…

One of our corporate responsibility goals is to “green” our supply chain. That means spreading our gospel of sustainability to all the other companies we work with so that they eventually become responsible businesses we can keep doing business with. It’s a big and important part of what we do but something you’re unlikely to hear much about because it happens “behind the scenes.”

The fact is that many of the companies in our supply chain are pretty traditional. They’re often not real tuned into environmental ideas and/or overly aware of or concerned about the impacts they’re creating. So we try to change that.

For example, we use a logistics company called Deringer to facilitate the shipment of our stuff from place to place. On Earth Day, we made a little video for them with the idea of turning them on to environmental action and kind of getting them stoked about making some changes. It worked! Here’s an e-mail Tara at Deringer shared with us today about some cool new ideas taking hold at the company:

This Sunday’s New York Times magazine had an exceptionally thought provoking article entitled What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You? While I have often pondered the limits of my own generosity, this story created a whole new framework for me to think about what I am willing or at least aspire to do.

As you open all those requests for money you get in the final weeks of the year consider this: The United Nations estimates that the total annual global cost of halving hunger and extreme poverty, halting & reversing the spread of aids, and ensuring that all children attend primary school would be less than $300 billion. Peter Singer’s proposal in the New York Times would generate $404 billion dollars from the wealthiest 10% of Americans!

Check out his plan. The article is long but well worth the read. Singer proposes that the more you earn, the more you give away. He suggests that those who earn over $92,000 give away 10% while the richest 0.01%, whose average income is $12.7 million, donate 1/3 of what they make. Hey, who’s going to miss $4.3 million when you’re making that much?

I’m considering stepping up to the plate, but giving away 15% of what I make would take me well beyond the 10% I’ve been working up to!