The Numbers That Should Haunt You
The UN Development Programme ran a campaign recently. One number stuck with me: the world spends $423 billion per year subsidizing fossil fuels.
In the same breath, we say ending global poverty would cost roughly $150 billion per year.
So we're paying 3 times what it would cost to end poverty — just to keep one system going. The math isn't complicated. The story it tells is.
It's Not About Hypocrisy (Exactly)
I don't think we're all lying. I think it's worse: we genuinely believe we care about solving big problems. We post about it. We donate to causes. We feel good about ourselves.
But our money — collective, political, institutional — says something else. It says we care more about convenience. More about systems that are already working (even if they're broken). More about not having to change.
The Real Question for You
This isn't a rant about the world's priorities. It's a mirror. Where's the gap between what you say matters and how you actually spend time, money, energy? We all have one. (I definitely do.)
The people who move things are the ones who close the gap. Not by being righteous. By actually acting like what they say they believe is real.
What would close your gap?