Billioniare philanthropy and a quiz to see how rich you are
Usually, the themes of our Changeletters are innocuous like “plastic” or “food” or “transportation” but I’m feeling spicy today.
August’s theme is EAT THE RICH!!
Content warning: this month’s Changeletter might nudge you to re-examine your own life and privilege, and alas, encourage you to eat… yourself. Oh no I’m sorry
I was going to make this month’s topic about sustainable event planning but then it struck me how I actually have a lifestyle where I can invest in sustainable wedding planning — and I realized I have to take a huge step back.
August is all about looking at the real culprit of carbon emissions. Yes Jeff Bezos, but we’ll also see where we stand. Eat the rich or the rich eat you, so let’s feast!
Today, we’ll talk about the carbon footprint of rich people. Cardi’s footprint’s got red bottom’s and it’s not doing us any favors 👠
🎯 Action step 1 of 4: READ — Let's start by looking at a few articles together.
Time for our READ module on Eat the Rich. Every month, we use this module to take a look at the facts and ground ourselves in an article (or two or three).
Each of the facts below is linked to one of three articles. Pick the article that resonates most with you — your bite-sized action is to read ONE of these articles.
Many challenges lie ahead of us. We might find it hard to palate our complicity in the problem. Richer people might use all their wealth to lobby against sustainable policies (which is currently what’s happening). It might be difficult to find the courage to talk about our lifestyle choices with our friends.
Good news — there will be some EASY action steps ahead of us in our ACT module two weeks from now!
Again, here are your three bite-sized action reading choices before we move on:
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 1 of 4: READ.
🎯 Action step 2 of 4: LISTEN — we'll watch a short video or listen to a podcast to further expand on our topic.
Last module, we talked about eating the rich yum yum and you chose to read one of 3 articles.
But what about philanthropists? Shouldn’t we be eternally grateful to people like Bill Gates who donate their wealth to save us all?
That’s what today’s LISTEN module will cover. Should we eat the rich, and does that include philanthropists who are Using Their Money To Do Good?
Enough dilly dallying! Let’s get right to it.
Actually, one small dilly dally: if you loved the Kim Kardashian article last week, Gabrielle is out with her next Pop Climate article on why it matters that Drew Barrymore loves the rain.
Now, time to decide which rich people to eat or not!
Watch this video and then decide... which rich do you want to eat?
Always, some key takeaways are below!
Ready for the verdict? Here's what we learned from the video:
We need real change from real people. Movement- and community-building is critical to the world we want to live in. In the READ module, I mentioned that if you’ve ever taken a flight on a plane, you are part of the global elite. Well, this is GREAT NEWS! We might not be ultra-rich like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos, but we’re in the perfect position to make a difference.
We have WAY more power (and money) than we realize, and we are experiencing Real People issues. It’s time for us to step up and use our voices for change, so let’s get on our soapboxes and make a real difference. Next, we’ll talk about how!
In conclusion: yes, we can include philanthropists in our meal plan of eating the rich. Yum!! Tell me what seasonings you’re using. This is my favorite one.
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 2 of 4: LISTEN.
🎯 Action step 3 of 4: ACT — Now it's time to do something. Let's go!
I apologize in advance with the low-grade chaos of this range of actions. Have fun!!
Ok that was a lot of hodge-podgey but relevant Eat the Rich actions, so let’s take a break and regroup for next week’s REFLECT module to wrap up this series. We'll dive a little deeper into climate privilege.
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 3 of 4: ACT.
Before we go any further, it's time for you to pledge your commitment. It takes less than 30 seconds to pledge and we can bother you about it in a friendly way, so we can hold each other accountable. Pledge here!
🎯 Action step 4 of 4: REFLECT — what can you commit to? What fresh perspectives can we look at?
Netflix just put out a show called Love, Death & Robots. I watched the first episode yesterday and it was… very timely for the content we’re running this month. There is literally a scene that is about eating the rich. I'm not kidding.
Watch the episode “Three Robots: Exit Strategies” from Volume 3 — it really does leave a lot of room for reflection. The episode is only 15 mins long, and I’ll leave you with some reflection questions below.
Here's the direct Netflix link if you need it: netflix.com/title/80174608
Some things to noodle on:
Ok bye see you next time, take a deep breath, touch some grass, go see the sun, and BE WELL <333
🏁 Checkpoint: This is the end of action step 4 of 4: REFLECT.
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