BUSINESS
COMPASSION IN BUSINESS
The Wisdom of Being Green
Image credit: epSos.de
I
was listening to Canada’s CBC Radio One recently as the host interviewed an Israeli professor of anthropology who had written a book about man’s evolution through the ages.
His theory on humans’ quality of life through the ages stood out to me. He suggested that
the hunter and gatherer era likely had the highest quality of life for man, as our needs and
our stresses were fewer. Our bodies were performing actions that were natural to our physiological makeup. We had a connection to nature, a relationship which has been quickly
disappearing since the industrial revolution and all the more now in the technological era.
It got me thinking about evolution, business, commerce and our need to consume, which
is driven by a need to sustain ourselves through an economic model.
I have read many studies showing us that we have a desire to live longer. Yet our work
lives keep us in an unnatural sedentary state, working in artificially created environments
that are separate from our natural world. We have let go of something of inherent value
for something we mistakenly deem as valuable. With increased demands to produce and
be as efficient as possible, we have given up taking time to be. We have bought into a
system that promises happiness later in exchange for disconnect now. With the money
we earn in our glass and concrete boxes, we can purchase items that promise immediate
happiness. But they only provide us with temporary pleasure, not lasting joy.
Even farming has followed this trend. In order for farmers to survive and keep pace with
our choices, many have adopted practices that go against the wise and compassionate
rules of natural law. Many grain farmers use pesticides and GMO seeds that are supposed
to yield higher results at a lower cost, but we have seen the devastating effects where
poor farmers are compelled to buy GMO seed and their crops fail. Indebted and seeing
no way out, they commit suicide by drinking the pesticides they had bought to apply to
their failing crops. We have seen the alarming increases in bee colony die-offs related