financial changes

Ethical banking I read an article that stated; most people who try to shop ethically forget their ethics when it came to money! or more precisely banking and investments, this was a light bulb moment for me as I was one of those people! I was regular paying extra for products that were organic/palm oil free/no plastic waste/ fair trade/rainforest alliance etc, BUT and it’s a big BUT! I had never previously to reading that article considered that my savings would be getting used by my bank to finance nasty things like deforestation, weapons manufacturing, pesticide production, the disposable plastics industry, sweat shops, fracking etc, reading this really saddened me; why had I not considered this previously? The current system of international finance is of course behind nearly all the problems the planet is facing, I had been blind not to think that shopping ethically should also include your financial choices! In fact, this is probably more important than checking product labels, I acted straight away, a simple online check shows the top ten ethical banks, it can also show the worst; I had previously been banking with a bank that was number four on the naughty steps I am ashamed to say. I switched to the number one ethical bank in the UK Triodos, who gifted sixty pounds to friends of the earth for my switching to them, this made me feel much better once my daily banking with them was all sorted, I then switched my ISA allowance to them, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well that worked out, with one of my ethical ISA`s giving me a surprisingly good financial return, not that making money was my aim it was a happy bonus that this gave a better financial return than I would have got from the nasty bankers! This was also why I was frustrated and annoyed at my previous ignorance, I have read enough books on the financial industry to know how much money corrupts, it’s my opinion that money is a trick to keep the lower classes low and a small minority of the world’s population super wealthy, this was a trick I previously felt I had no escape from, now that I had found ethical banking existed, I felt I had a choice and perhaps there was hope for the future, I decided to educate myself further on the subject, among other books on the subject of international finances, I purchased a book called stakeholder capitalism by Klaus Schwab, the basics of which he advocates that in the future, the financial industry may well make the planet the major stakeholder in all industry, I liked this concept way better than stateholder capitalism systems, that capitalist system can work I personally believe we should have kept our nationalised industries owned by the people when we were a socialist country, that system doesn’t work in my opinion in places like China; whereby the government own everything and everyone and exploit both people and the planet, shareholder capitalism like we have here in the UK has had its day in my opinion, it’s just ended up with all our previous state owned industries now being owned by a few wealthy international shareholders, this system is driven for profit before planet or people, making the planet the major stakeholder in all forms of the financial industry, would also have to go along with a circular economy, as the current levels of consumerism is unsustainable, which making the planet the major stakeholder should end, There was another reason for educating myself on this subject? I was at the fortunate stage in life of being close to fifty five years old, this age allows me to access a percentage of my pension pot and change the way its managed, I now know that having those sort of investment’s with the wrong people is causing literally untold damage to the planet, as an outdoors enthusiast I want any financial service I invest in to be giving something back to the planet, I have since spoken with a financial advisor who admitted to me (sadly) that I was his first ever client to ask for this service! He said he had enjoyed researching it, I have now also got an ethical financial package for my pension pot the financial advisor congratulated me on my ethics, These financial choices that I have made are not the only things I do to try and do my bit, my journey of learning about the damage my generation has done to the planet, has been at times deeply saddening, having previously gotten myself so down about it all that at one stage, I totally lost my faith in humanity, these feelings I had in those days have a label – I had what’s called climate change anxiety. I am nowhere near the only person to get this form of anxiety that can for some people, lead to depression, Greta the great! is probably the most famous climate change anxiety sufferer, the level I allow this anxiety to affect my mental health is much better now, when the feelings of loneliness frustration anger and fear creep in these days, I just suppress it, saying to myself I am doing what I can and remind myself how small I am on the big scale of things, then at other times take what small actions I can, I try not to speak out about it as much as I once did, this makes me very unpopular in my community, when in the company of even close friends and family I try to get them to make positive changes for their own and my communities greater good, only other vegan environmentalists like the company of a vegan environmentalists, by taking action and speaking out on the right occasions it helps me feel there is hope, it’s a form of atonement; helping me feel that I can in some small way apologise to future generations (or the planet), for the damage I have done! mostly through ignorance in my defence. I have been blaming humanity people like myself, who; in the majority of cases had virtually no choice of what job they ended up doing for the damage knowingly done to the planet by the ruling classes, I was born into the class of society that had to earn money not the class of society who create money, the upper classes are worshipped by my society and consistently democratically voted in to rule over us, hence over ten years recently of conservative rule, the irony of that word being used by a political party is not lost on me. While I know the reasons, these politicians call themselves conservatives, they are the opposite of any conservation movements I would like to be linked to, I do appreciate some of the honest friends that I have that own up to voting for the consumerist capitalist regime. At least they tell me they only care about money and that the planet will see them out, its refreshing to get that level of honesty, it stops my frustrations as to who is voting for this deliberate vandalism, why are people out there voting for this outdated form of governance, added to my switch to greener energy, I also try to shop ethically as much as possible, this has been on everything not just food toothpaste toilet roll soap etc; I have pledged to be flight free using my bicycle and public transport as much as possible, I have had zero dairy or dairy products in nearly three years, this year I have eaten zero mammals (on the two previous years I ate the occasional bacon roll), I am not vegan, I still eat eggs and occasionally eat fish, I do all this not for animal welfare not for health reasons (these are added bonuses) but to do what small bit I can for the children’s planet, of course; it’s not altogether altruistic! as I feel better about myself for at least trying to do something, I don’t view myself as an environmental hero,having been an oil worker for over thirty years, I’m much more an environmental criminal who is trying to do his penance, They say your financial situation is a mirror of yourself? I find that statement very true, there is some mega rich selfish people and some penniless overly generous types, among my own circles of friends and family, this can go to extremes in society as a whole, you can use money to the greater good or for further exploitation, money is not the answer to the problem nor the solution, it’s simply a tool that can be used or abused