My grandmother always told me that money would never make me happy. I understand now what she meant. She was wise enough to know that endless money never satisfies us. She understood that human beings need much deeper things in their lives, like love and friendship and a purpose. She knew, as I did not, that the pursuit of wealth for its own sake could corrupt and change us.
However, as a child I never experienced or understood extreme poverty. We struggled, yes, but the depth of hopelessness some families felt, I did not know. What I do recognize now is that enough money is required to make us happy. We need the basics to ensure life is not an endless struggle. But that is a different question.
Money can be a good thing
What I also know now as an adult is that money can be used to do good things in the world. We hear a lot of bad reports about people who have a vast amount of money, but this is not always so.
There are many people with money who care deeply about the climate and the environment. Their work and their contributions boost my hope for the future. They remind me that each of us must do what we can, and that our actions – big, or small – give others hope. With that hope we can do amazing things.
I was thrilled this morning to discover that an organisation called Ecosia had asked the Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo if they would agree to the idea of a Climate Prize. Ecosia has already put €1 Million towards this potential prize. There are many other wonderful contributions to help the challenges we face, like Climate Change.
Ecosia
Ecosia is a Web Browser and Search Engine. It has been described as Europe’s largest not for profit Search Engine. It is also the Search Engine that plants trees. In other words, they use their profits for climate action, with the largest proportion going into planting trees. As of today, they have planted 244,888,383 trees and committed €97,990,521 to climate action. That seems worth a wow! to me.
Why would they call for the creation of such a prize?
They say “ Because the climate crisis is accelerating, and many of the ideas that could reshape our future do not yet have the global visibility needed for widespread, rapid adoption. There is no Nobel Prize dedicated to consistently highlighting the scientists, innovators, communities, policymakers and movements working to keep our planet liveable. Such visibility would not be merely symbolic but could help accelerate the cultural shift this moment requires.” In other words, the publicity from the prize would encourage the world to be active in fighting Climate Change.
We Need More Trees
The Earthshot Prize
Prince William, Prince of Wales and heir to the British Throne launched the prize in 2021 along with the environmentalist David Attenborough.
The Earthshot Prize is a global environmental prize awarded to five winners each year for their contributions towards environmentalism. First awarded in 2021, prizes will be awarded annually until 2030. Each winner receives a grant of £1 million to continue their environmental work. The UN Sustainable Development Goals have inspired the five prize categories:
- Restoration and protection of nature
- Air cleanliness
- Ocean revival
- Waste-free living, and
- Climate action.
Donations from philanthropists and charitable organisations fund the project.
An example of a recent winner is a Bangladeshi organisation called Friendship, set up by a woman called Runa Khan in 2002.
It is dedicated to helping vulnerable communities across Bangladesh to prepare for natural disasters, and also supports their health, education, livelihoods and access to public services. Apart from reaching about 7.5 million people each year to provide health services, Friendship is also restoring over 60 km of mangrove forests to shield villages from the worst impacts of deadly cyclones. They have planted more than 650,000 trees across 200 hectares on Bangladesh’s southern coast, protecting over 125,000 people. These mangrove forests also act as a major carbon sink, storing vast amounts of carbon and enabling communities to benefit from a “blue economy” future.
The Bloomberg Foundation
An article from Euro News discusses the effect of Donald Trump on the climate fight in America.
When Trump became President of America for the second time in January 2025, one of his earliest actions was to withdraw America from the Paris Climate Agreement. This was a move that made the future of humanity more insecure. The billionaire Michael Bloomberg stepped in to pay America’s contribution to the UN Climate Organisation’s budget. (This was the second time that both Trump and Bloomberg have taken those actions.)
Bloomberg also pledged to work with states, cities and companies to ensure the US stays on track with its global climate commitments. That includes working with subnational climate leaders to track and report on the country’s progress over the next four years.
It is not clear how much the Foundation will actually pay to UNFCCC over the next 4 years, probably around $100million. This is another reason for our gratitude, and belief that in spite of the extreme challenges we face, we can make a difference.
Patagonia
Patagonia is an outdoors clothing company with a passion for the environment.
Its owner Yvon Chouinard says:
“If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a business—it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. “
The company has been set up such that each year any profit after re-investing in the business will go to fighting the environmental crisis. This is estimated to be about $100 million each year.
The company also bought large wilderness areas in Chilean Patagonia for re-wilding. This has now been given back to Chile to be used as protected land.
For me this is a company (and ultimately a man) with a huge vision and care for the planet. His ethics seem to speak for themselves. I have huge admiration for a person who can do such a thing, and it brings me hope for the future.
What Can You Do?
You might justifiably say that these donors are very wealthy indeed. That may well be true. Although when I look at what ordinary folks are doing, I believe that we can all make a difference in our own ways.
- The Financial Times has a You Tube video on what we can do to make our money work better. Clearly it is not all plain sailing, but we can make a difference here by moving our money to help the environment.
- We can donate to environmental organisations that we believe are doing good work. Each of us will have different ideas here. I happen to feel we need to save our wildlife and have been donating for many years to WWF to help build “Tiger Corridors” to allow these beautiful cats to roam in bigger territories. You, no doubt, will have different ideas.
- How and where we shop is important. As individuals we have huge purchasing power. If we don’t like what an organisation is doing to threaten the planet, firstly we shouldn’t buy from them. Secondly, we should tell them why.
- We can have a policy of buying less stuff. Probably it is important to buy good quality which we pay more for. This will be better in the long run as it will last longer without needing resources to replace it.
- An example of this is with our cars. Don’t rush out and buy a brand-new electric car to “save the world”. Run the old car into the ground first, as a new one uses up too many of the Earth’s resources.
- Save on holidays by going on the train rather than flying. Don’t buy food that has been flown in just so you can have it in a different season.
We can all help by thinking about how we use our money constructively. We may not be billionaires. But it is important to work out what we can do and to talk with other people about what can make a difference.
The use of our money to create a better future for everybody is a loving thing to do.
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Photos by Jason Leung, Liam Charmer and Snowscat on Unsplash