Holy fuck. Stop being a faggot. nigger
Holy fuck. Stop being a faggot. nigger
TeamSeas is trending heavily on youtube with a bunch of youtubers I follow doing fundraisers for it.
Like everyone else, I like the environment and want to see it less polluted. But there's something that really bothers me about these environmental charities that I can't quite put my finger on.
Perhaps it's a problem with charities in general. For example, if you send food to Africa you will have more Africans who will require even more food. What seems like a good and kind act--feeding the hungry--only makes the problem worse long-term. It's easy to do harm as a charity since by its nature it goes against market forces. It's difficult to do charities right.
Many people have the desire to do good. They want to help the environment, for example. But this desire is not infinite. These charities provide an outlet for that desire. Once the desire is satisfied they are less inclined to do 'good' in other areas of their life. For example, government giving money to the poor makes people less charitable because they already feel like they are doing something to help the poor just by paying taxes. Related is the idea of moral licensing. For example, someone who drinks a diet coke with their burger and fries ends up consuming more calories overall because they give themselves a moral license to eat more.
A related point is whether these charities actually help the environment. Planting trees sounds like a noble goal, but if you are planting trees in an area devoid of them, you'll be changing the local ecosystem. In what sense is a forest better than a field of grass? Will planting 20 million trees really help the environment? Will these trees be taken care of or abandoned to die? If the people who donated to the charities saw the work being done and the aftermath, would they be happy with the results?
What are your thoughts on TeamSeas and TeamTrees? Are they doing good work? Are they well meaning but misguided? Is it a complete scam?
TeamSeas is trending heavily on youtube with a bunch of youtubers I follow doing fundraisers for it.
Like everyone else, I like the environment and want to see it less polluted. But there's something that really bothers me about these environmental charities that I can't quite put my finger on.
Perhaps it's a problem with charities in general. For example, if you send food to Africa you will have more Africans who will require even more food. What seems like a good and kind act--feeding the hungry--only makes the problem worse long-term. It's easy to do harm as a charity since by its nature it goes against market forces. It's difficult to do charities right.
Many people have the desire to do good. They want to help the environment, for example. But this desire is not infinite. These charities provide an outlet for that desire. Once the desire is satisfied they are less inclined to do 'good' in other areas of their life. For example, government giving money to the poor makes people less charitable because they already feel like they are doing something to help the poor just by paying taxes.
Related is the idea of moral licensing. For example, someone who drinks a diet coke with their burger and fries ends up consuming more calories overall because they give themselves a moral license to eat more.
A related point is whether these charities actually help the environment. Planting trees sounds like a noble goal, but if you are planting trees in an area devoid of them, you'll be changing the local ecosystem. In what sense is a forest better than a field of grass? Will planting 20 million trees really help the environment? Will these trees be taken care of or abandoned to die? If the people who donated to the charities saw the work being done and the aftermath, would they be happy with the results?
What are your thoughts on TeamSeas and TeamTrees? Are they doing good work? Are they well meaning but misguided? Is it a complete scam?
(post is archived)