But we, as people, cannot adopt this attitude. When it comes to matters of our heart and our ethics, we cannot expect someone else to take responsibility. What we do matters.
When you go to buy take away food, stop for a moment. Will that plastic container take 50,000 years to decompose?
When you go to a shop to buy some clothes, stop for a moment. Were those clothes made by someone who is overworked and underpaid?
When you go to the supermarket to buy some food, stop. Did that food travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometres to come to you?
When you go to eat and a meal is before you, stop. Was an animal's life taken for it to be before you?
When you go to fuel up your car, stop. Has that fuel ignited a conflict?
I speak of pollution, of sweatshops, of carbon emissions, of animal suffering. I speak of our planet, our people, our creatures.
It is easy to believe that just one person cannot make a difference. But in just one life, a person can eat 2,400 animals. For each of these animals, your decision matters. For the child working long hours to harvest the cocoa beans for your chocolate, your decision matters. And so it goes on.
Ultimately the solutions lie with each of us. We can blame the corporations and the governments, but each day it is we who decide to buy a product or service. It is we who create the demand that drives us on and on.
So let us now come to a new day, and stop.
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