Chucking Short term thinking

We've gotta get rid of this obsession with short term thinking.

Hardly a new thought, it hit me again with the latest reports that BP wasn't 'moving beyond petroleum' - it's alternative energy budget is down from 1.4 bn to between $500 mill and $1 bn. In April , the company closed solare manufacturing plants in Spain while increasing investments into oil sands extraction in Alberta, Canada. Shell is not 'expecting much investment' in solar and wind going forward.

And I think, nooooooooooooooo!

This is not a tirade against the companies - they are just being profit-driven machines afterall, and the Financial Crisis is harming them.
They've both made an effort to do solar and wind.

But, oh, the angst! The need for short term profit even at the expense at the planet's survival - I believe this will be an issue put in sharp relief in the next few months as we gear towards the values shifts necessary for markets and society as a whole to survive in the long term.

It's ironic, really. It was long term thinking that got us into capitalism (well, that and a few other things.) Thinking about investing in the future - literally investing in ships and the profits that they would bring
us. Creating a culture and an ethos of saving. Planning for the future - not having to only live month to month, day to day at a time. That's a far cry from the animal -world, the survival-nature, from where we all come - and where too many people around the world are forced to exist (especially in post conflict situations). But those values and ideas have had a hard time holding on.

And me? It's not like I'm much better. I've got the next few weeks planned out - sort of. And some ideas for the next three months. I've no idea about post December. 2010? It's an empty space. So maybe I shouldn't complain too much - it's so hypocritcal. I'm caught in the short-term-trap too. Except, actually, I should. I might not know about 2010 - but I'd like to know that 20,30, 100 years from now, the world will be on solar and wind - that there will be a world so that my maybe-children - another uncertainty - might thrive.