“Doing Well by Doing Good”
The ‘Party Werewolf’ t-shirt by Magnetic State is back by popular demand! The new edition of the shirt comes with a few improvements: it’s printed on high quality American Apparel garments, it’s got a small Magnetic State logo on the left sleeve, and best of all, %100 of the profits from sales of this shirt will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund (more on that in a moment). Click here to purchase one today.
Last year I heard a quote that really struck a chord with me. That quote was “To do well by doing good.” I don’t have the means to radically change the world at the moment, so I am starting small – with charitable t-shirt sales.
I have chosen to donate to the World Wildlife Fund because it is a charity with a great reputation working toward a number of great causes. Another reason is that WWF is committed to slowing the potentially devastating effects of climate change. This is an issue I am passionate about. According to their website, “Climate change has been a priority for WWF for over 20 years as climate disruption poses a fundamental threat to the vulnerable places, species and people WWF seeks to protect.”
The knowledge I’ve gained about climate change over the years has come from a variety of sources, but one source that left a lasting impression on me was a short documentary called The Possibility of Hope by director Alfonso Cuarón. The film can be seen here on Youtube or on the DVD special features of Cuarón’s film Children of Men. The Possibility of Hope consists primarily of leading philosophers and intellectuals weighing in on a variety of subjects pertaining to Earth’s future. To be blunt, the film’s vision of the possible effects of climate change on the future of human civilization is terrifying. However, I prefer to focus on the positive side: the hope.
“The magic is to turn a desperate situation into a new beginning,” says Slavo Zizek in The Possibility of Hope. Another person who has had inspiring things to say about the hope for counteracting climate change is Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham – a.k.a. the United Kingdom’s ‘Voice of Business’ – whom I had the pleasure of hearing speak recently. “The answer to this issue is science,” he said of climate change, before going on to remark that leading economies of the world like the U.S. and the U.K. got wealthy creating this problem during the last century, so we should lead on solving it. He has also said, “the next Bill Gates will be the deliverer of a highly technological solution to some of our climate change challenges.” We might be in for a very exciting century.
This is an issue that I will continue to write about and work towards in the future. Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll consider supporting Magnetic State and the World Wildlife Fund by purchasing a shirt. The werewolf has arrived just in time for Halloween, and people who own it love to tell me what a great conversation piece it is!
Written on November 16th, 2009
[…] Werewolf’ t-shirt (all profits benefit the World Wildlife Fund; read more about why in this blog post). The site is SaveTheWerewolves.com and it is an intentional violation of all that is sacred and […]