Transcript of Episode 8

LaMondre Pough: Welcome to 3DVU one conversation, three different perspectives. I’m LaMondre Pough.

David Pérez: I am David Perez.

Richard Streitz: And I’m Richard Streitz. Thank you for joining us.

Welcome to another episode of 3DVU. Uh, and today we are going to be discussing, climate change and its effects, uh, across many different, um, areas. Uh, um, and it’s important that, you know, as we’ve gotten into this day and age, we’ve seen the adverse effects. Uh, just this last week we saw in the Atlantic ocean, five different, um, tropical storms that have, um, evolved into, some of them evolved into full hurricanes.

Um, you know, at the same time, which is something that, you know, we have not seen for many, many, many decades. And so it’s interesting to see how, um, how the patterns have shifted around the planet and what that means at a, at a, uh, um, to us as, as the population of the planet, um, how that gets affected and how we affect and the things that we do, um, could or could not, uh, be affecting what’s going on.

Um, and so we’ll get into it and, um, and talk about the many different areas of this. Uh, I. Um, you know, what’s interesting that as, um, as a US citizen, we certainly have many different arguments that tend to lean into the political sphere of being either extreme right or extreme left onto the views of this topic.

But, you know, to start out, um, I think it’d be great to hear an outside of the country viewpoint. And for that, um, David, why don’t you let us know. You know, what does from, um, from Costa Rica and Central America, what’s the viewpoint about climate change?

David Pérez: Well, Costa Rica specifically has taken a lot of action to become carbon neutral.

Actually by 2021, we’re almost there. And we’ve been, we’ve been doing a lot of great things. Of course, not nearly enough to actually be carbon neutral. We’re almost there because we have big protected areas of forest. Not because we have actually changed our practices that much, but, I think that in Latin America, the, the sentiment is the same. We know that we can do things and that those things can have an effect, but we also understand that it’s not, not in our hands, like if China and the United States and Russia do not get in line with climate change, well, this is a global problem, and it’s not really going to change anything.

If a country, the size of Costa Rica actually does something. Right.

Richard Streitz: Well, you know, that’s an interesting standpoint. And do you feel that. I mean as a, as a country, is that sort of the attitude you’re going to do what you can not, you know,

David Pérez: No.

Richard Streitz: Realizing that the scale isn’t or is there sort of a larger conglomerate through the Central and, and, and, um, Latin America.

David Pérez: Costa Rica has always tried to lead by example, in everything that we do, we abolished our army in 1948.

And since then, we’ve been trying to promote peace and international relations as a way to solve problems instead of ,of armies.

And that’s the same thing with climate change and everything around human rights. We, we’re trying to do the best we can to show the world that it can be done basically. And we’ve been doing a good job as I said, but it’s also known by every single one of us that it’s not going to be enough to just, to save the world.

Right. Even if we are running on clean energy, because every, everything that we have connected here comes from clean sources of energy, but that’s not nearly enough. Costa Rica is smaller than many States in the US.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. But like you said, by example, um, you know, that is a great model and is something that should be looked at by other countries as a model to move towards.

So, um, you know, that, that definitely is a, you know, shows leadership by, uh, staying the course and doing what’s right. And, and allowing others to see that. LaMondre, what do you think?

LaMondre Pough: Yeah, I think what David said is so important is that even though if, if only Costa Rica did that, it wouldn’t wouldn’t make a dent.

But the example that Costa Rica presents to the rest of the world certainly does, without Russia, without China and certainly without the US there won’t be a dent put into the issues that we have, and it’s amazing that it would be such a tiny country that would help lead the way. Um, and it’s appalling to me, as you said, that there are so many political issues surrounding climate change, um, because for those who, for those who deny climate change, for those who say that it’s not real.

That it’s not happening. I don’t know if they have someplace else to go when things go wrong here, do they have another planet that’s out there that they’re just going to get on the ship and fly to, and just forget about the rest of the earth that’s here. So it’s amazing to me that it will become a political battle and not about how do you stop global warming or how do you stop climate change? But the battle is, does it even exist at all? That is the issue that really scares me. That’s the issue that really troubles me because it’s obvious there are five storms last week in the Atlantic, we have moved through the naming system to now we’re in the Greek alphabet.

Richard Streitz: Right, yeah. And it’s only September.

LaMondre Pough: And it’s only September. And so, and here’s the thing we’re at Beta. We’re at Beta.

Richard Streitz: We’re at Beta, that’s right.

LaMondre Pough: So this, this, this, how can you deny that climate change is real when the West coast of the United States and parts of Australia and other parts of the world are literally on fire.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. Yeah.

LaMondre Pough: How do we deny this? And so.

Richard Streitz: And the polar caps, you know, melting and so forth.

LaMondre Pough: The polar caps are melting. So what this says to me is that as a species, we really have our priorities, askewed, we really have our views messed up because the argument is not necessarily about, does it exist, or it shouldn’t be about desert exists.

That argument should be about how do we change this.

Richard Streitz: David, jump in.

David Pérez: Yeah,

I think that it is all about how we see things as a society. And I, I really think that companies, or the ones that have, those multinational companies that are the ones that are creating the most pollution they are thinking of immediate growth of immediate benefit, economic benefit. And they’re not thinking in the future, like what’s going to happen 15, 20 years from now, when everything I’m doing now, messes up my potential customers, right, my potential consumers. Because if change doesn’t happen right now, we know that the effects are going to be felt later.

What we are experiencing now are, is not a direct response of what we did last year, right? It’s been decades of inaction. And if we keep not acting things are just going to get worse in the future and that shortsighted mindset that companies have is what is basically defining the conversation and making it become something political.

Because of course it’s all about the money. If you’re talking about politics, you’re talking about money.

Richard Streitz: Wow. Right, right. And the quarterly return system. Right. I mean, and which is what, uh, what corporations for decades have bought into the idea that a with investors and so forth shareholders, you have to show quarterly return quarter after quarter.

And I mean, ultimately that’s not a true sustainable system, especially when it comes to things that deal with natural resources. Um, It just, it just, it just isn’t. And what we’ve seen is the decay that, uh, the, uh, utilization of these, of some of these resources have had and it’s impact to our environment, whether that’s chemical pollution, um, on our, in our rivers and streams and groundwaters. Whether it’s, uh, um, you know, the greenhouse gases that have produced that have, uh, you know, torn our atmosphere, um. And that has increased the heat and so forth. I mean, these are, these are all things that over time, you know, since the industrial revolution we have, um, we’ve acum, acumulated to get us to this point.

What’s shocking is that the absolute denial and it doesn’t matter how you believe it’s happening, to deny that it’s happening at all, is is, is something that, uh, is, is really unbelievable. Because, you know, when you look at the, it’s not rocket science, I mean, all you have to do is look at a time lapse across the past 10 years of the polar ice caps or Greenland, for example, and see how it’s diminished in size.

That’s not by accident. Um, you know, it’s a there’s reasons for this, the, the, uh, the scientific readings of temperatures that have increased. These aren’t deniable facts. These are, those are, they just are. Um, and, uh, and so it’s a responsibility that we have as, as global citizens, forget about countries, forget about political, um, political parties, um, governance.

It doesn’t matter. I mean, as stewards of the planet for future generations, um, It’s we, we’ve got to collectively put our heads together to come up with a situation that at least puts the brakes onto where we’re heading.

LaMondre Pough: Right. And I think you, you said something important, you said it’s not rocket science. It’s not rocket science, but it is science.

Richard Streitz: But it is science, right.

LaMondre Pough: We need to believe what we’re seeing in terms of science.

We need to rely on the matrix and measurements that are actually saying: Hey, no, this is really different than what it was before. And we cannot rely on the goodwill of corporations and honestly, even government, to do the right thing in terms of protecting the planet. And it should not be about politics.

It shouldn’t be about countries. It should be about our survival and the survival of the other species that inhabit this planet. Bottom line, bottom line. But we are, we are so, so far. We are so far from that right now at this very moment.

David Pérez: And the conversation is not new. It’s not something that we started talking about this year it’s, it’s been around for awhile and people have been trying to raise awareness for a long while.

And the fact that it’s still such a problem to make people understand that their actions can make a difference because actions define reality. And if we, even, if my carbon footprint is not going to make a dent. Again, it’s the example.

Richard Streitz: You’re right, it’s the collective.

David Pérez: It’s the collective. If every single one of us did something, things would change.

Richard Streitz: Yeah. Yeah.

David Pérez: But when it becomes a question of, if it is real or not, that’s, that’s, it’s mind boggling. It’s hard to, to discuss. And it’s really hard to digest as a human being.

LaMondre Pough: Well, the fact that, the fact that people are actually making that argument. And are legitimately arguing that fact, I, I believe, and it’s something we already talked about, I believe because there is an immediate benefit for them to make that argument, even though they know that argument is not real.

And their goal is to get enough, enough of the population to believe their argument, even though they know it’s a lie. But because they’re trusted because they have some influence with the populace or with that population. They’ll spew these things, knowing that it’s wrong, knowing that, knowing that their argument is a bogus argument from the beginning, but they’ll still put that out there because of the gains that they’ll get, um, from it.

And that said, again, it’s like, where are you guys going to go? Where are your kids going to go? Where are your grandchildren going to live once you, once you really wreck shop here.

David Pérez: But yeah, that, that opens the, the,

the other part of the conversation, right? Because the people that are doing this, that are taking those actions are usually the ones that are benefiting economically from,

LaMondre Pough: absolutely

David Pérez: from this.

And we know that climate change affects disproportionately the underserved populations, the ones that really don’t have anywhere else to go.

LaMondre Pough: Absolutely.

David Pérez: Because if California is burning, I bet that most of the millionaires are already gone to their summer houses or whatever they call it.

Richard Streitz: Other homes.

Yeah. Yeah.

LaMondre Pough: But think about it.

David Pérez: Where are the people that live on the street are going to, are going to go?

LaMondre Pough: Right, right. Look at what happened in hurricane Katrina. Um, you know, when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in the United States, the levy broke and when the levies broke, the people that were disproportionately affected were poor black people. People who could not evacuate as quickly, people who could not escape. People went, or why didn’t they just leave? They had nowhere to go and they didn’t have a way to leave. They couldn’t. And these are the people whose body you saw floating down the street. These are the people who eventually became almost refugees within their own country.

Because they had to be disbanded throughout the nation. And the truth is disproportionately these were poor, um, minorities. When we look at what’s happening with even, even, even with the, um, even with the pandemic that’s happening now, when you look at what has happened with that, the people who are disproportionately affected

are poor minorities typically. And when you look around the world at some of the things that have happened, when you look around, uh, like nursing homes, being abandoned, these were people who could not leave. These were people who relied on these individuals for their care and they were abandoned. And it’s the same thing that happens with environmental justice.

And that’s the term that’s that, that that’s used for this, environmental justice. You know, um, you look at the neighborhoods where the nuclear plants are close to, you look at the neighborhoods where the hog farms, the industrial hog farms are. All of these things have significant environmental impacts and typically those areas are in poor communities.

Richard Streitz: You know, it’s, it’s interesting to, to think about how, you know, and you mentioned, uh, Katrina and the groups that were affected by that. These flood plains or basins or areas that are by high risk construction, uh, whether they’re they’re they’re, uh, bridges or, or power plants, nuclear power plants, or what have you, the, the areas that are immediately around them always tend to be developed primarily targeted toward entry level or lower income housing.

Um, You know, you, you never, you never see large mansions built by levies or by nuclear power plants or so forth. You know, you’ll usually see this, um, uh, you know, I grew up in Southern California and there was a, the, uh. The San Fernando Valley area, Sepulveda has a basin, a large, um, and it was designed as a flood basin for, specifically engineered by the  of engineers as the hundred year, flood basin.

Um, and it was in a lower area, depression area in the San Fernando Valley. Um, that was specifically designed to take the, um, uh, the runoff and floodwaters during a large, large, um, flooding event. And. What ultimately happened is 30 years into that. No rain, you know, rain was very little, suddenly developers started buying up this land cheap and started putting in housing and housing and housing.

And you know, now it’s, it’s a huge metropolis, there’s thousands and thousands of families that live in there, but it was, you know, low, entry level housing, you know, single ranch, single story, ranch style. Um, You know, cookie cutter homes, um, you know, all, honeycombed all small lots houses, all right next to each other.

LaMondre Pough: Right.

Richard Streitz: And, uh, and you know, and that’s where they have been. And of course there’s been some significant flooding over the years that have happened and get, guess which area oddly enough. And everyone acts surprised. It’s like, Oh, all this flooding. It’s like, Well, you built in a flood basin, you live in a flood basin, and we see that, you know, that, that, that was just an example that I know, because I grew up in that area.

But I mean, those, those examples exist all across the country. Um, you know, and LaMondre, like the, the, you know, what happened with Katrina right there by the housing developments that are right by the levy. You know, these, it’s just repeated over and over and over again. And we set this up as a society, um, and again, driven by, um, by the, uh, uh, financial increase and financial gain of, of whatever company, organization, political leader, you know, fill in the blank for whoever you want, but this is just more of that.

And, and, you know, and, and going on sort of our next topic about, this is the legacy that we’re passing on to the future, to our future generations. And are we being good stewards? Um, are we being fair to, to our youths of what we’re ultimately handing off to them and what can we do to be better about that?

And, and, you know, and you know, and there’s no question as we’ve seen the youths who are, you know, Ah, very literate, very, very politically aware. Um, um, and a lot of that has to do because of social media and their interaction with, with other, um, peer groups around the world. Not only just in their own regions, we see this sort of larger movement about their involvement and being actively vocal about that.

And, and, um, so I find that very interesting and also. Um, I think that’s the, that’s what should happen, um, in the natural progression of things. Uh, what are your thoughts on that?

LaMondre Pough: Well, I think you’re right. Um, I think it’s, it’s sad, but it’s also inspiring that the youth are standing up. It’s sad because they shouldn’t have to, we should have been better stewards of the planet and thought about what are we passing down? What are we, what are we handing off? And what’s funny about it is I don’t think it ever was really thought about like that in terms of, in terms of generations taking responsibility, because here’s the thing I’m 47 years old. And I remember hearing about climate change and how, how the polar caps are melting when I was a child. When I was a child. So damn near 50 years ago, we were talking about this and this was being said to me, but no one was doing anything about it. But the predictions that they were giving was it was going to be a hundred years after I was gone.

That if we didn’t change something, something would happen. But no it’s happening now. It’s happening now. We’re seeing this and so. But the, the, the inspiring part is when you hear advocates like Greta Thunberg, did I pronounce your last name, right? When, um,

David Pérez: I think so.

LaMondre Pough: When you, when you hear her and you, you, you see the passion, you see the urgency, you see the anger, that she presents with, it really puts, it really puts us in check. But then of course you also have, when you have adults, in the room, like, like the president of the United States saying that she needs to get some friends and go out to a movie because she’s too uptight.

Now she’s uptight because we are literally not only leaving a world that will be inhabitable for that generation. We’re doing it now with a smile. We’re doing it now, kicking up our heels and running all the way to the bank.

Richard Streitz: Yeah.

LaMondre Pough: Um, so, it’s encouraging to see, it’s encouraging to see youth, um, youth stand up and make a difference.

David Pérez: And one nice thing about that is that, uh, that I really do think that the newer generations, the younger generations are, are more in line with that thought. Not everyone’s a Greta, right? Not everyone is going to leave their lives to fight for climate change. But I do think that they can create change in, in their own way in the organizations that they are going to work in.

And the fact that organizations are already shifting to younger leaders is also going to be, have a great effect in climate change, I think. And that’s, that’s positive. That’s also something to look forward to, right? The fact that younger people are being put in places where they can actually make a difference, because of course it didn’t happen and it was not going to happen.

Because it’s a mindset thing. It’s a mindset change. And as LaMondre said, they were told it was going to happen in about a hundred years. Younger generations were told it’s going to happen now, if you don’t do something. And that, that information, you’re not going to change just because you know the facts, that’s not how human beings work.

Richard Streitz: Right. No, it’s so true. Yeah. You know, I, uh, I, in the, when I was a, when I was a young lad, uh, in the mid seventies, uh, early seventies, they were talking about, about this, um. So it’s, this is not new information by any stretch of the imagination. Um, you know, I definitely remember being in school and getting, getting, um, handouts and, you know, talking about recycling and all that and how that’s important and how we need to save the ozone and save the environment.

I mean, these are not new. These are literally arguments and things that I’ve heard all my entire life and, and it’s shocking that my generation basically, and the generation ahead of me really chose to ignore it. We’ve heard it and chose to ignore it and, and, um, and do very little, do frightfully little, um, because it was going to be somebody else’s problem.

I’ll profit now, let somebody else worry about picking up the pieces and, and that’s really in a nutshell, um, and that can be carved out partisan wise, however you want. But at the bottom line, that’s ultimately what we have done. Um, and, and, uh, and that is what is shocking. I think one of the good things that we have left as, as our legacy is how not to do how this can all go wrong. And, and what, uh, uh, as, as a shiny example, as a huge big shining, steamy example, of how not to do this. Um, and I think that is something that is going to stick just like the great generation had the depression that never, ever left them.

I think the, the, the, uh, the younger generations are going to look at this time and not forget it, um, and only look forward as to. What needs to be done. And so that is, you know, it may be a backward way of looking at it, but I think that’s at least a way of looking at what we are doing and how that can be spun into something positive for generations to come.

LaMondre Pough: Yeah.

David Pérez: Yeah. It’s a positive way to look at it. And it’s the only way to look at it right now, because there’s no way to go back in time and fix the things that we’ve done.

Richard Streitz: We made the choices.

David Pérez: We made the choices, so we have to live with them. So now what, what can we learn from, from what happened? How can we change it?

How can we make it better?

LaMondre Pough: Right. And actually that was going to be the next thing, um, that I was gonna ask is how do we make it better? How do we, how do we turn that corner? How do we make that transition from, um, from, ‘Hey, we’re just gonna keep riding until we, until the wheels come off’. Well, the wheels are coming off.

Richard Streitz: Oh, I think a very simple solution, and which is painful to some is letting go. I think the older generation needs to let go. People who have been on boards or have been executives of corporations for 30 plus years, they need to let go and let the young, um, brighter minds that are much more progressive in thinking about, um, being, uh, um, conscious of these things.

Their level of thinking is beyond just sort of the quarter profit, which is the staunch, um, um, you know, um, embedded a thought process that exists at many of these older, um, um, you know, lifelong exec, corporate executives, uh, by letting go of the position and handing the baton off to the bright. And they are so bright.

I mean, the youth, the younger generations are so more brighter and more exposed and well-informed than any other previous young generation they’re they’re. Um, I think many of them are armed to be able to, with the tools that will allow them to be better stewards than we were. Um, and so, you know, the hardest thing is to let go, let the younger generation now take the mantle and move forward in some of these issues. And that goes, you know, politics, governmental positions, all, all across the board. We’ve got to start allowing the transitions. It’s shocking when you look at our government officials and, and well in this country.

And then at executive boards, you see the average age is 70 plus, 80 years old. You know, it’s time to let go, because we can’t hold onto these old to the baggage of, of, of the old thought processes forever. Um, you know, as a result, they’re hindering the process of, of, of evolution and progress. That’s my 2 cents anyway.

LaMondre Pough: And I wonder when it had happened.

I wonder when did people really wanted to just hold on forever? To those kinds of things, because I was just, as you were speaking, Richard, I started thinking about the major movements that have happened, um, throughout time. And most of them were led by young people. And even when you look at some of the great companies that were built, or some of the great organizations that were built.

A lot of folks were, you know, retiring at 60, they were letting go. They were passing it on, moving it all on. But you, you it’s, it’s a different time now. I know some people will argue, ‘well, people are living longer now’. So. You know, that that means that their, their, their, their longevity is there.

So they want to be active. Cool. But at some point in order to be a good leader, it is about preparing the way for the leaders that come behind you. And it’s about teaching them the ropes, but then also allowing them to expand and push it further than you could. That’s a mark of good leadership.

Richard Streitz: You know, I think when that started happening is when we stopped having or, or bringing up apprentices and understudies and, and, and, you know, you started seeing somewhere in the late seventies, early eighties, a shift in corporations where there wasn’t that, there was that whole line of individuals and company lines that just that stopped existing. Um, and, and maybe greed was some of that.

Well, I’m not going to bring somebody to replace me. Uh, you know, I I’m, I I’m drunk on the power that I have as executive leader. Blah-blah-blah VP, whatever, and I can still do this. I’m still healthy. I’m living longer. I’ll just keep pushing the age limits of my position to accommodate me. Um, and I’m not going to let go.

Um, because I’m, I’m afraid of, of somebody replacing me and then me becoming irrelevant. So I think, you know, greed had a lot to do with that.

David Pérez: Yeah. Well, it’s, it’s greed and it’s, I always turn to the economic side of things.

Our economic model completely shifted into being leveraged. So if you don’t have a job, you don’t have money to pay the bills.

That’s just how it works.

People don’t have money for retirement, most people across the board, so they need to work. And if you need to work, you need to not be replaced as Richard was saying. So it’s greed and it’s fear.

Richard Streitz: Right, well, yeah, fear. Yeah. Fear is definitely a big part of that.

LaMondre Pough: Interestingly enough, most of the woes that we experience are based in some type of fear.

Um, whether it’s, uh, uh, because I don’t understand, I fear that you may take something from me as in the being replaced or, or fear of lack of significance. Like, you know, most of the time when you meet someone, once, once they tell you their name, the next thing that they’ll tell you about themselves is what they do for a living.

Uh, so our, our, our identities and who, and what we are. Are tied up into that. And it’s so interesting how those things have that ripple effect of creating environments that’s not sustainable for anyone. That, you know, because I’m afraid, uh, or because I want to hold on to this vocation because I want to hold onto the status because I want to hold on to whatever I am willing to sacrifice your future.

For my, for my, for my game right now. And it’s so ironic. It’s so ironic because even as we started talking about this whole COVID-19 thing, I remember, um, just a few short months ago when they were talking about reopening the country, the U S that is, and talking about jump-starting the economy, very prominent Senator said there are more important things than living, and he was talking about right now.

And so you believe that there’s more important things than your life? I mean, they were literally saying ‘well I’d die for my grandchildren to have a chance, uh, in terms of the economic side of it’. Well, if there’s no freaking planet, there won’t be an economy.

Richard Streitz: Right.

LaMondre Pough: You know? And, uh, but so it’s so ironic and I believe hypocritical, uh, to, to, to have this stance, but I think you’re right.

I think you’re right. That’s a really interesting, a really interesting perspective.

Richard Streitz: You know, one of the things that I just, I just sort of ,sitting here as we’re talking, um, is the unsustainability aspect, right? So as you don’t allow the youth to come in with the newer fresher ideas and so forth, you create an unsustainable business model.

Well, this is exactly the same as in nature, right? The laws of nature don’t change just because you’re dealing in a business world or what have you, right. Without, without the replenishing of the newer fresher growth and so forth, you don’t have progress. You don’t have evolution, you don’t have development, you don’t have healthy development.

Um, and, and so I think. You know, the, I don’t think it’s by accident that we have the both, uh, both, um, failing at the same time, or, you know, diminishing in their level of effectiveness and, and, uh, you know, we see the unsustainability, the ultimate unsustainability of, of that, uh, both our climate and us as stewards, as well as our corporate business models that are not as sustainable as they could have been.

David Pérez: Yeah. Yeah, no, they’ve been scrambling for a while trying to find solutions. And then, governments have been scrambling, trying to find solutions and people have been scrambling trying to find solutions. It’s everyone’s on the same boat and, well, it’s not the same boat. Everyone’s on the same sea, but on different boats,

Richard Streitz:  On very different, some more leaky, some more stable.

David Pérez: Exactly. Yeah.

Richard Streitz: You know, and when, and when, what’s happened as a result of kind of where we are when we do do have moments of youth coming in. It’s incredibly disruptive, right. The, the one or two individuals stand out as being, you know, heretical in their craziness of thought and all that. And, and that’s not necessarily the case, all that does is demonstrate how far the divide is between the thought processes of, of the, of the generations or whatever, whatever it is. Um, and, and because we have let, we’ve let too much time go by of not allowing this continuous flow of, of, of new ideas come in. That has polarized the, the thinking.

LaMondre Pough: Yeah. Yeah. I want to, um, I don’t want to leave the impression that that we’re bashing corporations because we’re not, we’re simply pointing that, ‘Hey, this is, these are the major polluters it’s usually about industry’. Um, but there are corporations and organizations that are doing a bang up job in really trying to change this.

Richard Streitz: Oh, absolutely.

LaMondre Pough: There are organizations that are really promoting young people and really showing that, are really trying to be an example as to what it looks like to be an organization that is progressive, that is about saving the planet and the environment, and really making and really making a difference in, and I encourage you to support those organizations. I encourage you to look at the 17 sustainability goals from the UN and look at how they’re written and how they’re crafted. And what’s being done in various countries around the globe to make this difference, because there are a lot of people working to make this. The only thing is we got to work harder and we have to work more unify in order to bring this to fruition because the truth is, as David said, Costa Rica is a small country.

You know, they can’t do it alone. They need to do it, but they can’t do it alone. The US needs to do it. China needs to do it. Paris needs to do it. I mean, so all of the areas that we can think of, it needs to be done in your County, in your state, in your town, in your home. It’s the aggregate of all of us coming together to make that difference. And here’s the thing we always want to leave on a positive note. We can change this. We can, we can, we can patch this dam. We can, we can, we can, we can fix this breach. We certainly can, but it’s going to take swift and decisive action for us to do so. We have to make the decision that it’s time to make a change.

Politics, political affiliation. All of those things pushed aside. We have got to save ourselves.

Richard Streitz: Yup. That’s, that’s the bottom line. Uh, you know, we’re all in it together. There’s no saving half the world. Uh, it, uh, it just doesn’t work. It’s sort of an all or nothing. And, and, you know, I, I firmly believe that we, as a global consciousness will rise to the occasion. We’ve done it before, um, in different periods of, of our human existence on this planet.

And we’re, we’re resilient and we’re, um, uh, we have ingenuity, uh, you know, we, we can be clever as a, as a consciousness of, of, as a species. And so I think we will rise to that and support, you know, like, like LaMondre said, absolutely support the leaders and champions that are across multiple industries, governments that are across many different countries that are doing the right thing.

You know, it’s those models that are worth like Costa Rica, those models are worth looking and investigating. How, how are they able to achieve a zero, uh, footprint, uh, you know, in 2021. Um, and that, um, that’s been a process that’s been going on for 10 years, 10, 15 years.

David Pérez: Yeah.

Richard Streitz: Something, something like that if I remember. Um, so it can be done and the models are out there. We just need to open our eyes. Look, hear, listen and act.

David Pérez: Yeah, take action.

LaMondre Pough: I believe in us.

Richard Streitz: Absolutely. All right. Well, that’s the time we have for today. We thank you again, always for your comments and your participation and your time. Thank you.

David Pérez: Thanks for joining us this week on 3DVU. Make sure to visit our website  ruhglobal.com/3DVU that’s ruhglobal.com/3DVU, where you can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts or join our YouTube channel so you’ll never miss a show. While you’re at it if you find value in the show, we appreciate it if you would leave a like or comment or simply tell a friend about the show that would really help us a lot too. If you would like to join our conversations, you can join our Facebook community 3DVU three perspectives, one conversation. .