Greed: how much is enough?

Yes, greed! Did you guess it?

Well everyone's greedy, aren't they? I certainly like to guzzle my delicious fish until I'm really full, that's for sure. And I'll bet you like to fill up on all your favourite foods and drinks if you can get them. And lions, when they've made a kill, will eat until they can eat no more.

So is human greed different?

Yes!

I've shown you how humans can own things and store them. But greed is all about having more. Having enough is never enough. You can be greedy with food but you can't keep on eating for ever. You'd burst! But if you have (or can borrow) enough of those tokens you call money, you can keep on buying (owning) and storing toys, TVs, clothes, shoes, cars, houses for ever (well, until the money runs out). Nobody needs to own six cars, an SUV, a power boat, three houses and a light airplane. You can only do so many things at once! But lots of people do have small mountains (stores) of possessions which they own (private property - it's mine, all mine, so get your hands off!) because they happen to have lots of money. Why do people want to have so much?

Greed is a big player, but so is the idea that by buying things and so owning them, you somehow get to be happy. Do you think that having every thing you want would make you happy? I doubt it. Look at us penguins: we're happy and we own nothing at all. Anyway, that's your problem!

Because some people are very greedy, they even fight other people to grab what they have too.This is how some wars happen. They are about owning and controlling land, sea, minerals (like oil) and fresh water (for drinking and farming). Other wars start because one lot of powerful people hates another lot because they speak a different language, have a different religion or a different skin colour. Wars are bad news for everything and everybody except the industry that makes guns, bombs and other things for killing lots of people.

We other animals own nothing and so we don't damage anything. The strong human desire    to own,        to buy more and more,             to over-consume and even                  to fight wars to get more, is sucking our                     poor                           planet                                 dry                            as you will see...

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