Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 108483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
“A lot,” I mutter without much enthusiasm.
“A lot. We can’t not consider it.” Kimba props one rounded hip against the makeup table, watching me closely. “Hey, this is me. Let’s talk about the real reason you don’t want to work with Owen Cade. His brother.”
I slingshot a baleful look at her. “That’s ridiculous. You think I’m still in my feelings for that man?”
“I saw you two together,” Kimba reminds me softly. “In the words of m’girl Sade, it was no ordinary love.”
“It was no love at all. It was a week.”
“He was your first.”
“Everybody has a first.”
“Everybody’s first is not Maxim Cade. And you may not have been his first, but it was obvious you were special to him.”
“So special he lied to me,” I spit, clinging to the righteous indignation I wrapped around myself like armor. “He knew how I felt about his father.”
“Ever thought him being afraid to tell you about his dad is an indication of how much he wanted it to work? That maybe he thought you wouldn’t give him a shot if you knew?”
I don’t answer, but just stare at her. It’s too much. Maxim coming to town. Seeing his brother and getting this offer. I’ve studiously avoided all things Maxim Cade for the past ten years. I’ve built the life I dreamt about, and he’s built his. We both got everything we wanted.
A tiny rebel part of me has the nerve to whisper.
Not everything.
CHAPTER 35
MAXIM
“I cannot overstate the necessity of developing a circular economy—one that minimizes waste and maximizes our natural resources.”
It’s a different way of saying what I’ve been telling this panel for the past hour. This isn’t my first time testifying before Congress, but it may be my last.
“Could you elaborate, Mr. Cade?” A narrow-faced man speaks into his little microphone, peering down at me from his perch.
“Yes. In a circular system, we minimize waste, emission, and energy leakage by slowing and closing energy and material loops,” I say as patiently as I can. “Not like in a more linear, traditional ‘take, make, dispose’ model. Economic circularity not only reduces resources used and waste and leakage created and conserves resources, but it also reduces environmental pollution.”
“According to the studies you provided,” says one congresswoman, glancing down at a sizable stack of papers, “China and Europe are taking the lead in this.”
“It’s true that most of the forward movement in circular economics is occurring in Europe and China,” I say. “Europe tends to focus more on the environmental implications, but China is very much concerned with the economic by-products, too. Circular economy has been national policy for the Chinese since 2006.”
In other words, we’re lagging behind, guys.
“Concrete examples?” the first congressman asks, one brow elevated.
“There are many,” I answer. “But I think one of the best examples is in the textile industry. In fashion, it’s recycling clothes and fibers so they reenter the economy instead of ending up in landfills as waste. Designers like Patagonia and Stella McCartney are high-profile examples of how this can work.”
“And you’ve ventured into this yourself, correct, Mr. Cade?” another asks. “You’re making money through this circular economy.” It sounds almost like an accusation.
“Hand over fist,” I confirm unapologetically. “Shoes, leggings, sports bras. You name it, and my company Wear It Again is making it over and over and over. We’re not only regenerating materials but profit. We need these new ways of thinking if we expect to deliver on the emissions reductions commitments we and our global partners have made.”
“This is all a lot to take in,” one of them says. “A lot to process.”
“Exactly, which is why I’d rather be discussing how we can reeducate America’s populace and retrain our workforce for green jobs instead of convincing you the sky is indeed falling. We need to make this real for people. Like telling farmers global warming is contributing to desertification, which means lower crop yields. They’ll get that.”
I spend another thirty minutes breaking down things most of the interns in my companies could easily explain to these politicians. Their ivory towers have chimney stacks, carelessly puffing poison into the environment. I hope I’m not wasting my time “educating” them, but they haven’t delivered in the past at the rate and level I had hoped.
“If we don’t address these issues,” I say, “the socioeconomic implications are even greater than the ones we’ve already discussed. Shifting ecosystems and natural disasters will cause poverty, hunger, homelessness, and disease and will disproportionately affect those countries already most vulnerable. Quite frankly, in some instances, I believe we’re already too late and have to begin thinking of how we’ll survive, not reverse, the consequences of what we’ve done.”
They ask more follow-up questions and look for ways to skirt the truth, but I don’t give them outs, and I counter every shortcut they want to take with hard facts.