An Euler diagram

Is this really that difficult to understand?

Economy ∈ Environment.

Rio Tinto

There are too many competing forces, and I think it’s important to recognise that saving the environment, dropping carbon is almost a luxury of affluence if we see difficult economic conditions priorities to begin to change and that will put more challenges on coming up with a solution.

Tom Albanese – CEO Rio Tinto

It is people like this that are starting to convince me that I should be going into the houseboat-building industry. This comes just two months after Rio were protesting that the WWF unfairly gave their power generators zero stars in terms of positioning for a low carbon future.

Affluence is a luxury of having a functioning environment, not the other way around. No environment means no economy. Is this really that hard to understand?