Richmond Valentine - Kingsman

Who is Richmond Valentine?

He was an amiable and eccentric man who was deeply concerned with the dire straits that our planet's climate has been put in by human activity. A man who had tried everything in his power to solve this crisis, but ultimately failed to bring about any meaningful change. Because of this, he chose to do the unthinkable and kill off a majority of the human population to save it. Ordering hundreds if not thousands of people to be imprisoned or murdered in order to do so and causing the deaths of who knows how many others when his plans saw partial fruition.

There are multiple issues facing our planet and our species, but I don't think there are too many individuals out there who are willing to sacrifice the lives of their loved ones or their fellow man on a massive scale in order to fix those problems. It's difficult to make any kind of change in the world but trying to make positive changes, rather than implementing destructive solutions, is typically the best way to make that change. And though it might seem like the writing is on the wall for humanity, in certain aspects, resorting to extreme measures is something that's reserved for only the heartless and delusional.

People who believe that our problems will somehow magically disappear through death and destruction (problems that will definitely never occur again further down the line), Richmond was one such person. And the fact that he was able to convince hundreds of powerful people to side with his line of thinking is a harrowing thought. A reminder that everywhere you go in the world, you can find anyone from the lowliest beggar to the most powerful men and women in the world treading a path of unrepentant evil.