Challenges of Turning the "Ship"

TURNING THE SHIP (Difficulties and Challenges)

I had a conversation yesterday with a good friend I haven't spoken to in quite a while. In that conversation, we were discussing some things and it got me thinking about what he was concerned about.

When I woke up this morning I applied those same kinds of concerns and the challenges related to them at a macro level to the global warming and environment issues we all collectively face.

I'll summarize what we all already know. We need to change the course of this really big ship we are on or we may very well have some less than desirable long lasting negative results.

Using the ship metaphor, the challenges are clear. Take a cruise ship as an example. The ship may be humming along at a steady clip. This technologically advanced marvel of its time seems to be the ultimate and unsinkable. However, conditions present themselves in just the right manner so that this ship is on a collision course with specific obstacles (say maybe an iceberg) that will indeed reduce it from indestructible to unsalvageable. Sound familiar?

In fact, the obvious ship I speak of did make an attempt to change its course albeit far too late to avoid its eventual dire consequence.

ISSUE RECOGNITION

We as a race have historically engineered new things technologically to evolve from where we were to where we are. Likewise, over time and often after further damage has been inflicted on our “ship”, we recognize the impact and make adjustments. CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) are one such example. Millions of aerosol cans were pressurized with this substance so that we could spray things. In the 70's the realization (ISSUE RECOGNITION) of the damage being caused to the Ozone layer resulted in a dramatic drop in the use of the CFCs and heavy regulation because of the destructive effects on the ozone layer.

CORRECTIVE PLANNING

Correction planning was required to reduce the CFC usage. No doubt this was costly. Scientists had to research the potential damage to verify it as a true issue. This costs money. An alternative propellant had to be researched, verified as safe, and planned for. This costs money. Legislation had to be suggested, written, reviewed and passed to force industry to make the change (a requirement in a capital driven society). This also costs money. Finally, production manufacturing adjustments had to be made for the revised "system". Not just by one company, but any company or production shop making this substance and injecting it into the containers. Expensive no doubt.

CORRECTION

Execution of all of the aforementioned resulted in the "CORRECTION" which undoubtedly has helped to reduce the Ozone layer issue. It’s unclear whether or not this was enough, but it is also clear that we took corrective action in this "isolated" issue situation.

The Correction costs money but this is demonstrative of a simple recipe.

Issue recognition, corrective planning and correction execution.

A simple recipe to fix a problem with a inherent tangible (dollar) costs and intangible (human) effrot costs to be expected.

The fairly recent rise in awareness of the global warming situation as well as the awareness of the destructive impact that things like uncontrolled electronics disposal that result in rivers running red in China are sad things, but recognition of them as issues is a good thing.

We've accomplished to recognize some key issues worldwide that are clearly appropriate (and necessary) to correct and issue recognition is the first ingredient in our simple recipe.

What is different however, in the case of global warming, is that it is a worldwide problem.

This is not the same as asking products manufacturing companies to switch propellants.

This is much bigger.

Herein lay the challenges.

CORRECTIVE PLANNING

The world has managed to plan and execute some corrective action. Many public and residential occupancies have moved to the flourescent light bulb. This of course results in a lower energy load on the power generation facilities (i.e. fossil fired power plants have lower loads). The fossil plants therefore require less fuel which produces a lower amount of visible particle pollution and greenhouse gases.

Obviously Hybrids are a good thing as well for similar reasons. Reduced Gasoline usage and expended fuel pollution output. All good.

The summits are a great thing as well. Talk about the issues, recognize the issues, consider options to plan and take corrective action.

CORRECTION (CHALLENGES)

Unfortunately, like the ocean liner I mentioned earlier, the earth is a mighty big ship. Unlike the ocean liner, our ship has not a single captain. The vast majority of the ship's crew recognizes the issue and the potential for a catastrophic collision.

The societal leaders have made some efforts to perform corrective planning. Some of these leaders favor preservation of their countries economic stability and/or growth over the need for corrective planning and action (while knowing full well the future is at risk

)So what we have is recognition by the majority of a clear need for change (sooner rather than later). We also have some disagreement to plan and execute the corrective action as mentioned.

We will likely never have a singular captain of this “ship”. Our long running history of each country owning specific parts of the ship/planet trump any possibility of ever having a single decision maker that could mandate a corrective change.

Lack of "a" captain makes it tough to turn the ship, even if the crew knows its heading for the iceberg.

It will always come down to "a decision" from a collective body of chosen leaders.

The crew must collectively push for change. Not merely in election years, but every day, hour by hour, minute by minute until the change is effected and our course and heading begin to change.

PS - Turning my lamps off in favor of the natural and completely suffienct lighting coming in from the windows.