Complacent and Entitled

Dear Reader,

Frankly, I don’t think we’ll be able to stop, let alone reverse, climate change, not even to the extent that it is provoked or accelerated by human activity.

I am not being defeatist, but I have come to this conclusion after what I think is a clear-eyed assessment of the political situation in the world today, including in this beautiful country.

The scientific facts about climate change are reasonably clear and have been for quite some time. They are also largely undisputed, except by a small number of ideologues who don’t let little things like facts and evidence get in the way of their prejudices.

In principle we also know what we should do to maybe not avoid climate change, but at least slow it down: Significantly reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases.

We could do that through a combination of many measures, including planting trees, replacing coal-fired power plants with renewable energy (yes, it would work if we pushed decentralised energy production, instead of focusing on megaprojects in the middle of nowhere necessitating hundreds and thousands of miles of new power lines), reducing our reliance on the automobile by using alternative modes of transportation, feeding cattle grass instead of corn (they are ruminants and can’t digest the corn properly, which produces the powerful greenhouse gas methane), using existing technologies to dramatically reduce the energy needed to heat and cool buildings (zero-energy houses have been around for quite some time), ... to name just a few.

None of these things are going to happen.

Why?

Because, except for a dedicated minority among us, we all wait for someone else to do it.

That’s the case in our personal lives as well as in the business world and on an international level in relations among countries.

Nobody wants to take the first step because nobody wants to be at a competitive disadvantage.

And that’s the big flaw in the reasoning.

Reducing energy consumption and eliminating pollution gives anybody who does it first a competitive edge over all those who lag behind.

In our home it helps us save on utility bills and gas, and increases our quality of life (by moving more and eating healthier we also improve our health).

Companies that invest in energy-saving and pollution-reducing technologies eliminate a whole lot of waste from their production processes (it’s not surprising that the most competitive companies are also the most efficient and cleanest ones).

Countries that are at the vanguard of good environmental stewardship also invariably have the highest quality of life for their residents (which is why the Scandinavian countries are way ahead of the U.S., which scores barely above Third-World levels).

When did we Americans lose that pioneering spirit?

When did we replace entrepreneurialism with complacency and responsibility with entitlement?