Severe Crisis to force Change

We have been taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder. No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply. And those laws are telling us that we, as an endangered species, cannot continue on the path we are on.

The problem is that it is very difficult to get those inhuman beings to appreciate and undertake the change we now need without an even bigger crisis than what we are already experiencing. History indicates that we don't accept large-scale change easily, especially when this change challenges the accepted behavior and beliefs of those inhuman beings.

It generally takes a severe and fatal crisis to overcome such resistance. Unfortunately this means the crisis will have to be very large and completely undeniable before the society respond.

So when the crisis is big enough to force change, it will also have great and unstoppable momentum. As a result it will be far more damaging, irreversible damages, and the impacts will continue to worsen long after we had restored order and acted on the causes.

This is why it is doubly urgent for our leaders and We the People to heed our warning and develop a more sustainable way of creating harmony with our natural world - and to begin doing it now, while we have a chance to do it in a reasonably orderly way. If we wait for our Pearl Harbour, we will make the scale of the problem so obvious to all and it will be too late as the impact and disruptions by then will likely to be unimaginable.

There is no longer just a social issue as how we respond now will decide the future of our nation and the human civilization of this land.

There is no one else; there is no other time; it is us and it is now!

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Adapted from:

Hot, Flat and Crowded
by Thomas Friedman

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