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LANDSCAPE ALTERATIONS
Saturday May 7, 2016
In business start-ups, invention, discovery and art – few initiatives succeed.
Fewer change our world.
Changes to our way of life often emerge from attempts to solve ‘other problems’, prove wacky theories or live someone’s dream – they took alternates routes. Got lost. We got x-rays, penicillin, Velcro, microwave ovens, sticky-notes, Teflon, Coca-Cola, Viagra, Airbnb ..
What audacious adventure can we embark upon which might make differences, maybe even some dents, in some significant solvable problem?
Example: feeding 7½ billion is our problem. Should we improve food production and distribution, or use this quicker solution – stop all medical research, life saving measures and disease treatment?
Fewer people, everyone fed. Problem solved. “Ludicrous” you say.
Agreed, if feeding everyone is THE problem, then clearly, this solution is faster, more economical. But we wouldn’t because we value and want to save life, not lose life. Not sure this happens with any other species in the food chain …
If our problem proposition was, ‘everybody should live, nobody should starve, we all will be healthy’ our path to a solution becomes redefined.
Biggest problems (BTW, global warming and greenhouse gas emissions are separate problems – not ONE problem) are complex, better solved if, before we ‘set out to solve’, we carefully examined how we define them?
Or whether we should impose a solution?
It strikes me that human holistic approaches rarely make progress against big-business and big-government power structures …
Our feeble individual efforts should be focused on solving something.
We can all fix little problems close to home.
When done with those, we could turn our attention to really large ones which impact all of us …
Mark Kolke
P.S.: Fort Mac fire news – people are safe, but forest is being devoured. Letting fire burn itself out without risking lives and previous resources to solve something which cannot be solved. Most news coverage and satellite photos, several days old, substantially understate scope/scale of forest area engaged if fire and ravaged [156,000 hectares / 385,484 acres; all of Calgary is 203,900 acres]- , still burning and smoldering. This one can be drilled down – shows that most of Fort Mac is still standing, for now. Rainy weather expected tomorrow should help firefighters. When disasters are on the news it is difficult to grasp that, for the earth, it is just a normal day. Every day there are storms and earthquakes, trembles and rumblings of the earth – every country on every continent gets its share of weathers, seasons, wind and wet.
written / published from Calgary, AB
morning walk: 7C/45F, clear, light breeze – streets quiet except for Magpies intent on accompanying us with their shrillness, broke the stillness. Gusta entertained by lunging toward them but they simply flited along, further and faster.
Reader feedback:
ABOARD THIS ENTERPRISE
Like the brevity. Real life issues. Keep mindful of what we have in Canada and to be grateful. Feeds into my sentiments. Develop an attitude of gratitude, JP, Olds, AB
Hi Mark, I am so glad you are writing about the fires and evacuations. Nightly on the evening news, I see the fires and long line of vehicles leaving the area. I am happy to hear that people are getting out safely. Thank you for posting the link to donate to the Red Cross. My home burned in the wee morning hours of December 8,1975 when I was 7 months pregnant with my first child. All inside the house was lost, but people in my work community were generous with clothing, food, shelter and love. It was a big lesson for me in not getting too attached to things. My heart goes out to all those who have experienced this trauma, MN, Fort Worth, TX
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