In 1894 there was a major crisis in London. It seemed that there was no solution in sight, and that the city was destined to be doomed. The problem was the incredible amount of manure being deposited onto the streets by the city’s horses. Horses were the way to get around, no one wanted to get rid of them, and yet their manure was a real problem.
And then cars were invented, and the problem went away. Looking back in time this crisis seems silly, but back then it must have felt very serious. Society was on a march towards doom, and no solution was in sight.
I remember this whenever people are freaking out about any of our society’s problems. On any given week you can find a headline talking about how unsustainable something or other is, and how we’re doomed. Maybe it’s pollution, population, or wealth distribution. These are all serious problems, but they will be solved eventually.
That doesn’t mean that these problems will magically disappear, of course. It’s human innovation that has saved the day every time so far. If you’re in a related field or want to solve one of these problems, then you should probably worry about it intensely. Dedicate your entire life to solving it. That’s how these things get solved.
If you’re not going to solve these problems, though, why worry? Someone will solve it eventually, and the problem will look smaller in hindsight. That mental overhead spend on doom and gloom could be spent solving some other problem, whichever it is that you are suited to solve. And even if the problem isn’t going to get solved, worrying about it won’t help.
People will make the argument that we all have to pitch in a little bit to help. That may be true, but it’s hard to find examples where this has actually happened absent of market forces.
Fuel economy in cars is a good example. I remember paying 81 cents per gallon back in the day, which made buying a school bus a pretty easy thing to do. Even at the time I sold my last car, which got 11mpg, in 2011, gas was pretty cheap.
After that, though, gas climbed up around four dollars a gallon. And all of those people (like me) who couldn’t be convinced that getting a more fuel efficient car would do much for the environment, cared about fuel economy.
Caring about fuel economy because it hurt one’s bottom line drove people to buy more fuel efficient cars. The new version of my car now gets 16/24 mpg instead of 11/16.
Right now California is in a drought, and people are being asked to take shorter showers. Even if everyone actually did this, which is impossible, it would have only a minor impact on the water supply.
On the other hand, water prices are much higher for farmers, who are using most of the water anyway. There may be subsidies that negate this effect, but this should cause water-inefficient foods, like meat, to become more expensive relative to alternatives. If that happens, my guess is that people will choose more water-efficient foods and mitigate some of the effects of the drought.
So if you want to tackle one of the big problems of our generation, then think about it constantly. But if you aren’t working on one of these problems, there’s no practical reason to think about it and let it bother you. This flies in the face of what the media pumps out daily, but it allows you to have a happier life and to focus your attention on problems that you can solve.
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Picture is part of an art installation at a museum in Naoshima, Japan. The whole island of Naoshima is covered in art museums and installations. Definitely worth checking out!
Headed to Hong Kong this weekend to do an AA Platinum Challenge, and to jump the world’s tallest bungie jump.
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