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January 07
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It's time to lift our game,
or pay the price

Apathy is a common trait that can land us in all sorts of trouble but, thankfully, our ingenuity often saves the day

By Chris Jacobs

We have a history of doing things too late, or at the last possible moment. And whether this is an in-built trait in our DNA that exists in most of us, or just our general laziness and resistance to change, I’m not sure.

This tendency to tardiness usually starts, for all of us, at an early age- such as waiting until we’re asked to clean our rooms and getting threatened multiple times before doing anything about it.

In later years, this graduates to our reluctance to complete assignments, or study for exams until the due date. As adults, we avoid paying our credit card bills until we absolutely have to.

Similarly, as a society we tend to support change only when something becomes so bad it hurts.

For example, we only provide new transport options when our traffic jams and commute times get to unacceptable levels, and we only support people through retirement when we realise we’re going broke.

More alarmingly, in recent times we’ve begun to institute change, albeit at a snail’s pace, with regards to our water, power, and the environment in general only after we’ve realised that we are in dire straits.

It’s only now with Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, all of which have below 40 per cent water storage capacity and severe water restrictions, that we see fit to have a national sustainable water policy.

And it’s only now that we’ve got fuel depletion and high pump prices that we’re finally attempting to develop alternative energy sources.

Yet, we know that with the technology and knowledge we have at our disposal, early action would have avoided much of the heartache we’re forced to endure.
They say the unfortunate thing about common sense is that it is not all that common.

This seems to apply to us when it comes to the environment. We are closely located to the hole in the ozone layer and have the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, yet we continue to expose ourselves excessively to the damaging rays. Worse still, we don’t even bother to use easily accessible protection like sun cream. We live in the driest continent on Earth, yet still use fresh drinking water for our sewerage and toilets.

We are basically closing the stable door after the horse has escaped, but there is good news at hand- if we act now.

The greatest thing about humanity is our limitless potential. As the past has shown, our imagination can create technology that can overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.

When it comes to water we need only look abroad for two solutions that will dramatically reverse our current plight. Drier countries in the Middle East have utilised desalination and recycling plants for years.

Due to the fact that 80 per cent of all our water use is for agriculture, it would make sense that we adopt some of the best practice and least wasteful farming methods that exist overseas. We should then further adapt these to our unique situation and climate.

As far as greenhouse gases and their contribution to global warming and fossil fuel depletion are concerned, we need only look at the past. We developed hydrogen fuel cells in the 1960s to help us get to the moon.

If we had spent a fraction of the money and effort that we’ve spent on less important things since then, this technology would be powering our cars and homes today. And just to add further evidence to our lack of common sense, the by-product of this power is water.

It’s possible for us to overcome these problems- all we need to do is to get off our backsides and prepare for them. Do you remember how easily you slept that one time you studied for a test, weeks in advance, or when you bought your Christmas presents early?

Well, think how easily you would sleep if as a consequence of our actions today you knew that your children would live a great life and wouldn’t be spending it cleaning up our mess!

www.jiveexchange.com/metronews

Chris Jacobs

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