HOSED

I just saw a developer’s honest presentation, the other day, that showed 10,000 new units planned for the Park City Area and another 10,000 in Summit County and 10,000 in Wasatch County in the next Umpteenth years.  That’s 100,000 people and 200,000 new vehicle trips per day.  We are Hosed, I thought.  Then I read a climate review that showed India and China building dozens of coal-burning power plants in the near future to keep up with their growth and the rise in their standard of living. Hosed again.  Then I saw compounding figures on the concentration of wealth and couldn’t believe it could get worse.  Hose-a-menudo.  Finally, I saw the number of people on this planet increasing exponentially to a certain point, before mysteriously flattening out in a few decades.  The flattening was more concerning than the predictable growth since it usually represents a big change or something really bad.  What causes that; war, genocide, plague, asteroids, wealth, education or restraint?   Still, Hose-o-Rama.

So, what is the answer, what are we going to do to solve these unsolvable problems.  We are the generation that is responsible for this, the worst generation, who knew it was happening and refused to do anything about it, because it was expensive or inconvenient.  What are we handing to the next generation.  It seems worse than the depression and war that our grandparents handed down to our parents, the political unrest and moral bankruptcy our parents handed to us or the loss of trust and truth and interpersonal relations we have handed to our kids.  But I guess every generation feels that they are handing down a shit-show or are inheriting one from the generation before.  Every generation has something to apologize for.  One hundred years ago the biggest worry was that the streets would be covered with twelve feet of literal horse shit by now, but that didn’t happen.  So what’s the big deal, the kids will figure it out so don’t fret the hypotheticals.  The kids are all right. 

But that does not ring true this time.  We have science and sociology, economics and demographics pointing in the same direction.  Hose-a-la-mode.  We are too old to solve these issues so the best we can do is educate and encourage our leaders and the next generation to do the right thing and make the best choices, no matter how hard they seem.  Change the system to persuade them to do more long-term planning with horizons longer than 2-4-6-8 years and to think about sustainability and resilience and existentialism as more than mere buzz words.  Humans don’t solve anything until we are in catastrophe mode and then it is too late, like climate, Social Security, traffic or environment. How do we change human nature to be more proactive by rewarding it.  Throw a larger and longer economic net and show everyone the folly of our short-sighted ways.  Live for the future, not the past, and for the next generation. 

It will take a combination of regulated capitalism and socialism, government and democracy to ensure everyone and everything is considered and not dominated by an unlevel playing field or vested interests.  I’m afraid that human nature is not to be trusted to prevail objectively and that market forces alone will not provide balance and fairness.  We will have to rise above ourselves and our base nature to survive, thrive and flourish.  We have to quickly evolve away from our harmful individual instincts to include an enlightened institutional intuition for the survival of all.  This is possible since evolution usually happens as a series of necessary bursts instead of a long slow plodding trend line.  Survival of all species will be incumbent on revolutionary change and conscious evolution.  The odds are long, but the time is short.  Otherwise, we are Dinosaurs, and we are likewise, Hosed. 

 

Matthew Lindon

Waterandwhatever.blogspot.com