Letters to the Editor
-
As a scientist, you must know this...
...human beings respond, we don't foresee.
When does the new set of traffic lights go in? Only after the big accident at the intersection.
When is the pedestrian bridge built? Only after the little girl gets run over.
We also respond, as those two examples also illustrate, in a knee-jerk and nearest-cause fashion. Neither little girls getting run over, or people getting turned into quadriplegics at intersections prompts us to make cars safer.
So what can one person do? IMO it comes down to three things:
1. Work for organisations that are part of the solution, not part of the problem. In your case, go find a solar energy startup that needs a scientist-in-chief. Or equivalent.
2. Vote for political parties that have shown their ability to at least attempt to foresee and take preventative action. This rules out, pretty much globally, any party even slightly right of center.
3. Do your best, in your own life, to consume less. To consolidate. To help your nearest and dearest do the same.
Act, in short, locally, and think, in brief, globally.
But being a brilliant scientist, you probably already know that. So stop letting the fear win, and get on with it.