The Will to Change
I have often wondered why it is so difficult to enact solutions-oriented changes when it comes to our water resources. Nobody wants to pollute. Nobody wants to swim in a cesspool or drink water that is unhealthy. Yet, much of our society remains in denial regarding the severity of our water issues in America today.
Partly as a result of the short political cycle, it is difficult to enact long term solutions. Society and our leadership prefer to value the present rather than look to the uncertain effects of the future. In their new book, Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum suggest that society is willing to trade the likelihood of long-term damage in favor or having more resources right now.
Yet, they also suggest that we can invoke solutions for what appear to be insurmountable issues. We have the intellectual capital to solve problems as long as we can summon the will to do so.
The first step involves overcoming the complacency that pervades our leadership in business and government. We have become accustomed to the status quo, which in reality is a slowly deteriorating baseline. North Florida springs that pumped strong and clean some twenty years ago are still beautiful places to visit, yet the flow has been reduced and exotic vegetation and algae are slowly choking the ecosystems to death. The flora and fauna have died off. The water is a little greener. Some springs have even disappeared, but people move on and they are soon forgotten.
This current state of complacency should not be resignation. Given the will, we can improve the state of springs. But those changes will require collective will. Large scale initiatives will require sacrifices and long term thinking far beyond the fragmented actions in place today.
We are capable of solving our water issues, but first we need a reset. There needs to be a collective re-focus. Are our springs worth saving?
