World leaders are meeting once again to try to hammer out some agreement on climate change and emissions targets. Needless to say, the role of governments in achieving some workable goals is essential but the reality is that they are not the ones we can rely on alone. True change can only be achieved through attitude change in the individual.In today’s column, I tell a little story about a traffic jam and how a simple gesture of slowing down to take a look, produced a two-hour delay. The principle is a simple one; when many people do something small, the cumulative result can be big. I had written it in a general way and not necessarily with environmental problems in mind. Nevertheless it certainly seems apropos given today’s headlines about the climate change conference.
Two hours vs. two hours and five seconds
Camillo Zacchia, Ph.D.
Psychologist – Douglas HospitalWhat kind of impact can a simple and insignificant human act have on the world?
One summer day, many years ago, my wife and I were caught in a horrendous traffic jam. After two hours, we finally gave up. We got off the highway and parked on a side street and walked the rest of the way. We eventually passed the scene of the accident that had delayed us. A dump truck had hit an overpass as it was traveling along on the other side of the highway! The traffic jam that we were in for nearly two hours was from rubbernecking alone!
It seems that as each car passed in the other direction, they would slow down to take a look at the twisted truck, as well as at the overpass, which was now missing a chunk of concrete.
Drivers would only slow down for a few seconds before speeding off; most of them took no more than five seconds. If you already waited two hours, why not take the extra five seconds to take a good look at something interesting? Of course, the fact that everyone took those five seconds was the very reason why traffic was so bad that day.
This traffic jam illustrates how a simple act, one that is quite meaningless when seen from the perspective of the individual, can have enormous consequences when cumulative effects are considered.
A single vote will not determine the outcome of an election. One small item stolen will not raise prices. One extra gas-guzzler, or one plastic wrapper thrown out a car window, will not destroy our planet. A single exaggerated insurance claim won’t affect premiums. None of these things really matter when seen in isolation.
Who cares anyway, what’s an extra five seconds!
We all do it. We tend to focus on our single acts without much regard for the cumulative effect of such acts. In so doing, we manage to deflect blame for many of the world’s problems away from ourselves. It is just so much easier to point fingers and demand solutions from others or from governments, than to question the person in the mirror.
Tagged as making changes.
Posted in Human nature.
Posted on 03 Dec 2007
On Jan 10th 2008 at 21:24
Cam,
Your association between little gestures adding up with climate change reminded me of the fact that Charles Darwin’s last few years of life were devoted ot the study of the lowly (and seemingingly insignificant) earthworm. People thought he had lost his mind, but Darwin knew precisely what he was doing, and showed how one little earthworm might not do much, but put a bunch of them together and you can aerate, fertilize and revitalize a 100 acre farm, and improve harvets yield proportinally.
Joe