Artwork & Content Copyright © 2010 Jean Burman
Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only then will we learn that money cannot be eaten
-Cree Indian Prophecy
If mankind lived by just one creed “Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix” the world would be in much better shape than it is right now… and the future of planet earth would be assured.
They’re only six little words. But those six words could make a world of difference.
Had these six words been considered before deep water drilling was undertaken in the Gulf of Mexico… the current disaster would have been averted.
We are now living on a planet burgeoning out of control with untested and untried systems and technologies.
Contrary to what we might think… 100% of [precisely nothing] is put impartially and comprehensively to the test before it is rushed out into the market place… placed into common use… or otherwise foisted upon an unsuspecting populace and planet.
Don’t believe me?
Well consider this.
Remember when it was safe to put:
DDT on food crops
Mercury in teeth
Nicotine in cigarettes
Asbestos in building materials
Thalidomide in tablets
[dare I say] fluoride in drinking water?
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
Remember when it was safe to eat:
Margarine and polyunsaturates (oops… you didn’t know?)
Preservatives
Stablilizers
Emulsifiers
Thickeners
Flavour enhancers
Sweeteners
Glutamates
and a plethora of processing aids
all still used [incredibly] in packaged food?
Shelf life is king and the key to turning a profit. Your health is not a consideration to manufacturers or regulators [until either 1. something goes wrong 2. they are called out on it or 3. someone literally drops dead from it]
Slow death over a long period doesn’t count… and is too difficult to quantify anyway. No one goes there… despite cancer now being the number one killer [behind Death by Medicine].
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
And who knows where the limits will be… or when… [or indeed how] the reversal will come on daliances such as:
Nuclear energy
Nanotechnology
GM crops
EMFs
Mobile Phones
Food Irradiation
Microwave technology
Genetic Engineering
[dare I say] IVF
the list goes on…
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
Government and big business might argue to the contrary… insisting that there are checks and balances. Oh sure… there will always be [industry funded] trials and environmental and regulatory impact studies and the like. But when things go wrong… sometimes catastrophically… it’s the same old thing. Corporations dive for cover and Governments bring out the dustpan and brush.
The checks and balances are there alright… but they come amid a plethora of vested interests… adjusted facts and unexplained determinants. The product is withdrawn… the practice is stopped… or the process is reviewed. A short period of negative press may then follow before the whole darned thing is swept under the carpet and all but forgotten about in a mire of mind numbing ignorance complacency and wilful self-interest.
Greed drives everything.
To say the man woman and child in the street are confused would be an understatement. To say we have no control… is an undeniably fact.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-progress.
I am pro ANTIDOTES!
And we should have them now… not later.
So that when things do go wrong… instead of playing the blame game… and sweeping the embarrassing fallout from our not insignificant failures under the carpet of negligence complacency and self interested greed… we will have real solutions [before] we need them.
It shouldn’t be all that hard. If we’re smart enough to develop the technology in the first place… we surely must be clever enough to come up with the appropriate solution?
And before the fact not after it.
As privileged temporary custodians of this incredible planet Earth [the creatures the earth the oceans and the atmosphere]… this must surely be our first most imperative priority… our [moral] obligation… and essential responsibility.
Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
While I agree with everything you say, Jean, step one is recognizing the potential for trouble, and the possibility that something might get broken. Hand in hand with our capability to develop and harness new technology is our arrogance and hubris, the pathological denial that there’s a downside to the upside. The Titanic went down because of the blind confidence it was unsinkable. Oil industry officials work on the conviction that the potential for disaster is so minimal as to not be a problem. Had they foreseen the scope of the tragedy in the Gulf they would never have proceeded as they did in the first place. The real problem is the simple declaration, when a whistle blower attempts to call attention to something that can go wrong: “That’s not a problem.”
Precisely my point John.
Humans do tend to be blindly optimistic. I read an article recently that argued we would make no progress at all if we had to find the solution [the antidote] to new ideas BEFORE we implemented them.
The article subscribed to the reasoning that 90% of the time nothing will go wrong and therefore it would be a reasonable risk.
This would be fair enough except for our arrogance and complacency and the misguided belief that we are bulletproof and invincible.
The Titanic went down because it’s owners needed to prove a point. [Arrogance]. It all came down to a dollar decision. [Greed]. The ship was flawed by design [Complacency]. But to be fail safe all it needed was enough life boats. [Negligence]
Greed and a hasty impatience to get the product or service out into the marketplace and making money is the driving factor in our world economy. Whether it is fail safe is of little consequence when safe enough is all we aspire to.
There have been 29 [reported] accidents at nuclear power plants since Chernobyl. It could be argued that this number is statistically acceptable. But what if any one or a number of them were the big one?
Chernobyl proved that the solution is not as simple as putting a concrete stopper on it. All these years later we still don’t have a satisfactory solution. We still don’t know how to harness it or dispose of it in a failsafe way… yet we are still [blindly] moving toward nuclear as a solution to our energy needs.
When I was 15 and incarcerated in Boarding School I played this song on my guitar and sang these much loved lyrics. I loved the song then as now… and thought it was perfect in this scenario of losing the earth to a slow death at the hand of humankind.
I wish it wasn’t so… but sadly it is. However it’s still a beautiful song… and no more so than when sung by Enya in this version which I stumbled upon [purely by chance] and has been so well put together here almost for this purpose. Thank you Edd whoever you are. You did a stirling job.
The cartoon came in parts. First the little boy. Then the pelican. Then the name of the pelican. Probably derived inadvertently from Mr Percival of Storm Boy fame. And then finally the sinking earth being swallowed up by an oily sea. And the gentle innocence of those who are cast adrift awaiting rescue… a rescue which will more than likely never come. But still we must have faith…. in ourselves… in the world at large… and people everywhere… that the answer will come. And hopefully soon.
Jean, your words hit home, (and the cartoon even more so!). You’d think peoplekind would “get it” by now. After all, are we not gifted with a unique sense of foresight? Of course, as you so eloquently put it …all such premonitions are blinded by greed. That’s what it all comes down to. If only there were more Jean Burman’s on this planet to steer us in the right direction! All would be well!
(((chuckles))) Thanks Mary
but you know I always have more questions than answers here and am forever asking why? Darn it. LOL
It’s a notoriously simplistic [and hugely idealistic] viewpoint I know… but sometimes simple is good. As Albert Einstein once said ““If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” Maybe he was right. Maybe not. Who knows?
But he did also once say “Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them” Which does kind of lend weight to the Don’t Do What You Can’t Fix theme. We could definitely use a few more geniuses around the place at the moment… but where the heck do you find a good genius when you need one? (((LOL)))
I neglected to mention previously, Jean, that I really like your cartoon a lot. I’ve revisited it several times, and it always resonates.
Jean: What a great and thought provoking post. We really do need to consider the ramifications of our decisions prior to making them and also make sure that we aren’t doing things that we have no ability to control and fix. I think this insight you shared definitely applies to the oil spill, but it also applies to us personally. We need to be cautious with the things we choose to do and understand the necessity of always trying to make the best decisions that will positively impact those people around us. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Thanks John
Appreciate that!
Hi Sibyl
Thanks for stopping by… it’s really great to meet you! So pleased you share my sentiments on this topic. It’s a biggie that’s for sure and something we probably all should consider more deeply than we do. The antidote is always so much easier to come up with than the cure. But I am not entirely sure we will convince the dollar driven powers that be… (until the last tree has fallen that is… and they are forced to eat more than their words!) Thanks again!
I really enjoyed this Jean. I completely agree that if it can’t be fixed, it should not be done. The only thing that is difficult is knowing what that is because sometimes the information we have available to us, while in hindsight is terrible, is the best information available at the time.
I say this from my perspective though. I am not a BP that could cripple an environment with my mistakes ; ). Oftentimes, I just make the best decision, and give the best effort with the information available to me, but I have found that non of my mistakes are ever beyond repair because I don’t make them at the bottom of the ocean.
Thanks for a great post!
Hi Joshua
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I really appreciate your thoughts.
You’re right of course that we only have the best available knowledge to go by but as history proves available knowledge at the time can be highly unreliable at best. The worst thing about what’s happening in the Gulf is that everyone involved [from Government to BP to the people who worked on the rig] knew the risks but carried on anyway despite the warnings. That’s just plain dumb. And careless. And not much different to what happened on Titanic. But unlike the Titanic this thing’s going to go on forever. The damage done can never be rectified entirely.
My concern has always been that this kind of thing could happen off the Great Barrier Reef which is just off the coast from where I live. An oil spill in the marine park in a World Heritage area would be even worse [if that's possible] but still ships arrive unescorted by a pilot through some of the most treacherous reefs on the planet. It’s only a matter of time I guess.
Thanks again for popping in. Lovely to meet you.