Tag: Climate Change

During Your Year End Review

This is the time of year
when many of us
look back
and evaluate
what we’ve accomplished.

We note the progress
we’ve made,
the goals we’ve met
or not met,
the difference
we’ve made in
this wonderful world.

When you’re doing this,
note
that we were dealing
with both a pandemic
and climate change
during it.

Those were possible life-ending challenges.
They required mental bandwidth
to survive.

Simply surviving them
was a HUGE accomplishment.

If you accomplished other goals
while doing so,
you did AMAZINGLY.

If you’re reading this,
you accomplished a great feat
– staying alive.

If you’ve done more
than merely stay alive,
you should be
VERY proud of yourself.

Remember that
when you look at your progress.

Losing Options

A couple days ago,
I talked about
how we have choices
regarding the people
we associate with.

That’s true of people.

Going forward,
it will be less true
of other inputs.

In my city,
for example,
there’s a lettuce shortage.
Lettuce is
either extremely expensive
or it isn’t available
at all.

That means choice
at grocery stores
and at restaurants
is more limited.
The classic salad
with lettuce
is temporarily not a viable option
of a meal or side dish
for the average person.

As product developers,
it is helpful
if we factor in flexibility
of certain inputs
into our designs.

Maybe we allow chefs to
swap spinach for the lettuce
in the salads
(and offer two sets of menus,
one for the lettuce-based salad
and
one for the spinach-based salad).

Build some flexibility
into your products
because shortages WILL continue.
That is a certainty.

Don’t Use Violence Against Women As Shock Value

The latest (horrifying) trend
in warning about possible societal collapse
is telling people
there will be physical and sexual
violence
against the women
in their lives
if it happens.

I block every climate activist
or scientist
who uses this ‘example.’

Why?

Because I assume
that’s their secret fantasy.

Unfortunately,
it IS too many men’s
secret fantasy.

I put that person
in the group of people
who are threats.
They become
one of the people
who might hurt me
if they get
an opportunity
to do so.

I don’t support them.
I don’t want to be
in the same room
as they are in.
I warn other women
away from them.

Even if they aren’t
fantasizing
about sexual violence
against women,
they are certainly
NOT listening to
any of the women
in their lives.

Any woman
would have told them
expressing these thoughts
out loud
was a BAD idea.

Worst case,
they will someday
engage in violence
against women.

Best case,
they don’t listen
to women.

Either case
means I stay far away
from them.

Don’t use violence against women
for shock value.

Climate Change And Business Building

COP27 has ended
and the best case scenario
for the planet’s climate
has quietly shifted
from 1.5C of warming
to about 2.4C.

This has an impact
on those of us
who are building businesses.

Coral reefs were dead
at 1.5C, for example.
2.4C means they will be dead
sooner.
As in, within the decade,
sooner.

If your business is located
close to reefs,
losing those reefs will impact
your foot traffic.

You might wish
to find alternative sources
of prospective customers.

Glaciers will also shrink
and/or disappear.
As will the polar ice caps.

There will be more natural disasters,
more drought,
more water and food shortages,
and all this will happen sooner.

Insurance coverage
for our businesses
will become more and more key.

As will ensuring
we have supplies.
If we can buy supplies
in advance,
we should likely
factor the cost of doing that
into our start up expenses.

Climate change WILL
change the way we do business.
We should plan for that.

The Gut Check

Someone
posted on social media
last week
that climate change
was a hoax.

I had just returned
to the house
after tending to my tomato plants
in the back yard.

Normally, in the middle of November,
my back yard would be covered in snow.
My frost-fragile tomato plants
would be long dead.

My tomato plants,
last week,
were flowering.
They were happily producing
new fruit.

I didn’t waste time
investigating
the climate change denier’s claim.
My gut told me
it was wrong.

But that gut feeling,
that knowing
was based on observation,
on listening and seeing
everything around me.

If I had been stuck
in a house with no windows,
my gut feeling
would have been less reliable.

Yes, listen to your gut
but ensure your gut
has information to work with.

Feed it relevant observations.

Be Of Service

I think there’s nothing
more confirming
of the sh*tstorm we are in
than
scientists switching from
trying to stop climate change
to
trying to make these
‘last years’
comfortable for
the inhabitants of the world.

Being of service,
as many scientists are saying,
is a good motto
for all of us,
especially for business builders.

Our products or services
should add value
to the world.
They should make lives easier
or happier
or better in some way.
They should serve
their target markets.

Yes, make a profit
(if that is your goal)
but also
be of service.

System Breakdowns Aren’t Linear

I’ve witnessed
many system breakdowns
of various kinds.
I’ve studied
thousands more system breakdowns.

I’ve never encountered
one that was linear.

Linear system breakdowns
are only seen on models.

It is d@mn difficult
to model
cascading system breakdowns.
It is nearly impossible,
at this point of time,
to show how a failure
in one part
of the system
will cause multiple failures
in other parts
of the system
and how these failures
will compound
until the entire system
collapses.

Most models don’t have
the complexity
to reflect that reality.

So we model linear
which is easy to do
and easy for people
to understand.

But that’s not reality.
Collapse will be faster,
more complex,
impacting more of
the system.

Remember that
when we see modeling
for pandemics,
climate change,
economics.

Linear models
are best case scenarios
and they aren’t reality.

System breakdowns
cascade.

Take Action Today

I haven’t posted
one of these reminders
in a while
but it is needed more
today
than on any other day
in the past.

Take action NOW.
Stop reading this post
and
go.
Do something immediately
to make
your dreams,
your goals
more of a reality.

I’m serious.
Do it right now.

It doesn’t have
to be a big action.

It could be
writing down the first line
of the novel
you’ve been wanting to write
or
choosing the cap color
on the new beverage
you want to develop.

Take SOME sort of action.

The world is completely
f*cked up
and it will become
more and more
f*cked up
with each passing day.

We don’t have time
to f*ck around.

Live a life
with no regrets.

Take action today.

Push your dreams
closer to reality.

Missing Snow Crabs And Being Current In Your Industry

It was announced
that billions of snow crabs
have gone ‘missing’
causing the ‘harvest’
to be canceled
for the first time ever.

Coverage seems
to imply the disappearance
is a great mystery.

It isn’t a mystery
and it wasn’t a surprise.

The Canadian government
released a report
years ago
talking about how
snow crabs
(and eventually lobsters)
won’t be a viable industry
as the oceans warm
and become more acidic.

They suggested
businesses in the industry
look for alternative sources
of income.

Anyone who remained current
in the snow crab industry
(which includes restaurants serving
snow crabs,
the tiny tourist places
that sell
snow crab-themed products,
etc.)
knew this day was coming.
They would have prepared
for it.

Ensure you or someone on your team
reads the reports
involving your industry.

That information
could save your business.

COVID And Climate Change And Building A Business

I will be talking
quite a bit about the impacts
of COVID and climate change
on this blog
because
…well…
these events will eventually
impact every aspect
of the businesses
we’re building.

And not many people
are talking about
either of these events
because it upsets
the people
who don’t believe in them.

These events
don’t care
about our beliefs.
They will happen
whether we believe in them
or not.

If we want our businesses
to be successful,
if we want to survive
these events,
we should prepare
for them.

Like allowing for extra shipping times
during this upcoming holiday season.

Order products
before you desperately need them.

Send products
to customers as quickly as possible.

Urge in your marketing materials
for customers to order
your products
as soon as possible
(November instead of December).

Work on making the turnaround time
between orders and shipping
shorter.

Climate change and COVID
will impact our businesses.
Plan for that.