More Adapting in 2022

The last two years were just strange. Life moved on, but the constant white noise hits home every time you have to put the mask on. It’s pretty incredible how we have adapted. At first, Trump appeared to be a nightmare that we would never wake up from (although we seem to still be in the aftershocks). Then a global pandemic showed up at our doors. It felt so apocalyptic. But the interesting thing is, humans are pretty adaptable because the alternative is worse.

With that in mind, think of all the things we could adapt to in order to save our planet. There will be short-term pain, and the cost could be high, but the benefit will outweigh the road to getting there in the long term. If all the technology and products were there for us just to decide, it would have to be from the President and the United Nations because there are too many muppet heads out who don’t see reality.

The list is endless. Through these past two years, so much has come to light that needs to change. Let’s start with the easiest. Nobody can drive a gas car anymore. There are simply no more gas stations. We will need to rethink the lithium in batteries, but I am sure somebody is on that. All of our homes would be fueled with either solar or nuclear energy. Plastic bags are no longer made, even my favorite zip-locks. Industrial farming ceases to exist. We eat less food, and it comes from local farms. Livestock is produced in smaller, more humane ways. We spent billions on transportation, especially in urban cities. Pesticides and weed killers would be made from natural products. Bottled water is banned. Fashion is continuously recycled, and we all start consuming less because there will be less to consume. Fast fashion is over. Ecommerce must be shipped in biodegradable boxes. Let’s just start here even though are so many more things we could do.

If this actually happened, and we had no choice, there is no doubt that we would adapt. The bigger problem is that it would kill our economy in the short term. Years ago, remember when Sears brought on a new CEO named Eddie Lampert? He happened to own the majority of shares in the business. It is clear that he killed Sears. What is also clear is that although he didn’t seem to know how to run a retail operation or have any vision for where Sears could go and forgot to mention to his shareholders that his ideas would plummet the sales and leave the business with less capital to move the business into the next century, he did try to do something new. That is more than most department stores appear to be doing these days. Maybe it would have worked but he wasn’t given more time. The pain was too great for the shareholders.

I call these problems “the golden handcuff.” Everything works, and it works, and everyone is making money, so why change? It is evident from the constant weather disasters that we need to try and follow many of the things on the list above, although once again, keep in mind; short-term disaster = long-term gains.

Something to think about as we enter the ongoing masked pandemic in 2022. Happy New Year!