Day 6

There's a free magazine that comes out every Tuesday in my area called The Folio Weekly. It's a fun read—I love their movie reviews, and they often report on local news of interest, such as environmental goings on in North Florida.

They've also got a backpage editorial, and anyone can write one and submit it for consideration:

These are unpaid submissions that should be between 1,200-1,400 words in length. They can be on any subject, but topics of local interest and/or concern are given preference.

Anyway this is my attempt to get ideas down, a practice of sorts. No idea what I should write about when submitting, but this'll do for now.

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Solving for Pattern

Watching the news these days is a bit like watching a scene in an apocalypse movie. The main character changes the channels, each time coming to a news anchor detailing some aspect of the catastrophe(s). "In the ongoing food crisis, riots have spread to Egypt and Haiti," intones one woman. "Oil prices reached another record high today," drones an economics analyst. Another click on the remote and there's someone talking about global warming. "Scientists fear that the ice cap is melting faster than predicted..."

At first the characters dismiss the events as coincidences. They fail to see the larger picture, to see that all the events are connected and that the world as they know it is coming to an end. Then slowly it dawns on them, but it’s too late to change anything; all they can do is hope to survive the coming storm.

Of course, the analogy does fall short. We’re not facing an army of zombies, for instance. That’s a fairly simple adversary to comprehend, at least once you get past the fact that they’re the living undead and here to eat your brains. Just remember to aim for the head, and for god’s sake, whatever you do, don’t get bitten.

But this, this is different. We’re not facing a future with one "enemy," but many. And while some people are still at the oblivious, TV watching stage (whether by choice or through ignorance), the rest of us, if we're not completely insane, are probably starting to get a bit worried. We can't bomb the hell out of global warming, and while invading a country to get to their oil reserves might work in the sort term, it certainly won't work for long. (And no, that isn't a veiled reference to Iraq. If peak oil comes to pass, as many predict, they'll probably be many wars waged for scarce resources.)

So what is there to do? Many people across the world are working on solutions; campaigning for legislation curtailing carbon dioxide emissions, educating others about speculation and its role in rising food and oil prices, speaking about the changes global warming could, and most likely will, bring to our planet.

But the challenges facing us require a response far beyond anything humanity has ever orchestrated. I personally think they will require a whole new way of thinking about problems and their solution, and I think one contender is the concept of "solving for pattern."

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Okay, time to get some sleep for a change. To be continued tomorrow. [Edit: Continued Sunday.]

Oh, and did I mention this is an editorial? I know some people will disagree with my assessment of the situation, but please, no flames. ;}