A3 thoughts Blog

If they regulate it we will toe the line. If they don’t where will the line be?

I posted this link to Bill McKibben’s recent piece in Rolling Stone Magazine on our Associates III Facebook page a week or so ago. It’s a compelling read; and I truly hope everyone will read it, listen and discuss it, respond to it. I’m not saying I agree with every single word but enough of McKibben’s message strikes home for me to cause action. Why?

Climate change is a serious subject and the sobering stats speak for themselves.  But do we pay attention to them? If you read McKibben here, sadly too few of us do. Are we relying too heavily on those “in charge” to pave the way for us?  If they regulate it we will toe the line, so to speak. How sad and completely ignorant are we; that unless a law or code requires us to comply we choose NOT to use our own mind, common sense and compassion to do the right thing. And protecting mother earth from ourselves is the right thing.

Those of us in the design-build industry can relate to this notion, I am sure; the many building codes in place we’re asked to adhere to are really so that the minimums in health and safety are met. Many of us seek to go above and beyond them, realizing there is so much more to gain by adhering to some higher standards, whether written or of the heart. Can we apply that same logic to climate change?

We respond to other horrific incidents in life such as the shocking shooting in the Aurora movie theatre with rage and grief. I am not down playing that awful experience one bit, only questioning if we should consider notching the survival of our planet higher up on the list too. Losing your loved ones is beyond doubt one of the hardest, if not the worst, experience we can go through in life. Losing our planet? Where will that factor into our personal experience too?

— Debbie Hindman