By Bill Caswell
Special to Ontario Construction News
In 1998 while I was giving a public lecture explaining the Corporate Life Cycle, it was noted that the symptoms describing the Nobility stage fit a participant’s company, Nortel. She asked: “Are you saying that Nortel is just three steps away from collapse?” I replied: “Yes, unless the company changes its behavior.” It did not – and we all know the result.
I have spent a number of years studying the Chaos cycle and it says we may all be dead in 50 years unless the public changes its attitude. Well, that’s nothing new, life on this planet Earth has been wiped clean on four different occasions in the past, the most recent one being 90 million years ago, evidenced by the huge amount of dinosaur bones we keep recovering.
What is different this time is that we human creatures will be the authors of our own demise. You, as a business leader must be aware and take steps to encourage your staff members to cease contributing to the problem.
Even in my own household, people appear indifferent to their contribution to the looming disaster. They leave the lights on in rooms where they are no longer present which adds CO2 to the upper atmosphere. Do you turn off the lights when you leave a room? Don’t think that we are safe because our jurisdiction (Ontario) no longer burns coal to make electricity. Not only do we burn gas, we are part of a large power grid and 60 per cent of that grid is driven by power that is fired by gas, oil, and coal – yes coal, lots of coal. We call on power from the grid when Ontario’s 15,000 MW is extended.
What can little old me do? Let’s choose a simple item. Turn off the lights when you’re not using them. Stop using your glorious outdoor Christmas lights that suck power that could be fired by gas, oil, and coal – yes, I repeat, lots of coal.
As a manageable extra, stop pushing the large button to open the door in your favorite shopping mall if you don’t need to. Besides, the exercise of opening the door yourself and flicking light switches is good for you. Since you spend money every month to go to a gym to exercise, this fear of this little bit of exercise to turn off lights and to open doors is a mystery to this casual observer.
The Paris Climate Accord to save the world in 50 years is not working. As things stand, current national emission reductions commitments means that the planet temperature is on a course to rise by 2.70C by the end of the century, an outcome that UN experts said would be “catastrophic” should it come to pass.
Seven billion people taking care to NOT use unnecessary power can stave off billions of tons of CO2.
As most business leaders are aware, the daily news reports glorify the large corporations. Yet, more than 90 per cent of the economy and 90 per cent of employment comes from the little guys, the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) in North America. Likewise, the little guy turning off unneeded lights will have an enormous effect. We don’t have to wait for well-meaning politicians, gigantic corporations, and airlines to do their parts.
Students of Chaos Theory know that any cycle consists of four stages: Calmness, Steady Growth, Rapid Growth and Chaos. Applying it to the global warming picture, gives a scenario that would appear somewhat as follows:
Already the tiny world temperature growth, of less than 20C is wreaking havoc around the world: unprecedented hurricanes, snowstorms, forest fires, tsunamis, and so on. Do we dare imagine how things will be only 10 years from now?
The tundra in Northern Russia and Northern Canada (representing the two largest land masses in the world) is melting. Already it is releasing billions of tons of methane gas into the warming blanket of our upper atmosphere. Even worse, the tundra’s frozen CO2 is melting and escaping into the atmosphere in far greater amounts than first imagined. Perhaps I am being optimistic when I state 2050 as our Armageddon date.
Just to summarize, the American electrical power grid is driven 19 per cent by coal. Gas and oil represent 41 per cent. All renewable sources (wind, hydro, solar, etc.) provide 20 per cent. Nuclear, which has zero carbon output, provides the final 20 per cent of American electricity – but somehow, despite its high safety record and absence of CO2 emissions, nuclear power terrifies the public.
To conclude: shut off the lights in rooms that you leave, even if you think you’re going to return in a moment! Encourage your employees to do likewise.
Bill Caswell leads the Caswell Corporate Coaching Company (CCCC) in Ottawa, www.caswellccc.com or email bill@caswellccc.com.