I know, the title is an oxymoron. Sadly, we need to be reminded of those lessons delivered in the annals of history. As we contemplate record heat and drought - St. Louis setting records for days over 90 and 100 degrees, corn crops drying-out in the sun, landslides on glaciers so large that they register as earthquakes - here's a lesson from the Mayans regarding water supplies and drought: Most agree that a period of drought is what eventually broke the empire. Food and water.
Irony? 2012, and the message we're getting from the Mayans is 'beware the climate.'
More irony? That we have to stretch to remember the simple technology - so advanced for that culture - and yet not so complex, it can't be maintained. Sustained.
(Unfortunately, not all sustainability methods are truly sustainable, but that's not an excuse to avoid taking any action. The first step in emergency management is mitigation, and conservation fills that.)
Many are starting to recognize that this is what climate change looks like. We can surely adapt, but with such wild swings that it adds complexity.
And that's the rub. Solutions to all of our major problems - fossil fuel depletion, climate change and the economy - require great complexity and cost to maintain. So we'll likely solve none of them until we shift the paradigm to a new way of living - one in accord with nature. One that fits into the natural cycles of life, whatever they may be.
Because someone always asks - what do we do? Start building something better.
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