Month: August 2023

On November 12, 1982, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, had an internal report with Exxon’s leadership team on the climate crisis. They knew then the dangers of Co2 “Greenhouses” had a negative effect on the environment. In that report, you can read:

“The most wildly accepted calculations carried on thus far on the potential impact on climate of doubling the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere general circulation models (GCM). These models indicate that an increase in the global average temperature of 3 degrees + or – 1.5 degrees Celsius is most likely.” — Exxon Research and Engineering Company Internal Report, Page 13

It goes on and on about the effects of deforestation and how sinks for carbon must be found, the polar caps would see temperature increases, uneven global distribution of rainfall which would lead to a water crisis, impact on soil and the agriculture industries, sea levels rising. They predicted everything we are seeing the effects of now 50 years later. 

It’s important to note that it is estimated that 70% of carbon emissions come from 100 corporations. And yet, it is left to be your responsibility to change things around here. This is not to say, that people particularly those in the US don’t have any responsibility. Much like the relationship between eating and exercise, if you do one you are likely to do the other. If we are carbon conscience, then we are likely to take responsibility to make systematic changes which is ultimately what is needed to fight climate change. 

Why do cults appeal to people? Or how does one commit atrocities for a cause?

There are lots of reasons but the one I have been thinking about is that it provides a framework to wash away someone’s “sins”. It helps us feel clean and pure again for the mistakes someone has made–deliverance. The trade-off is that you now owe a debt. And in extreme examples, that means their lives.

Part of the reason it is so hard to leave is that you must go back to the original problem. Which is people do not want to face what they have done.

I have been fascinated with thinking about debt and the morality behind it. It is something I am going to be exploring more.

You cannot change someone’s mind with facts when they have come to a conclusion with emotions.

We seek to validate and reinforce ideas not to change them.

We operate from a place of fear as our default setting.

Humans have three types of brains–the lizard, the mammal, and the human. Without energy, we cannot access higher levels of thinking.

Banker: “I’m just a very…disappointing man…They keep asking me, “What do you want from this workshop? “What do you want?” I’m not telling them what I want. I want to move back home. I want to hug my wife. Protect my children, protect my daughter. I want to move on. I want to apologize—to everyone. I want to go to the theatre. I want to take clean cups out of the dishwasher, put them in the cupboard at home and the next morning, I want to watch my wife drink from them. And I want to make her feel good. I want to make her оrgasm again. And again. Truly.”

Fleabag: “I just want to cry. All the time.”

— Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag (Season 1, Episode 4)

No one just wakes up at rock bottom. You get there incrementally. It isn’t until later on we realize that we’re in over our heads. Ernest Hemingway wrote, “How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

The good news is the hole you are in is not too deep to climb out of. Every problem has a solution otherwise it would be a situation.

You are not in a situation with no choice, just no easy choices left to make.

We estimate that there are 2 trillion galaxies.

If we were to say that each of these galaxies is the size of the Milky Way (obviously many are much smaller and others much larger)–there are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way alone.

It would take light 100,000 years to cross the Milky Way alone.

We think there is more past what we can see too. Much more in fact. Perhaps, infinite.

We can even begin to comprehend the size and scope of what is out there. Which is why humans focus so much on the small. It is what we think we can control.

It means we don’t want to mess with how things are because we are worried we would make things worse. Humans inherently hold on tight to what we do have. And the longer dissatisfaction goes, the tighter the grip. This is why it is even harder to change when we are older–we have fought so hard for the little we got.

In 2003, American singer and actress, Barbra Streisand, had got into it with the California Coastal Records Project of photographing her Malibu mansion. And while doing so, she inadvertently made the case go viral which caused more attention to the property. Which was what she didn’t want in the first place.

This later became known as the Streisand Effect. It tells us that people are curious. And when information is being held from them, now they have to know and become more motivated to get it out.

You can find examples of this all through time including in The Bible. Human beings have a difficult time not reaching for the marshmallows and not peaking behind the curtain. Being told no instinctually we then need to know why.

It isn’t ever enough of a reason to be told No. We need a story behind it. Plus our imagination gets out of hand quickly. When we are left to use our imagination, we ask, “What could she be hiding then?”

It is “the state of being forced to question one’s worldview.”

Many of our lives have become so insulated that we are not forced to challenge our preconceived notions. In fact, I would argue that we have built a culture that if someone changes their mind we will tend to find fault in that person for doing that. “How could you be this stupid?”

We are good at reinforcing beliefs not changing them.

Culturally, we have been brainwashed to believe that what we were taught must also be right. It takes tremendous bravery for anyone then to question why things are done around here.

If you are not forced to face the world as it really is, then you live a life of privilege. When you can simply opt-out, the rules need not apply. Which makes it so much harder to confront the truths we hide from.

It’s a code of conduct that originated in Danish fiction. It was first written by Aksel Sandemose in his book A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks. Here are the ten rules:

1. You’re not to think you are anything special.
2. You’re not to think you are as good as we are.
3. You’re not to think you are smarter than we are.
4. You’re not to imagine yourself better than we are.
5. You’re not to think you know more than we do.
6. You’re not to think you are more important than we are.
7. You’re not to think you are good at anything.
8. You’re not to laugh at us.
9. You’re not to think anyone cares about you.
10. You’re not to think you can teach us anything.

Again, originally intended as satire and criticism of society it has, however, somewhere along the line it shifted to shame anyone who dares to challenge the status quo. For anyone who is standing out, Jaunte Law is entrenched in the culture to remind ruckus makers to fit in.

It’s a good reminder that we do all sorts of things in our behavior without even realizing why we do them. Why does someone go out of their way to squash someone else’s dreams? Because someone once squashed theirs. We all crave innovation. Pick up any business magazine and you can find an article about how to innovate. And yet, we scoff when anyone comes up with an idea that just feels different from what we are used to.

Laws only work when we agree upon them and are enforced by the state. What we must understand is that what is written is not the same as fighting the laws of gravity.

It’s a lesson to remind people that we once thought that black swans didn’t exist until one day we found them. People assumed just because they couldn’t see it, it must not be real.

Germs fall into that category and it costs many lives.

What do we need to see to believe?