By Marco C. Janssen, UTInnovation, the Netherlands
Despite the recognition by many leading individuals of the need to act, we keep ignoring the message the planet is sending and very little is happening.
So, a large group of international scientists have confirmed what anyone can see when they look out the window…
The situation on this planet is getting out of hand and we could be facing an increase in global temperatures of up to 5 degrees Centigrade. This to me was no news, one just has to open their eyes and the effect we as humanity are having on this planet can be seen everywhere.
What seriously concerns me is that there are still large groups of people that like to deny climate change and the impact we humans have.
At the same time, despite the recognition by many leading individuals of the need to act, very little is happening. It keeps coming back to the same issue… Economic growth, consumption, power and money are more important than our long-term future. However, this kind of thinking has one consequence.
No matter what you believe or where you live, we all will have to face the consequences of doing nothing.
So, isn’t it smarter to act instead of waiting and see?
The reality is that deep down, most (if not all) of us know that something needs to be done, yet for years we have been going around in circles, coming up with excuses why we do not have to act. If we would use the time and energy that go into creating obstructions and barriers into finding solutions, we could be a lot further ahead in solving the problems at hand.
At the same time, I think, we have to start asking a more profound question. How many humans can our planet sustain? What is the limit in capacity this planet has and how and when are we going to be willing to answer this and act upon it?
The world has been in the grip of a pandemic for almost two years now and I support the concept that we needed to act and try to control the spread of the virus to protect humanity. Yet as I have stated before, at what cost?
We have seen pandemics before in the history of mankind and yet we have managed to grow the population to close to eight billion despite these pandemics. When the world went into lockdown, travel was restricted, and economies slowed down we saw a glimpse of the effect we have on our environment when skies cleared in heavily polluted areas.
Yet, we ignored the message the planet sent us and in a very short time have gone back to where we were before the pandemic.
I think, that with the scientific evidence that is being presented to us, and based on our own experiences during the lockdown it is really time for all of us, including our political, and industrial leaders around the world to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what we would like to leave behind for our children and our children’s children?
Let us remember that the last shirt we wear has no pockets and that whatever earthly wealth and power we gather; we cannot take with us.
We do however leave something behind when we depart from this life and I hope that we can find ways to leave behind something better than what we have created so far.
Biography:
Marco C. Janssen is the CEO of UTInnovation LLC and the former Director of the Smart Grid PMO at the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. He received his BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic in Arnhem, Netherlands and has worked for over 27 years in the field of Smart Grid, Protection, Control, Monitoring, Advanced Metering Infrastructures, Distribution and Substation Automation. He was a member of IEC TC57 WG 10, 17, 18, 19, the IEEE PES PSRC and CIGRE B5 and D2 WGs. He was the convenor of D2.35 and editor of the Quality Assurance Program for the Testing Subcommittee of the UCA International Users Group. He holds one patent, has authored more than 58 papers, is co-author of four Cigre Technical Brochures and two books on Smart Grids and Electrical Power Substations Engineering and is the author of the “I Think” column in the PAC World magazine.
