Our Challenge: Cave-lite

*Reader Beware: Having just returned from a technology conference, I’ve developed a rare flu called Acronymitis–inflammation of the acronym–so please bear with me.

The oceans are beginning to intrude into places that we once considered safe, like San Francisco. Some suggested solutions are:

• *MLR (Maginot Line Redone), a fortification against the intruding ocean. This reinvigoration of a wildly ineffective World War II strategy is currently deployed in London and other places.
• *NCB (North Carolina Boogie), dredging sand, moving it to the beach, and then gluing the beach back together every so often.
• *CHL (Chicken-little Has Legs), preparing for the ocean’s intrusion by relocating infrastructure, homes, and businesses someplace else.

None of these solutions are okay. Why, because sea level rise isn’t the issue.

Have some irony: All the rational steps are ugly. The irrational steps are attractive and full of hope; care to guess which options currently hold sway in the halls of power? Right–let’s ignore the whole problem–just kidding.

Policy makers began the risk analysis on the climate decades ago, so how come there are no good solutions? Because tenet-one of risk analysis has been violated: Risk analysis must be respected. The progeny of this disrespect is our *MES (Marginally Encouraging Solutions) for the climate. A drumbeat with no oars in the water, our current policy says we can affect climate through technology because we have the time to fix things–no matter what the climate might throw at us–you’ve got to be kidding. It says we can change our energy mix and steer our nation away from devastation–that only happens in trailer parks or economically deprived areas–no kidding? It says we can increase our resiliency as a society by changing light bulbs and driving hybrids–I wish I were kidding. Our *MES says we have all the tools we need to succeed. We just engage the tools–who’s kidding whom?

Everyone knows the planet has a set of hits for us. Are we going to spend billions engineering *UP (Useless Projects), or worse give away parts of a city? Miami has the same sea rise problem, New York, Cape Cod, and other places around the world. Densely populated coastal venues will all confront this slow moving crisis of epic proportions that will get worse–apocalyptically worse–so long as we believe in the legend of *TAKE (Technology Always Knows Enough).

I love it. Don’t you?

Mom, is that apple pie in the oven?

We don’t have three decades to move technology from the *R&D (We Hope) lab to effective deployment. Our policies either leave out, or minimize, *TICTOC (Time). Our national climate strategy says the way to defuse the climate bomb is to ignore the timer.

Of all the myths confronting us, ignoring *TICTOC may be our most destructive myth. It leads citizens and bureaucrats to underestimate our vulnerability. This is why our present response to *AFRB (Anthropogenic Forcing of the Radiative Balance) lacks *GUTS (Grit, Understanding, Tolerance, and Sacrifice). So…The real issue facing our coastal cities is our *FAD (Fantasy Assuring Defense). Somehow, we will geo-engineer the changing environment rather than implement systemic economic adjustments that integrate our environmental limitations.

Don’t get me wrong, San Francisco faces problems that are enormous and they must be addressed, (we’ll ignore tectonics for now). Insofar as the ocean’s rise, San Francisco is like New Orleans in the 1990s. But, somewhere in the back of our brain we say no thanks to silica & crazy-glue mash-ups because they are not solutions, they are condoms at a hospice–at best–a nice thought, but of no real use. *SST (Short Sighted Tactics) dissipate valuable resources and undercut the effective use of other resources by propagating the golden oldie of stockholder fables that says an *SST will *FLI (Fix Long-term Issues).

Does this mean we cannot rely on *DUH (Dazzling Utilitarian Heroism), better known as technology? On the contrary, *DUH represents a key for coping with the changing climate, and specifically sea level rise. Importantly, and unfortunately, the critical path to get us to the promised *DUH includes dreadful dead ends and unpitying deal killers that we must identify and respond to—before *DUH becomes a *BM (Bitter Memory).

Here is why: When damage occurs on a large scale, it encumbers our ability to adapt. Repeated damage on a widening landscape can completely eliminate our efficient adaptation. If the repeated damage then cripples our infrastructure, or our energy structure, we may then be unable to repair damage before the next hit to that system. The problem cascades and our society will destabilize. That chain of events makes adaptation a memory. Then, we go into triage mode and lose our ability to be resilient. From that point forward, we are at the mercy of the environment and we enter Cave-lite. We have lost our capacity to develop and implement proactive intellect-based solutions because our capabilities become subservient to short term survival. With Cave-lite, we struggle just to endure the day.

Sounds gruesome, right? Actually, this awareness is an *HSF (Huge Step Forward). In fact, it is the core concept of a workable climate plan where technology is an *EIP (Environmentally Integrated Process). To focus, enhance, and retain our intellectual property and its equipment, we must–at all costs–avoid Cave-lite. To do this:

• We make sure that our infrastructure does not transform from an asset to liability.
• We ensure that we have available energy to facilitate adjustment.
• We retain an adequate supply of food.
• We foster a civil society.
• We guarantee the defense of our society.
• We buckle in for a hell of a ride.

Technology has its place and time; however, Cave-lite is the most likely result of our current *MES policies. We need some *TRUTH (Truth) because the enemy is ignorance. *TRUTH contains what we are working to preserve, as a nation. We can fix our climate problem, just so long as we all understand that without *TRUTH, *MES plus *DUH equals *CHAOS (Collective Horror And Obliterated Societies). *TRUTH ensures all the sectors of our society work together. *WNT (We Need Them) all.

Darn flu…