The fear of failure is a paralyzing experience. Usually fostered back in high school among honors students, perfectionism drives people to pull all-nighters and obsess over minute details. It ends up hindering and slowing performance, especially when you're worried about creating a masterpiece full of artfully crafted sentences and $100 words for a measly one page reaction paper to an anthropology reading.
While some people accept mediocrity and move on with more important matters, others struggle to piece together exactly what they want to say in a highly controlled, articulated manner. It's difficult, as a perfectionist, to figure out exactly what you need to stress over versus what deserves your time, effort and dedication.
The main problem is that it's too easy to lose the big picture perspective when you're white-knuckling a magnifying glass. What's more important: wasting hours over minutia or solving bigger problems?
It's time to stop using the magnifying glass on the climate change science situation. Yes, it is important for the science we're relying upon for decision-making to be accurate and accredited. But that shouldn't be our priority.
A Wall Street Journal article this past weekend reported that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was appointing an independent committee to "investigate whether it needs to change its procedures to ensure it practices rigorous science." There has been longstanding difficulty within the IPCC between the complicated matters of climate change science and policy makers' need for definite conclusions on climate change science to base legislation.
The reason the IPCC has to focus on legitimizing their scientific evidence is because there is still debate occurring over whether climate change is happening or not. Why are we so obsessed over the numbers?
The important issue is human health and welfare, not the small details. Living with pollution in the atmosphere, waterways and seeping into the food we consume is not healthy for anyone. Most of the improvements that can be made in terms of personal consumption wouldn't just be for the benefit of our atmosphere or be in the name of reducing greenhouse gasses.
Making buildings more energy-efficient, implementing sustainable farming practices and investing in alternative energy sources would not only save money in the long run, but also improve our quality of life.
Waiting for the ideal piece of climate legislation to come along isn't solving anything. Any sort of stricter emissions regulation, whether for cars or industries, would help in the long run. It may not be perfect, but at least an effort and initiative would be made in the right direction. By combining small actions, we can move in the right direction in favor of making decisions in favor of the environment a more popular and common choice.
Even though it wasn't done in the name of saving the environment, GM announced they were ending their Hummer line after a deal with a Chinese equipment manufacturer fell through. After trying to sell Hummer for over a year because of the intense losses they were experiencing, GM finally threw in the towel.
Hummers, some of the most ridiculous, inefficient vehicles on the planet, can no longer survive in today's economy. They have become a small, failed detail in the bigger workings of the cause for climate health. If Toyota's Prius could be deemed the "perfectionist" car, then Hummer would be the polar opposite of that. Any effort to clean up the environment will add up to a better Earth for everyone. It's only a matter of time before other imperfect facets of our society begin falling apart to be replaced with stronger, more beneficial parts.
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