Do you personally contribute to a potential “Catastrophic Structural Failure” of a system that currently sustains humanity on this planet? Have you ever wondered about the consequences of your existence?
Yes the simple fact that you and I and eight billion of us who live on this “rock” (planet) has consequences should surprise no one. To live we consume “stuff” like fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat, and grains, as well as beverages such as coffee, tea, and soft drinks. In addition, toiletries, and personal care items such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and cosmetics. And cleaning products, paper goods like toilet paper and paper towels, and pet supplies. And then there is stuff such as clothing, electronics, and home appliances. The consumption of these goods is a fundamental part of daily life, contributing to the overall economy, standard of living and wealth creation.
For you and me to consume most things, the process must begin with natural resources (most often non-renewable natural resources). And it must go through at least ten steps: 1: Extraction and Preparation of Raw Materials. 2: Chemical Synthesis and Transformation. 3: Separation and Purification. 4: Formulation and Compounding. 5: Manufacturing and Shaping. 6: Finishing. 7: Quality Control and Testing. 8: Packaging and Distribution. 9: Retailing. 10: Consumption! 11. Waste management. It is wise to inquire: Is it possible for any part of a production and consumption procedure to be carried out without exothermic reactions, which involve a process or reaction that emits energy, usually in the form of heat to its environment?
Ask yourself, what happened to get this stuff to you and me? You see, although not all manufacturing of consumer goods starts with combustion, but many processes in manufacturing involve it, especially when heat is required. This is a process, the byproduct of which is carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, etc. Processes that are common in many natural and industrial settings.
Let us take one of these as a case in point: Methane (CH₄), a primary component of natural gas, reacts with two molecules of oxygen (O₂), producing one molecule of carbon dioxide (CO₂), two molecules of water (H₂O), and releasing energy in the process. This reaction is exothermic, meaning it releases heat, making it a crucial source of energy for various applications, including transportation, heating homes, cooking, and generating electricity. Paradoxically, the more we consume natural gas, the more demand there is for its production, leading to more methane being extracted. In System Dynamics language, this is an example of a feedback loop. In System Dynamics, feedback loops are like circular cause-and-effect chains where things influence each other in a continuous cycle. Think of it as a loop of actions and reactions that keeps going around and around affecting how a system behaves over time.
The total impact of human consumption of consumer products on our planet depends on the entire lifecycle, including raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal. Unfortunately for humanity (think you and me) this is also a significant contributor to heating our planet called the greenhouse effect due to these gas emissions, playing a critical role in promoting the potential of multiple global catastrophic system failures, the greatest existential threat facing humanity.
Which then raises the big “elephant in the room” question: when scarcity becomes a global reality, and the epoch of abundance becomes a faint silhouette in our rearview mirrors, and inflation runs amok beyond the controls of the "wise" policymakers, and catastrophic structural failures proliferate in "cascades" and empathy morphs into apathy, will altruism prevail among humans?
Think about it!