Opinion: The Parable Of The Frog In Boiling Water

WALTHAM, MA — The following opinion piece was submitted by Waltham resident Bob Ferrone.

Our amazing ability to be adaptable to change could be our waterloo. We can live in many different climates, the North Pole, in the equator, in the desert, in the jungle and even in outer space. But sometimes our adaptability can be very costly, our diets, smoking with all of its health issues, limited to no exercise, excessive time looking at our phones, and so on. While some events are characterize by sudden catastrophic events I.e. hurricanes, wildfires, floods, lack of rain in one area and an over abnormal amount in another, very high temperatures most of the events take place gradually over time, decade over decade. The slow but steady pace help us adapt to the changes. This slow pace helps us to adjust our political, economic, and our social systems to respond to the changes. Think about how many houses had air conditioning in the early 70s to today, how the rising tides have effected the shoreline, the impact on cities budgets and the effect on our taxes. We are as well in countering a growing increase on health impacts and higher cost to cover medical help.

The pace of these changes on the climate come with a downside. We adapt and normalize the change even though geological change is rapidly occurring. The metaphor of the frog in boiling water has long been used in describing the risk of change. ( if the Frog is placed in boiling water it will immediately jump out. If, however the frog is placed into a cool pot that is slowly heating the slow gradually climbing temperature will fool the frog into thinking that the conditions are not changing and it will eventually cook the frog. The science tells us this story is not true in the case of the frog but for humans the science is not clear.

President Carter signed the Energy Security Act of 1980, which directed the National Academy of Sciences to start a multiyear, comprehensive study, to be detailed in a report called Changing Climate, that would analyze the social and economic consequences of climate change. We now are some 40 years from the start of this project and we still are in the pot debating the issue.

There are many that think that they would be immune to global crises like climate change. The corona virus has changed that in a way that no one would have predicted. The impact of the corona virus has changed the minds of many in the government, in business large or small and every other organization in the world. When the virus hit in China it quickly spread globally with no ability to stop the spread. Global challenges require systemic changes - changes that can only be driven by government and the business communities. But they also require individual behavioral changes. We need both. We have seen over the past few months that governments can take radical action and we can change our behavior quite quickly. The corona virus may be the inflection point to show the path to how we all can work together to improve the environment we all live in. The virus has demonstrated how we can work together to solve critical problems without borders. We need to now take the same model and apply it to climate change.

Cities play a major role in carbon reduction

Cities are home to half the world’s population and produce around 75% of the world’s GDP and greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, between 65% and 75% of the world’s population is projected to be living in cities, with more than 40 million people moving to cities each year. That’s around 3.5 billion people now, rising to 6.5 billion by 2050. There are multiple opportunities to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in cities.

Recent literature illustrates the economic and social challenges facing cities around the world as a result of climate change including energy shortages, damaged infrastructure, increasing losses to industry, heat-related mortality and illness, and scarcity of food and water. These challenges are interrelated. These economic losses will make it difficult for residents to maintain their livelihoods and can therefore exacerbate social issues including poverty and hunger. At the same time, some demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of cities can make them especially vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Waltham has long been a leader in new technology both hard and soft innovations. Let us again, as we have in the past set the standard for others to follow. Waltham is rich with intellectual government, industry, community involvement and educational intelligence ( two leading universities and a number of forward thinking innovative industries). With the support of practical hands on capabilities ( our public and working community and the untapped residents that have a wealth of knowledge) who are able to offer great insight and support in building a systemic approach to lowering our impacts vs taking a silo issue by issue approach. Waltham needs to create a vision and from the vision develop a strategy for achieving the vision. The “Road Not Taken” has many unknowns but the same road can be much more valuable to our future. We need to get out of the pot before it starts boiling.

Bob Ferrone