Feeling The Frog
Katrin Klingenberg
Co-Founder @ Phius, Architect & Engineer, CPHC?, Executive, Public Speaker & Educator
Observation
...starting to feel...
...like...you know...the frog in slowly heating up water that does not jump...
Air around me is getting a little warmer, kinda nice, different, yeah, super dry on this continent, super humid on the other but not this year (is this Chicago?)...I think I could get used to this...a bit unusual...not too troublesome yet, life's mostly the same...I'll just adapt a little...
Ok, yeah, water level is dropping some, a bit hotter, but only for a little bit...I can tough it out until it goes back to normal...still sort of comfortable, no reason to jump, is there? And even if I jumped, don't know what's out there? Where will I land...so better not...
Starting to feel the frog? I am...
For many years we have been trying to envision how it would feel, this thing...called climate change...we tried to imagine it to motivate ourselves to take action against something that looked bleak, a conceptual construct ways off in the distance we could not feel...trying to enact knowledge of what to do to avert as much as possible and to prepare for being resilient should it ever come to pass...theory
Now our feet are starting to get wet...
Slow changes we adapt to and make the best of it, keep on living our lives...avoiding to jump out of our known environment...
...not unlike the frog.
Feeling the frog...as drought and heat are intensifying, economic circumstances get shaken up, food production becomes more and more hampered , I feel my instinct kicking in...I adapt...I react like the dancer to the lead...need to be the leading lady of my life...
JUMP now!
Sustainable Design Facilitator and Consultant, President, HJKessler Associates
2 年But where to? We've got work to do!
Hmmm...sounds like you're suggesting human beings aren't acting in their best self interest. But from where I stand that appears to be a definitive characteristic of the species. We don't act in our best self-interest. We don't elect leaders in our best self-interest. We don't eat food in our best self-interest. We don't exercise in our best self-interest. We don't ensure balance of life in our best self-interest. We don't preserve water in our best self-interest. We don't ensure bio-diversity in our best self-interest. We don't preserve forests in our best self-interest. We don't buy automobiles in our best self-interest. We don't buy homes in our best self-interest. We don't choose communities in our best self-interest. We don't protect our health in our best self-interest. We don't embrace intellectual curiosity in our best-self-interest. We don't show compassion in our best self-interest. I could go on, but... we are a strange and amazing species.... maybe we just need to be better communicating the self-interest part.
Principal at Building Performance Architecture
2 年So well-expressed. This resonates.
Clay Artist
2 年Kind of creepy and apt Katrin. I'm not going to be able to dismiss this feeling from my brain for days! Lois