Once, our myopia was an advantage.
It kept our prehistoric ancestors focused on the important things, for example finding
food and avoiding predators.
In the 1950s, the World Health Organization (WHO) responded to the problem of malaria-bearing
mosquitoes on the Asian island of Borneo by spraying huge areas of the island with DDT
a poisonous pesticide.
They managed to extinguish the mosquitoes, but this short-term solution failed to take
into account any of the long-term problems they had created.
Geckos ate the contaminated insects and then died of DDT poisoning.
Cats ate the contaminated geckos and they also began to die.
This left the rats with a reduced number of predators, and as their numbers rose, so did
also cases of typhus and plague.
History shows that humans are inherently short-sighted.
We attach great importance to time and getting things done efficiently, so why is it so difficult
for us to consider the long-term consequences of our actions?
We can only really understand what we can experience, so the longest time we can really
understand is about 80 years or so, which is next to nothing compared to the 4.6 billion
years in which our planet existed.
Although we struggle to deal with deeper time, we are very good at living the seconds and
minutes of the clock.
From the moment, we leave our alarm in the morning, we have an eye on the clock.
And everything we do later is planned and organized by the minute.
At work, it is not uncommon to have no more than five minutes between the meetings - just
enough time to go from one office to the next.
This pressure to make snap decisions often has a negative impact on the quality of our
responses.
Our short-sightedness is reinforced by our focus on the clock.
Cars are a prime example of short-term thinking.
In 2012, there were only 270 million cars in the US alone, accounting for almost half
of all cars worldwide.
And since cars were first introduced, our cities were all designed and built with them
in mind.
We have paved millions and millions of acres of farmland to build roads and highways.
Even worse: wars were led and thousands of lifes lost on behalf of the cars need for
oil.
And there are more problems that cars cause: Each driver, for example, exists in his own
personal bubble, separated by steel and glass from his fellow man.
This separation is what causes street rage.
Behind the steering wheel, we scream and swear to people in a way that would seem unimaginable
when we face each other.
Cars have had long-term adverse effects on nature and our behaviour.
When a small business opens in a neighbourhood, they hope to achieve a long-term success by
helping neighbourhood customers.
So, unlike a chain store, they cannot just pack and relocate when customers are unhappy,
which gives them an incentive to try extra hard.
Local businesses also help the economy of their area by keeping an average of 55 cents
from each dollar spent in their community.
This is a significant amount when compared to the 15 cents that a typical chain store
will keep local.
And with a strong local economy, there is less need to use resources for long distance
shipping and transportation that harm the environment.
Despite these advantages, companies still dominate the retail sector.
The superstores have left many neighbourhoods without small businesses.
Leaving the people without the choice, but using their cars to drive to the mall to make
all their purchases.
Local companies have significant long-term benefits and need to be supported.
Credit cards are an easy way to get debts, and they are a shining example of costly myopia.
In 2008, the average US credit card holder had 3.5 cards, and in 2010 there were over
609 million credit cards used in the United States alone.
The logic behind using a credit card is the definition of short-term thinking.
They basically say, "I'll buy that now and I'll worry about paying for it later."
This system is concerned only about boosting the economy, and since people who have accumulated
debts are people who have spent money, the details are not important.
The economy is stimulated.
When people do not spend, companies lose money and the employees are laid off, leading to
even less spending and even more people losing their jobs.
On the other hand, our economy cannot withstand this debt, and there will ultimately be a
break-off point.
Our debt crisis is also the result of our short-sighted nature.
There was a time where we felt a strong connection to our food; Knowing where the ingredients
came from and taking time to prepare them and cook them.
In these days this connection has become transactional.
We give someone money and take our meal without a concern for what's going on behind the scenes.
Few people care how McDonald's is able to sell 75 burgers every single second around
the world.
Large companies like McDonald's have company requirements: things must be fast, consistent
and cheap.
Consequently, agricultural methods have been modified to meet these needs.
It can be efficient to keep the animals in very narrow quarters on factory plants, but
there are also a number of terrible side effects.
To name just one example: massive amounts of compressed fertilizer accumulates on the
farms, only to be disposed in ponds and rivers, poisoning numerous fragile ecosystems.
We have to return to small agriculture and move away from food production driven by short-term
profits.
Fossil fuels are coal, oil and natural gas, and although we have long known that these
resources are dwindling we still use them all the time.
Some estimates say that our current consumption rates drain our oil reserves completely in
only 40 years.
This could ask you why all our attention is not focused on finding new energy sources.
The answer is simple that this requires us to take a longer view of things.
Short-sighted creatures that we are, we go on to extreme lengths for oil, fighting wars
and using extraction methods such as fracking, which greatly damage the environment.
Once you start thinking about long-term prosperity, it becomes clear that new energy sources need
to be developed.
The best option we have now is probably solar energy.
Because the sun provides energy that is both clean and unlimited.
We must find renewable energy resources.
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