Y2K INSURANCE POLICY
Awareness of potential year 2000 computer problems started a landslide of realization - more and more people are seeing how dependent we are on a vast, interconnected, megalithic infrastructure. America was founded on principles of independence and has a fierce history of defending and safe-guarding independence on all levels - people don't like being so dependent. If y2k problems turn out to be minor or major, it's expanded people's awareness of our basic life-systems and inspired them to look for better ways.
And we need to do this anyway: global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, air and water and land pollution, the list goes on and on. The US is already producing 50% of the world's greenhouse producing C02. If the rest of the world adopted our lifestyle (and they're doing their best to imitate us!), we would need at least another planet just to provide enough natural resources.
It's like "mono-cropping" in agriculture. Farmers's have discovered that although there are definite economies of scale in growing hundreds of acres of the same plant, this practice makes the crop extremely vulnerable. In a more natural environment, different plants help each other - for example, some plants repel bugs that might like to eat a neighbor plant, root systems for one plant make their neighbor stronger, leaves from one fertilize another. The vulnerabilities of this mega-centralizing farming practice led to mass use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, pollution of our ground water, depletion of the soil, and many other problems.
The vulnerabilities of this same approach to our power grid led to nuclear power plants, toxic waste dumps, air pollution, and dependence of people on power sources hundreds and hundreds of miles away from their homes. A failure in any of many aspects of the infrastructure - y2k or many other possibilities - could lead to no heat in the winter, no water in the summer, and many other infrastructural breakdowns. Our power, our water supply, our water treatment facilities, our food - it's all very dependent on a gigantic, complex infrastructure.
So people, in preparing for possible y2k problems, are also reducing pollution and becoming more independent. It's a good feeling. And it's a meaningful kind of investment. Rather than have financial resources tied up in the stock market, people can see their investments and actually live in and with them. Rather than wondering if companies they invest in are using the money to do things that they don't approve of or feel negative about, they can see the beneficial results every day.
While it's good to "Be Prepared!", there isn't a reason to panic which always tends to make things worse anyway. (Any action based on fear tends to create more problems than it solves.) So not based on fear but on intelligence and insight and the vision to see the consequences of our actions, we can fund our own "y2k insurance policy", become more independent, self-sufficient, and create more meaningful and beneficial life styles.
Independence, conservation, energy efficiency, appropriate technology - important work for all of us if y2k becomes a problem or not.
Written by: Steve Troy
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