An extra digit to years, a spark of hope for us

A recent article in The New York Times compares today’s environmental challenge with times of war and scarcity. Having addressed the issue with an identical comparison in a previous post, it’s amazing to see how two points made in conclusion to the same analogy can be so different. For those people who don’t have time to read the whole Times article, below is an excerpt to sum up the point it’s trying to make:

“Survivalism, it seems, is not just for survivalists anymore.
Faced with a confluence of diverse threats — a tanking economy, a housing crisis, looming environmental disasters, and a sharp spike in oil prices — people who do not consider themselves extremists are starting to discuss doomsday measures once associated with the social fringes.

They stockpile or grow food in case of a supply breakdown, or buy precious metals in case of economic collapse. Some try to take their houses off the electricity grid, or plan safe houses far away. The point is not to drop out of society, but to be prepared in case the future turns out like something out of “An Inconvenient Truth,” if not “Mad Max.”
…
“If all these planets line up and things do get really bad,” Mr. Marcom said, “those who have not prepared will be trapped in the city with thousands of other people needing food and propane and everything else.”
…
Esteemed economists debate whether the credit crisis could result in a complete meltdown of the financial system. A former vice president of the United States informs us that global warming could result in mass flooding, disease and starvation, perhaps even a new Ice Age.”

In response to this pessimistic survivalist perspective, I would like to point to a symbolic and simple, but nevertheless very inspirational idea. It comes from The Long Now Foundation, about which I’ve first learned in John Grant’s book The Green Marketing Manifesto. Let’s take a look at this excerpt from the book to get a grasp of this nice little idea:

“One of their many great ideas was to give a fifth digit to the years: 02008. For a generation overshadowed by the millenium, this gives us room to breathe again. It shows us a much longer horizon, because the next significant landmark in this dating scheme is not the decade (or whatever we will call 2010-2019) or even century, it is the year 10000. A pessimistic view would be that we’d be lucky to make it to that date without a crisis or change of such biblical proportions that we start the calendar over again. If the sort of civilization that dates itself makes it, at all. But for now (a long now), just adding that zero makes you see the world differently”

I hope this sparks a little optimism and encourages us to continue giving our best efforts while addressing the issue.