Good Intentions

The world is full of people with ‘good intentions’. I personally do not berate those who have the strong desire to make things better for all of us. But any solution to even the most innocuous problem needs examination for its consequences. The solution to any problem will have other effects, some good and some bad. The question that has to be answered is whether or not the original problem would be more acceptable than those created by the solution.

Usually, when a particular problem arises, somebody comes up with a solution for it. The problem solver generally has the best of intentions and means no harm, but the law of unintended consequences always lurks in the shadows for the unwary. Those unintended consequences will ultimately have to be dealt with. Now, instead of just the one original problem, unwittingly a new family of problems has been created. Ethyl gasoline is one such example.

In its early use, the burning of gasoline in an engine had a problem. Whenever the gasoline ignited, the fuel burned so fast that it created an undesirable ‘knock’ in the engine. The most common solution, and there were more than one, was to use the additive tetra-ethyl lead to smooth out and enhance the power of a gasoline engine.

As a solution, it did the job very well. Engines ran smoother and did not have the fuel knock of raw gasoline. Tetra-ethyl lead use had its controversy back when it was first used, but the moneyed interest won the day and as a consequence, became widely used as a fuel additive.

But then, we had to deal with the unintended consequences of lead poisoning in the atmosphere and toxic smog. Our history is replete with such fiascos.

New medicines are one such area of unintentional consequences. With the best of intentions, medicines like thalidomide that caused birth defects, anti-depressants that raise the possibility of suicide, and pain killers that create drug dependencies all come under the umbrella of unintended consequences.

Lithium batteries are all the rage now because they have the appearance of less pollution. But what most people do not understand is that lithium is not found just lying around for the taking. No, lithium is not an abundantly available element. Even in supposedly good deposits of the stuff, a lot of refining has to take place. One common way to get at the lithium is to drill for it, pump the slurry into vast settling ponds, and then it’s off to the refineries for purification. The process is actually an environmental nightmare.

The tradeoffs using lithium center on whether or not it solves a problem with fewer side effects than the original problem. Cars with lithium batteries do not pollute. But we have to remind ourselves that a lithium battery does not create energy. It only provides portability for the energy that charged it. We still have to produce the energy for charging those batteries. A reminder at this point, there is no free lunch. Everything we do has consequences.

Corn and palm nut based ethanol were heralded as the next great fuel – but nobody took into consideration that corn was also a food product and while ethanol may be a great fuel, the demand for corn based ethanol drove food prices so high that a lot of people could no longer afford that staple in their diet. Palm nut growing became a source of income for the tropical regions and to produce palm nuts for ethanol; they started clearing rain forest to grow palm nuts. Again, unintended consequences come out of the shadows and create more problems.

All decisions of problem solving involve tradeoffs. But tradeoffs are a part of everyday decision making. Some are personal while others affect everybody. The flap over CO2 is another example. We as citizens of the world need answers and a range of solutions if the problem exists. Cap and trade is but one solution that is being proposed to diminish CO2 levels. But the consequence of such actions affects all of us and may create more problems than it is worth. Would cap and trade solve anything? There has to be other viable solutions to this problem, if there is a problem. Whether or not CO2 is a problem is still up for debate. It has yet to be proven that the increase of CO2 is the result in human activity. We may be trying to solve a problem that is not of our making and beyond our ability to solve. The science is ambiguous at best.

It is not just the scientific resolutions that we have to think about. Personal decisions also come with tradeoffs that we have to deal with. When we go out and socialize, we decide if the hangover the next day will be worth it, or if that partner we wind up with is going to create future problems. All actions of our decisions have consequences – some good, and some bad.

Never lose common sense. Learn from the mistakes you make. Your good intentions can result in somebody else’s nightmare so think before you act. But when the good outweighs the bad, then go for it. No matter how small the decision is, it will have consequences. I am not trying to advocate not making decisions, just understand the possible results of your actions.

Remember that old saying, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”

Cheers,

-Robert-

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