Adapting to change key to success and survival

Population growth and climate change are presenting new challenges. Photo/File

A wise woman once said "People don't like change".

Having chosen to make several radical changes of cultures/continents/climates throughout my adult life, which invariably left me feeling enriched, I found this observation surprising.

It would help explain why so many people are reluctant to truly acknowledge the fact that we are now entering a period of rapid change driven by population growth and climate change.

For some, the challenges this will present are thrilling, but for others they are threatening and frightening. I move back and forth between the two camps.

By the time my husband and I had lived in New Zealand a couple of years, we realised that life couldn't possibly get any better for us. We had found a lovely community with interesting people, a superb climate, excellent amenities ... well, you know.

So, yes, the thought of losing even part of this wonderful life is threatening. At the same time, the thrill-seeker and optimist in me eats up news of the technological improvements and innovations presently working through the processes that will bring them into everyday use.

Two books keep surfacing in my psyche.

One is Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, written in 1970 about the rate and effects of change on society. It has been a long time since I read that book, but what I took from it was that the pace of change was going to keep picking up and success/survival would go to those who were quickest to adapt. That seems to be how things are working out.

The other is Jonathon Porritt's The World We Made, released in October 2013. The book is written from the point of view of a 50-year-old history teacher about to move to a new school in the year 2050. His students have asked him to write about the changes he has seen - with them as his research assistants.

Mr Porritt's long involvement in environmental matters has given him a broad knowledge of what the world is facing and how events could play out. He bases the story on real events in the recent past and technology that either already exists or is at the point of moving from hypothesis to experiment. His optimism about the future makes it a perfect holiday read. The world he describes isn't perfect but, to me, seems more "grown up" than the one we live in today.

People have chosen co-operation and pragmatism over self interest. Even politicians, who Porritt thinks will not lead the changes, belatedly abandon their disconnected, fundamentalist preoccupation with political dogma and retaining power. This only happens because they are booted back to relevant action by very angry populations.

No, in this story it will be business that leads the charge to cope with impending problems, and Porritt's proposition for how this comes about seems reasonable to me.

It is worth thinking about our attitudes to change, because, to borrow from The Leopard: "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."

Lorna Sutherland has lived in many different places and observes the changes in the natural environment around her.