THE TWENTY–NINTH DAY

I heard a very interesting and enlightening way of thinking about the effects of global climate change and why it is so important to act on it now.
Imagine a nice tranquil lake. One day a single lillypad appears on the lake. The next day there are two lilypads, the day after that, four. then on day five there are eight, and on day six there are sixteen and so on and so forth.

(day 8;128, day 9;256, day10;512...)

And they keep doubling every day. There is still plenty of room, so you hardly notice the problem.

(day13 =4,096, day14 =-8,192, day15 =16,384. . . )

Now, the lake will be completely full (you don't want that to happen, it will choke off and kill the lake!) on the 30th day.

(day19 =262,144, day20 =524,288, day21 =1,048,576. . . )
Assuming you will not notice a problem developing until the lake is at least half full, . .

(day24 =8,388,608, day25 =16,777,216, day26 =33,554,432, . . .)
Once the lake is half full, how many days will you have left to try to avert the disaster? On what day will the lake become half full?

(day 27 =67,108,864, day28 =134,217,728,. . . )
The answer; the lake will be half full on the twenty-ninth day!

(day 29 =268,435,456,. . . DAY 30 =536,870,912. )
A good example of how things can accumulate,how quickly it can overwhelm and get out of control. Just like the destruction of the environment, once it's obvious there is a problem it's too late to stop it. But if you look closely, you can see the warning signs before it is too late.

© C. Erich Dunne. . . . september, twenty-thirteen.