- 7 days ago
- 2 min read

Rick Dubrow May 16, 2025
Government tends to wait quite some time to react to a problem, doesn’t it? The delay between problem recognition and embracing a solution set can be forever long and is typically diluted in its effectiveness. Political compromise crawls at a slug’s pace.
Then there’s the Precautionary Principle, a key environmental concept that suggests this: once the majority of the scientific jury is in about a particular issue, logic demands that we begin to enact the solution. It may simply prove too late to wait for consensus or yet another study confirming the momentum of data that is already compelling.
Consider this system dynamic we find ourselves in: government tends to react slowly and weakly, while threatening environmental problems compel us to react quickly and strategically! The result is that, at times, we have the right to behave in a certain way even though we know, at our core, that it’s not the right thing to do. My immediate reflex is to suggest a few examples for you but I’m not going to do your homework for you! Instead, ask yourself what you do that you know, in your heart, is the wrong thing to do; something for which society offers you a smokescreen behind which to hide. “Hey, there’s no regulation against such-and-such, so I can carry on! When our government knows that such behavior is wrong, I’m sure they’ll take the necessary actions to make it right!”
Wrong. Remember governmental lag time and its probable dilution. Collectively, we need you to mend your ways even when our collective rules are blind to them. We simply can’t wait for government to catch up to the problems at hand while our natural world continues to unravel.
Hence the dance: we can regulate ourselves, voluntarily, or involuntary regulations will follow.
You and I need to do what’s right, sooner, not later, even though others choose to behave otherwise by hiding behind lagging and ineffective environmental laws. I can only dream that if enough of us act in unison with the natural world, leadership may unfold that will align society’s law with natural law. In the meantime, this I know: we cannot grow on like this. We need to get a grip on our numbers, on our ecological footprint.
Consider doing what’s right when you have the right to do otherwise.