31 March 2005

Age-old patterns

Applied for job with Shell. If anything, I felt my answer to their question on the global challenge on water might've lost it for me. Were they looking for some answer that pollyannish belief that Shell and R&DS would solve everything, and a lip service to sustainable resources, so that present-day consumption patterns needn't be changed?

Obviously I gave them what I knew: a treatise on the realities of climate change. We need to change our patterns of life. Even if it means de-industrialisation, painful changes to the global economy.

And then, 1 day after their rejection letter came, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report broke out and was covered by the BBC and New Scientist.

Not the first time I knew what answer was expected, what I saw to be the right answer, and gave that instead of the expected answer - and lost the job. And like the previous occasion, a report gets published to vindicate my position.

1 comment:

Anthony said...

Hey chum,

You stuck to your guns - and that's something to be proud of. If I own a petroleum giant some day, you'd be the first person I'd contact.