The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has recently added its voice to other agencies worldwide with a statement about the effect of climate change on threats to security. To summarize, we are less secure when the climate changes.
Where is the garden, and why am I writing about intelligence?
I suspect that the root of the climate change problem is being too sure we have things figured out, knowing that we know. You could argue that knowing that we know is just fine if we actually do know. The counterargument is that knowledge is always incomplete because everything is connected, and it isn't possible to know everything. Therefore, knowing that we know, means ignoring what we don't know, which is almost everything; and that is the definition of ignorance.
Ignorance is bliss, no worries, like Adam in the garden before indulging in the forbidden fruit. If we ignore what we don't know, the world is our garden. Let's picnic.
Then Adam decided to know some things, and the rest is history.
We act on what we know, and the result, besides maybe getting what we want, is unintended consequences. Being ready for unintended consequences means knowing that we don't know, in which case we remain receptive to new information and prepared to deal with issues as they arise. Intelligence means uncertainty, continuing inquiry, new evidence presenting problems to be solved, every solution generating more problems. However uncomfortable that may be, it is the definition of intelligence.
Blissful ignorance or troubled intelligence remains a choice.
No enduring garden without endless work.
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If you read about the CSIS statement as reported in CBC News, and pay attention to the 5177 comments, you can have some fun identifying ignorance and intelligence.
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