It Sounded Like a Good Idea

What if electric cars made pollution worse, not better? What if they increased greenhouse gas emissions instead of decreasing them? Preposterous you say? Consider what’s happened in Sweden.

Thanks to generous government subsidies, Sweden aggressively pushed its citizens to trade in their cars for energy efficient replacements (hybrids, clean diesel vehicles, and cars that run on ethanol). Sweden was so successful in this initiative that it leads the world in per capita sales of ‘green cars.’ But to everyone’s surprise — and the government’s deep dismay — greenhouse gases from the country’s transportation sector are up!

Perhaps we should not be so surprised after all. What do you expect when you put people in cars they can feel good about driving (or at least less guilty), which are also cheap to drive? Naturally, they drive them more — so much more, in fact, that they obliterate energy gains made by increased fuel efficiency.
~ from The Green Revolution Backfires by Firmin DeBrabander ~

History is filled with great ideas that, once implemented, turn out not to be so great. This appears to be one of those!

One of the problems we find with ideas and strategies that lead to unintended consequences is that the backers of those ideas and strategies have a tendency not to want to let go of them, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They have invested so much of their time, energy and reputation in their paradigm that they don't want to admit failure.

When I was involved with the Green Party a few years ago, I was guilty of this very thing myself. I had devised a revenue sharing system between the state party and our local affiliates. It looked so good on paper, yet it never worked as seamlessly in practice.

I fought to maintain it tooth and nail. The reason I was so vociferous in its defense is that I had invested my whole being in it and, because of this undying devotion, I simply wouldn't allow myself to step back to look at the situation objectively. If I had taken a step or two back, I would have easily seen that it wasn't working at all!

A few years later, after I moved to Washington, a similar situation arose, but I handled it far differently. I developed a tiered membership plan. Again, it looked really good on paper. This time, however, when it became apparent that it wasn't working as intended, I actually suggested that we pull the plug on it.

I had come to realize that no plan is perfect. If you want to move forward as an individual or group, you have to be willing to admit failure and be willing to go back to the drawing board.