The older I get the easier it is to understand long-term consequences. As a father, my young adult offspring have heard many times about “ripple effects” – those unintended after effects of our actions - for good or ill. Well, ripple effects radiate out from the actions, or lack thereof, of companies, governments and people every day.  

Look at the lingering after effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. With its own Wikipedia entry the long term ripple effects of crew negligence ran in to the hundreds of millions of dollars along with devastating environmental impact. There’s an above average chance that Exxon, convicted ship’s captain Joseph Hazelwood, the State of Alaska, and many others would like a “do-over” of that fateful mishap in 1989. Yet, the ripple effects from Prince William Sound continue even today.  If we are to learn from history, states, nations, and companies must consider the long-term Green PR ripple effects of our actions impacting the environment.

Consider the case of Utah’s environment. With an economy that leans heavily on quality-of-life, skiing, outdoor recreation, and tourism it seems short sighted to this writer that the Utahns, its industries, and governments (city & state) are moving soooo slowly to turn the pollution train around.  Asthma rates are up, due in part to declining air quality. The Utah Tourism industry must recognize the long term image implications of such moves as allowing other countries to dump nuclear waste in the back yard of the “greatest snow on earth.”  

Pesky little things, those ripple effects.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Green PR, Sm Bus PR, High Tech PR, Boardroom PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.