The 40th anniversary of the moon landings has brought some poignant and timely comment when it is said that the real triumph of the missions was not that we explored the moon but that we “discovered the Earth”.

More importantly, through the observations of the astronauts and the images we could finally see for ourselves, we discovered just how fragile and vulnerable our little planet looks hanging in the vastness of space and with an atmosphere that’s just 62 miles deep (a few hours bike ride) looking like impossibly thin protection from the mighty forces of physics and nature.

The missions helped spawn environmental movements and also the satellite technology that has enabled us to gain a greater understanding of just what a mess we’ve been making of our fragile planet.

I heard a UK comedian observe recently that he used to be an environmentalist until he traveled to the US.  He likened the experience to turning up at the aftermath of an earthquake with a dustpan and brush.

I felt similarly powerless after visiting Florida a couple of years back and being staggered not just at the extreme levels of energy consumption driven by the American lifestyle (big trucks, big houses, big fridges, big entertainment) but also what seemed like a complete absence of alternative energy sources such as barely seeing any solar panels in the ‘sunshine state’ of all places.

But the US is changing fast and doing more than just talk about the challenges now. However, with China leapfrogging the US as the planet’s largest carbon emitter last year and basically telling the Western world where to stick its emissions policies and treaties it’s hard to see how progress will be made to contain the growing threat to the planet.

I’ve heard some renowned climate change commentators saying they believe we only have 100 months to save the world. There is also a site http://www.onehundredmonths.org/ counting down these months and we’re already through the 90 month mark by its reckoning. This sounds pretty dramatic when you hear it like this but is based on a growing consensus that if our carbon emissions are not curbed substantially within the next 10 years then we will reach a tipping point and the very worse predictions for temperature rises during the next 50 -100 years will come to fruition.

I think it’s already becoming broadly accepted that we’ve done a lot of damage to our world during the last 100 years in particular and while it will no doubt continue to spin for many billions of years to come mankind is turning it into a place that will become increasingly hostile to our species. It seems increasingly unlikely that this planet will continue to keep the human race in the manner to which its become accustomed or the manner to which it aspires without some radical changes in how we do things.

In my last post, I wrote about the project I have been immersed in for the last 18 months and some lessons learnt so far. The more I think about this global web project, the challenges so far and of those ahead, the more I think of it as a microcosm of the broader challenges we face globally in combating climate change and the impact on our environment that we are seeing more clearly every day.

The timeframe I gave the web project was ‘100 Weeks to build the future’. A timeframe that recognised that change doesn’t happen overnight and that there are many steps you need to make in order to achieve bigger ambitions of moving beyond broadcasting information to engaging with web users or selling direct to consumers for example.

For me, the biggest challenge coming out of this project has not been physical distance – as I think that modern comms technology and the online/connected nature of the project has sufficiently compensated for that – but ‘psychic distance’.

The varying ‘thought worlds’ that we all inhabit and the ways in which we believe our challenges, cultures, beliefs and needs are indeed different from others. This ‘psychic distance’ results in misjudgments, misunderstandings, and relational friction and one of the biggest challenges is getting agreement to, and introducing, governance systems that harmoniously integrate participants with different languages, conventions and rule-systems.

Having come into this particular organisation somewhat detached from the history and politics my objective view was that the perceived differences in markets, culture and requirements was somewhat over-exagerated and that the cost, wastage and inefficiencies involved in duplicating efforts 10, 20, 30 times over far outweighed the perceived advantages of each country treading its own path. However, try telling that to a Country/Territory Manager who has profit and loss responsibilities, tough market conditions and some big targets to achieve. The bigger picture and longer term view becomes far less relevant from that perspective.

And therein lies one of the biggest challenges facing the human species today. If we are agreed that we need to change the way we do things for our longer term survival and future prosperity, how do we reduce that ‘pyschic distance’, connect and combine these many ‘thought worlds’ and take action sufficiently quickly to make a difference? Personally, I’m going to keep working on this one – not just because it is core to what I do – but also because my children’s future is at stake.