Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

An article in the Economist (Adapt or Die) discussing the shifting priorities regarding Climate Change is pertinent to Israel’s ability to maintain ‘relevance’ in a highly dynamic environment.

The article explains that “for years, greens said that adaptation – coping with climate change rather than stopping it – was a bit like putting out a fire on the Titanic… In July however, a committee of America’s senate set aside $20m for international adaptation efforts” Even Al Gore – who used to believe that adaptation subtracted from efforts on prevention – now supports a change in direction.

In his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, Jared Diamond explains 5 different reasons why societies disappear.

In addition to environmental and climactic changes, the loss of supporting allies and the presence of hostile neighbors, Diamond argues that it is each society’s inability to adapt to a changing reality ultimately causes its collapse.

Facing an ‘adaptive challenge’ / staying ‘relevant’ is always difficult. It involves choosing which values to keep and which to give up and overcoming Heifetz’s ‘work avoidance.’ But it’s the only way to ensure survival when faced with a divergent reality.

What values does Israel need to adapt to stay ‘relevant’ in the current geo-political environment?