The Butterfly Effect
Though you might know it as a movie title, the Butterfly Effect is a concept from the 1960’s. It springs from chaos theory, math, meteorology, and the mind of its author, Edward Lorenz, from MIT. The basic idea sounds fairly simple: the smallest of actions can cascade to have monumental effects in far-reaching places. “Far” as in a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can affect the weather in New York. Though that may not literally be a true statement, the theory is—or can be—quite accurate.
Here is an example of a real butterfly effect in the realm of ecological balance. Without wind storms in the Sahara, the Amazonian rain forest could not survive. Huge clouds of dust lift from the desert, blow across the Atlantic Ocean and then deposit about 44,000,000 pounds of phosphorus in the world’s largest rainforest every year—mostly from a dried up lake bed in Chad. This phenomenon balances the amount of the needed mineral that the Amazon river washes away.
So, without the dust storms in Africa, the earth’s lungs (as the forest has been called for its air cleansing ability) would stop breathing. Without its lungs, the forest of about 600,000,000,000 trees would stop pumping water and oxygen into the earth’s atmosphere. At about 1000 liters per tree, that’s over 150,000,000,000,000 gallons of water a day. Without that, rain stops. Go ahead. Extrapolate the effects of that.
Bringing the butterfly effect back to us is where a single person can bring on a larger impact than ever imaged. Consider Mr. Fahd Al Rasheed from the post on February 13th. One man is poised to steer the development of a city of two million people toward ecological awareness (and economic stability). What type of ripple effect could that have in the entire nation, the entire Middle East, or all of the northern hemisphere?
Most of us believe we are not in a position to do anything world-changing. But consider this one little girl: when she was 10 or 11 years old, she wrote a piece about what her life was like while trying to get an education living under the Taliban in Pakistan. That act sparked a torrent of events: in 2012, she was shot in the head (but survived), she prompted the UN to demand all children in the world should be in school by 2015, in 2014, 2014, and 2015 Time magazine listed her as one of the most influential people on earth, and in 2014, at the age of 17, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize.
On her sixteenth birthday, Malala addressed the United Nations. In her speech, she said, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.”
Maybe we can’t build an entire city like Fahd Al Rasheed, or win a Noble prize like Malala Yousafzai. But where did these people come from? Where did their confidence, insight, and perseverance come from? At least in part, from teachers, parents, and other nurturing adults. Most of us can think of at least one adult that had a profound effect on the course of our lives.
If you don’t think you can change the world, or make it a better place, go encourage a child and see what happens. Give support to someone of any age and watch the world change.
Who changed your life?
For further reading:
“Butterfly effect” of coal burning in Asia (China) is the probable cause of mercury-laced rain in the Mid West and the Rockies in the USA: http://www.scientificamerican.com/art...
On the Sahara and the rainforest:
http://news.mongabay.com/2015/03/how-...
and:
On Malala: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/politi...
Malala’s extraordinary father presenting a TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mme...
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