Tiny Impacts

Image by StockCake — view original. (Edited.)

Sometimes a large action scope involves numerous small similar actions applied to the problem system over a period of time. Any one of those actions can be insignificant, but the cumulative effect of a large number of them can be substantial.

“The American Flag flies above the flood waters that cover homes after a strong rain storm in the Midwest” (picryl). No known copyright restrictions. (Edited.)

The impact of tiny actions can be most dramatic if the system reaches a tipping point, like the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Unless you have an allergic reaction, one bee sting won't kill you. However, a swarm of bees can deliver enough stings in a few minutes to do so.

One cigarette won't kill you, but a pack a day for a few decades has a good chance of doing so. Many other types of unhealthy habits work similarly.

The impact of humans on the environment is caused by about eight billion people doing similar actions every day for decades. The actions are things like driving cars. No one car trip is a problem, but billions of them may be.

Action Scope

Tiny impacts are a type of large action-scope. The focus here is numerous small actions of the same type.

Time Scope

If tiny impacts don't happen in quick succession, they will cause the problem system to have a long time scope. The system's behaviour may only change gradually, and perhaps imperceptibly. If the system has a tipping point, it may not appear to change at all — until it does.

Complex Behaviour

If the problem system has complex behaviour,  it can be especially sensitive to small actions. Worse, complex systems often have tipping points: the first billion tiny impacts might seem to make no difference, but the next one could be disastrous.

Intuition and Not Urgent

We may know that many tiny impacts have taken place, yet the system's behaviour remains essentially unchanged. This can lull us into a false sense of security, believing that the next impacts will also be insignificant. We will be tempted to put off taking action to fix the problem, since it doesn't seem to be urgent. However, if the problem system reaches a tipping point before we take action to fix it, it can suddenly become much worse. In any case, more substantial action may be required to fix it when we finally do decide to do so just because of the cumulative effect of the tiny impacts.

Because intuition learns from seeing patterns, it may learn that tiny impacts aren't important because they haven't been in the past. In this way, we would subconsciously feel that there isn't a problem, and our reasoning thinking mode may never be engaged to consider it.

Familiarity Bias

An aspect of familiarity bias is that we tend to limit our thinking to the immediate future. This can cause us to fail to see the possible significance of tiny impacts repeated over a long period of time.

Insignificance

When the tiny impacts are caused by humans, our own personal contribution can feel insignificant. We may feel demoralised that any change we personally make won't make any difference overall, given how many other people are involved. Our motivation may also be reduced by doubts that other people will pull their weight in helping to reduce the impacts applied to the system.

Systems Thinking

The Limits to Growth.