One of the attributes I have always admired of engineers, scientists, and consultants is that they are not intimidated by big urgent problems, but instead are inspired by confronting them head on. They often run towards the challenges made visible by bad news, not turning away or becoming depressed by it all. Many appear most excited and hopeful when analyzing the sources of problems and innovating new solutions to address them. I see this often in my fellow PLM Green collaborators.
That said, we know that the public at large and political leaders often ignore the biggest problems in front of them – or become too easily distracted by topics that are less important – until they are forced to do so. Unfortunately, history reminds us that this reckoning often happens too late when many of the less painful options are already off the table.