Bon Courage, My Friend

Several times with young professionals in the past few years, I have had some colleagues, usually in their first or second job, come to me and tell me how stressful the work of giving technical advice and inputs is.

More than one colleague has turned to me earnestly and said, “What if someone listens to me? Actually decides to implement what I suggest?”

I am not sure I have a good answer, beyond saying that fear of incompetence is a powerful motive for getting things right. With time, you make peace with the fear, but doubts will probably never go away. If uncertainty in our decisions is the central challenge of climate change, then is it surprising that we, as technical decision makers, experience climate change as a crisis of confidence? I know that feeling very well. In one situation, I looked at a young colleague and said, “If you don’t intervene, who will instead? Will the next person care so much about getting it right?” The reality of most projects is that we don’t have a backstop. We are the backstop.

The first person who articulated this issue to me, however, was partially retired even if he was still at the top of his game. He stood up in an AGWA meeting in 2011 as an established, well known professional who had been involved in dozens if not hundreds of water projects over a long career. Commanding the silence of the room, he said, I want to help people who know they are giving incomplete or bad advice about climate change. Who feel the pressure of deadlines and insufficient budgets and capacity. Who have to deliver a number tomorrow, and they know that number is probably wrong.

Luis was speaking in the abstract about engineers and climate adaptation, but I felt like he was speaking to me, in that room, and as a scientist. I have heard the same fears from lawyers, policymakers, and economists. Maybe he was talking to himself. “Luis’s engineer,” we began saying in AGWA meetings. “That’s who we need to help.” As well as Luis’s hydrologist, finance specialist, and governance expert. AGWA is a network for these people.

Adaptation and resilience work can be exciting and exhilarating. It is also terrifying that, as a technical expert, someone may actually listen to you. What if fear is actually a sign you are in the right fight, on the right work? If there was a simple answer, a clear answer, you wouldn’t be necessary.

Bon courage, my friend. We need you.

John Matthews
Corvallis, Oregon, USA