During a family dinner-time discussion recently, the question arose of what people in the future, say in 30 years, would look back on that we do today, and shudder. It’s an interesting question, because we can look back 30 years and shudder at some of the things that they used to do back then, and say to ourselves, “What were they thinking?”
The Last Word
How did the global cement industry get to where it is today? A very short history!
In this column I have summarised the history of the Universe from the Big Bang some 14.6Bn years ago until the present day, and have also looked at the future of the universe until it just fades away, aeons hence, I thought I would fill in the gap by summarising the whole history of the cement industry - so far.
Moving mountains: will the limestone run out?
Recently, I came across a foundation, FuturZwei, taking a ‘sideways view’ of sustainability. FuturZwei studies and promotes issues overlooked in official environmental, social and governance metrics. Its key concern seems to be the possibility of ‘running out’ – running out of habitable land; of storage space for CO2, hazardous wastes and landfill and of natural resources.
Should the cement industry be more random?
I recently discovered the marketing expert Rory Sutherland, a fiercely insightful and witty 'chap' from the British 'old school.' Sutherland has worked for the marketing firm Ogilvy and Mather since the 1980s, where he founded the company's Behavioural Science Practice (BSP) in 2012.
Where are we? Right next to each other, but a long way from anywhere else.
If you ever try and fail to get to sleep at night, worrying about the events of the day and wondering what new challenges await you in the morning, it can be useful to try and visualise our place in the universe, and to picture the utter triviality of our existence.
