Range Anxiety

For the second week in a row, I was away from the office for two days in a row in order to co-chair a multi-jurisdictional meeting.

This time it was in Montreal, and government officials from across the country (except for the ones grounded by travel restrictions: they participated by webinar) were talking about what we call "mobile sources." This was our topic of discussion, because, on the air quality and climate change front, internal combustion engines are the final frontier.

If we could just figure out how to get from point A to point B without also destroying the planet, the problem would be solved (so long as we also asked China, nicely, to stop burning coal).

As tough as saving the future is, co-chairing is itself hard work. I have to really, really listen. I have to make sure the discussion serves its purpose. I have to respect the time of everyone both in the room and the large numbers of people on the phone.

Because I'm paying such close attention most of the time, there is one thing that really stands out from my perspective at the head of the table: people falling asleep in their chairs. 

Canada's big, as you know, so at least one person at these meetings can be counted on to be jet lagged. Plus a lot of people don't sleep well in hotel beds. And government officials - as fine a crop of hard-working professionals as you could hope to find - can, sometimes, go on at length in soft-cornered monotones soporific as a lullaby.

The lowering eye lids, drooping heads and sudden jerks to attention start after lunch and, depending on the individual, will last a few minutes or all the way to coffee break.

In Toronto (as opposed to Montreal), people found sleeping on the job get their photo in the local news.

But, because there are probably rules about these things, I did not take a photo of the man at the Montreal airport whose job it was to scan images of x-rayed luggage and who was also very obviously falling asleep at his station.

I did, however, take some shots from my 30th floor hotel room window with my iPad.

This is the view at night. You can't see it in the still photo, but many buildings have moving pictures projected on them or are covered in LED screens blasting out giga-lumens of light pollution.

The same view in the morning.

Flow pattern paths worn in the snow around platforms of uncertain purpose next to a METRO station.

Pretty little church surrounded by big ugly buildings.

Finally, what is range anxiety and why is it the title of this post? 

"Range anxiety" is one of the phantom worries people have when thinking about electric cars. Although the average commute is 15 km and most people have never actually been in the middle of nowhere, that's where they imagine they will be when the battery dies.

I don't think about driving cars electric or otherwise, but I do worry about what two-day-long meeting I'll be co-chairing when my battery runs out and I fall asleep at the head of the table.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!

Karen