They say that the third time's a charm, but Japan's triad of tragedy—earthquake, tsunami, and growing nuclear crisis—certainly seems more like a curse. As the world waits on pins and needles for updates about the spreading radiation from 6 nuclear reactors in Fukushima, our thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of a shattered nation. Harrowing images of wreckage haunt our television and computer screens. Photos and videos taken from smart phones disseminate imagery of annihilation with unabashed immediacy.

While the disaster in Japan will affect less than 1% of the global GDP, this is certainly a case where the repercussions can't simply be calculated on a financial balance sheet. There is no accounting system that can measure the value of lost lives and rampant destruction. No economic equation can quantify the devastation of a nation.

The only silver lining from this calamity may be the lessons that we can glean as the heartbroken Japanese walk a long road of sorrow towards recovery. We've learned that safety cannot be sacrificed at any cost. Fortunately, Japan's strict building codes and earthquake mitigation measures saved uncountable buildings and lives. The US and other countries around the world would undeniably benefit from implementing similar dogmatic protocols.

We've also seen the affirmation that people will not stand for half-truths or misinformation from their government, a piercing message that is reverberating throughout the splintered middle-east.

But it's still questionable whether or not we'll open ourselves to perhaps the most important lesson—that the mindset and solutions we've embraced over the last century unequivocally require adjustments in order to appropriately handle the looming realities of climate change, population growth, falling water tables, increasing energy demand, food shortages, and rising sea levels.

Will we let this disaster shift our paradigm once and for all? Will polluting, political coal and oil be the ultimate benefactors as fears of nuclear energy grow, or will the scales finally tip in favor of renewables?

We're slowing getting used to the fact that the fundamentals of our economy have changed and that the next 'normal' will be very different from the previous one. We might as well also accept the fact that our planet is changing too.

While the earthquake that rocked Japan was a geological event and not a climate-based one, climate related incidents will continue to cause widespread damage to our built environment. Our definition of national security can no longer be limited to military strategy and diplomacy. If we expect to maintain our current quality of life, then we must produce new global solutions for a modern era of climate instability.

Humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow said that "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail." Are we wise enough to use the sophisticated instruments in our arsenal to develop a better world?

Want to learn more about global sustainability issues? Write to me at sara@greenbuildermag.com or follow me on Twitter at SaraGBM.

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