IMO 2020: How can people view the same thing but see it differently?

From Quora.com
Paul Bowes, M.A. English from University of Wales Aberystwyth Prifysgol Cymru
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IMO 2020 is coming in the new year so what is it? Beginning in January 2020, the United Nations shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will ban ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% now. This will have a wide range of implications on global shipping costs, inflation, fuel availability and more.
What’s interesting to us are the divergent views of the significance of the new regulations between people actually in the industry and those that are either tangentially related or who are mere industry pundits. From the conference calls we have read from Q3 2019, shipping executives are anticipating massive disruption in their industry in both the short term and long term resulting in higher shipping rates, lower overall supply of ships, longer shipping routes, etc. The outside observers acknowledge that things will be different going forward as a result of the IMO 2020 implementation but seem to generally downplay how impactful it will be. So, different observers ‘see the same thing’ but each brings to bear their own unique ‘sensory apparatus’ and a mind that has to interpret the information they are seeing and hearing. Both opinions can’t be right regarding the effects of IMO 2020.  We value the actions, information and the experience of those closest to the event significantly more than those more loosely connected.
January 2020 should be an interesting month in shipping!
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