The future needs bold leadership
If central and local governments, communities, households and businesses around the world act now, we'll look back and wonder what took us so long to overcome the obstacles we now face in mitigating climate change.
Scientists who have long been working on environmental health, are angry and frustrated by being ignored, and their good works overtaken by climate change, land conversion, population growth, consumption and waste. They are calling for large-scale, rapid change in our society, politics, mindsets, and economy. They say, to avoid global catastrophe, action must be well underway in the next five years. And, if leaders can cooperate, we can succeed.
Where are we now?
A main challenge is fixing our climate problems while the political and economic systems we live within go on unabated. At the moment our governments, economies, values and way of working are inadequate for the task ahead.
Corruption, "creative accounting", greenwashing, finger-pointing and bickering, and vested interests are serious hurdles to the transition we need to make to a sustainable future.
A major challenge for leaders will be holding the proverbial ship steady while steering it sharply away from the abyss of planetary degradation and the disintegration of civilization on our present path. As lead author of the Scientists’ Warning into Action paper, Stable Planet Alliance CEO, University of Cape Town researcher, and affiliate full professor at the University of Washington, Prof. Phoebe Barnard, says:
“The global economy is the Titanic - and we are trying to turn it around before it hits the iceberg”
If we use a combination of significant ecosystem and climate restoration methods before 2030, and prevent further habitat destruction, especially mature forests, we can manage some of the worst effects of extreme weather events. Global collaboration, public awareness, support and pressure from those who can influence decisions are all needed to shift business-as-usual in land use planning, economic policymaking, and forest management, for example.
Civil protests will increasingly force the replacement of short-sighted and self-interested governments and businesses with better, more collaborative, and future-focused leadership. But this will likely be a messy future unless people around the world keep the goals of societal transformation in mind - and prepare for some less predictable, less convenient, less individualistic times ahead.
We will all need help to adapt to a less energy-intensive future. The faster we can invest in the future, the less it will cost in the long term.
With your help, it won’t be too late
Co-leaders of the Scientists’ Warning into Action paper, Professors Bill Moomaw and Phoebe Barnard, lament that too many current leaders are willing to risk future catastrophe when they will no longer be in office to face it. They avoid taking responsibility and ‘kick the can further down the road.’
Yet, more and more people are now demanding that their leaders show common sense and reform political systems that aren’t working in peoples’ best interests. We need leaders willing to stand up and manage the changes associated with decisive climate action. History will remember the action or inaction of individual leaders in government, communities and businesses at this critical moment in our planet’s journey.
Individuals, businesses, and institutions are all instrumental in accelerating change, and must shoulder a share of the responsibility.
A bottom-up approach (a democratic and consultative style of decision making) to change, and a willingness to experiment, will help bring about urgent action. Social movements, NGOs, academics, and private sector innovators all need to be part of the solution.
Barnard quotes her leadership colleague Fabian Dattner in asking: What kind of leadership and systems of governance got us into this mess, and what kinds will take us successfully into the future?
“Be prepared to stand up. Put forward proposals that enable change. Have bold ideas. Take charge...and don’t take “no” for an answer. Everything we know and love is at stake.”
- Prof. Phoebe Barnard
Get involved
Please help us set a world record before the end of COP26 by encouraging anyone you know with a science degree of any kind (medical, social, political, economic, environmental, or any other science) to add their signature to the Scientists Warning into Action paper.
The paper and all the relevant details are available at: https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/signature