“Wisdom is EDITORIAL rightly applied.”
LEADERSHIP EDUCATION: THE KEY TO RESTORING THE EARTH’S HEALTH
ARTICLE BY PATRICK DOWLING, REGIONAL HEAD OF EDUCATION IN THE WESTERN CAPE FOR WESSA. “
Copenhagen was not the great climate change success meeting the world was hoping for; Cancun added to the disappoint- ment. Let us hope that Durban 2011 will not also be a damp squib and that the 17th annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) will show that global leadership can agree to take resolute action through legally binding commitments to avert worst-case climate change scenarios.
As much as the meeting will be about climate, the latest re- search and IPCC reports, post Kyoto arrangements and matters such as common but differentiated responsibilities, fair, afford- able, and achievable climate change legislation and so on (much of it excuses for politicians to keep sitting on their hands “while Rome burns”), it will also be about leadership or lack thereof.
Real leaders know intuitively what the right thing to do is, what the feelings among ordinary people are, what sacrifices, radical change or acts of courage are required to meet a challenge. They would have an urgent sense too that business as usual is not an appropriate response and that leading by ethical example is.
They would know by now from scientific reports and tangible evidence that human activity-driven climate change is more than a 90% credible reality.
They would know that things could get a lot worse with inef- fectual responses and that time is a luxury they do not have. They would be well aware that doing the necessary things like reducing human induced carbon emissions, disciplining way-
ward industries, strengthening local resilience, promoting re- newable technologies and conserving natural systems would not only help mitigate climate change, but would have a hugely restorative effect on the planet which has been under increas- ingly destructive pressure for the last two centuries.
They would know that the global economy is a subsidiary of the environment and that committed corrective action would make the earth a fairer and healthier place.
Leadership dissatisfaction is at an historical highpoint globally. If there is to be a change in the way in which we choose to lead and be led the subject is going to have to be brought out of corner of the life-skills curriculum it currently occupies and given much higher priority status.
Initiatives like Lead SA and Rights and Responsibilities have ob- viously recognized the need, but educators by nature or pro- fession have a great role to play as well.
Government has signaled its intention to move towards a green economy and has drafted an Environmental Skills Sector Plan (ESSP) and several NGOs and Grant-making institutions are showing support for the idea of long-term leadership de- velopment.
To avoid some of the catastrophic predictions becoming self in- flicted reality this is a subject worth detailed and urgent attention with emphasis on ethics, vision, courage and commitment.
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