Sunday, October 25, 2009
New Kinds of Leadership
Adapting to a rapidly-changing ecosystem requires new kinds of leadership. State-centric, market-oriented institutions have failed, and indeed are an ongoing impediment to our survival. If humankind has any chance of evolving organizationally to deal with the climate change crisis, it will be the relational understandings of tribal peoples and their network of civil society friends who lead the way; not the US, EU, or UN.
If you look at what the UN does, as opposed to what it says, it isn’t much different from its member states. This isn’t to say we don’t have to deal with its agencies; it only means we have to be as vigilant in holding it accountable as we do the US and EU. Indeed, my associates and I have done just that.
I have written elsewhere about the UN process on climate change protocols, and its betrayal of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, while at the same time paying lip service to their rights under international law. Something many would expect from the governments of Canada and the United States, but oddly not the United Nations.
If you look at what the UN does, as opposed to what it says, it isn’t much different from its member states. This isn’t to say we don’t have to deal with its agencies; it only means we have to be as vigilant in holding it accountable as we do the US and EU. Indeed, my associates and I have done just that.
I have written elsewhere about the UN process on climate change protocols, and its betrayal of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change, while at the same time paying lip service to their rights under international law. Something many would expect from the governments of Canada and the United States, but oddly not the United Nations.
