Joining Up the Dots Post-Cop26- A Word to the Wise

One of my favorite journalists, Bill McKibben, writes in: “It’s a fairy tale that world governments will fix our climate crisis. It’s up to us”, that the COP process, like COP26, is to be seen as a scorecard of governments being forced to change as a result of citizen power, not as “contests” between rival powers. Yes, civil society speaking truth to power is important, but we must also simultaneously cultivate greater wisdom in governments and accelerate thriveable innovation and transformation in business and finance.

It's and/and, not either/or, as the improv movement repeatedly reminds us. I’ve written 8 books and 43 articles making a solid case for what I am saying while launching dozens of businesses and foundations, transforming hundreds of others, and leading many major civil society movements over 50 years as an environmental and social justice activist. I speak from hard-won experiences, successes, and failures. Critical, systemic, realistic, joined-up thinking, connecting, resonating, planning, innovation, decision-making, and action are what we desperately need more of if we are to rescue ourselves and our biosphere from the existential threats we face in this moment.

Yes, civil society provocation must not only keep up, but it must also advance, adapt and synergize with business, investors, and governments at all levels. Please don’t over or underestimate the power of crowds, activism, and protests- they are necessary but not sufficient if we do not also harness and link up the good that exists within even the most toxic of systems and the people who can change those systems from within.

Forget the simplistic and hyper emotive “if you’re not with us you’re against us”. Call out that kind of polarizing BS thinking, and demand better, from yourself and others. Be curious, humble and be prepared to learn from anyone and everyone- you sure as hell don’t have all the answers.

More pressure needs to be placed on the large-scale systems that underpin the status quo, or Game A, as I call it. As conscious citizens and consumers, we must also wield the power of our votes in ballot boxes, the power of our purchases rewarding good actors and punishing the bad and ugly, and the power of our networks to shift mindsets and upskill ourselves and others to harness our collective intelligence and imagination.

We should also, most importantly, walk our talk, and be accountable for true impact. There’s lots of blah blah blah and hypocrisy in civil society too, as well as in “elite” intellectual circles currently discussing, like ancient theologians, how many angels can fit onto the head of their respective philosophical pins. Get real and get over yourselves, people. We need transformation, not rhetoric.

The mantras we need to repeat and the dynamics we need to shift include:

“Follow the money” “Find and influence the acupuncture points and centers of power” “Dismantle the structures of domination that protect toxic industries such as fossil fuels” “Shift from the dreaded global drama triangle to the glorious global empowerment triangle”, “Understand how you can be a more effective agent of change and transformation in the shift from Game A to Game B, our regenerative, inclusive, collaborative, multi-capital future”, and much more.

The money and sunk costs that live in fossil fuel land are huge. The power and influence this money has on politics must continue to be named, exposed, and mentioned by millions every single day, while we channel the hundreds of trillions of dollars of planetary capital we still have pre-collapse into renewables, resilient habitats, circular economies, wellbeing, and enlightened choices that help us co-create a better world for us all.

The power of weaponized media needs to end. The focus must be on those suffering the effects of global overheating, biodiversity collapse, unequal access, and the victim psychology that rescuers in civil society unwittingly induce in suffering and struggling have-nots. Lift up the until-now-disposable peoples of the world. Women, children, people of color, coal miners, and communities who need re-skilling, broken countries, islands…

We the people. We have always had the power. It is time to claim it. Not with violence. But with resolve, love, and the coalesced authority, power, and influence that emerges from mass co-creation and adoption of thriveable solutions, locally and globally. We have 8 precious years in which to turn this planet around- every moment is precious, every act and every decision counts. Together, we’ve got this.

Thanks to:

• Christine McDougall for her original message which inspired me to write this, and shift the emphasis away from the divisive memes of “patriarchy” and “colonization”, two overused “blame the others” oversimplifications of a very complex situation that needs healing and clear-sighted, neutral joining up of all the dots and systems needed for transformation.
• Steve Cook and Donna Nelham of Unstitution for the many brilliant conversations we’ve had, building upon each other’s memes and aligning what we are synergizing between us, www.balancer.app and www.themomentousleap.com
• My Global Change Agent partners in crime, Brett Thomas and Jacqueline Quinn. www.globalchangeagent.com