Leaders are not emerging because they have no idea what to do. They know the situation is larger than a problem they have no idea how to start system-wide change.They want an approach that fixes something returning the system to a previously seemingly functional state. But when a problem is a core dysfunction such as the way economics ignores social life and externalities and all the parts of the system have already adapted to that dynamic no fixing of any part can avoid doing more harm because by forcing parts to adapt to a dysfunctional system ( for example overfishing or over logging) making change harder. In this situation we are in, one might think that some leader, in Congress, or an energy company, might call an alarm by writing a direct memo, distributed to staff outlining in a page the logic of the difficulties. This might actually make a career, and if they can afford to make such a move (many such well-positioned people have large savings) at least it would be more interesting and more ethical - and maybe help larger changes.
Meanwhile, stop blaming leadership because while we want them to lead, we have no idea what we actually want them to do. The logic from the leader of COP 28, Al Jaber, had a grip on the dominant logic: if you try to cut fossil fuels without a compensatory system that will allow growth end development (and use fossil fuel) you are going to take us to the stone age. Yet we must.
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Thanks, Douglass. BB