Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

governance S 35
line. I write in the belief that we are, but more than ever before
a great deal of that optimism is based on the hope for wise and
farsighted leadership at all levels.
Our models of great leaders, however, are most often military
fi gures in situations in which the stakes were clear, the adversary
dependably loathsome, and the duration of the crisis reasonably
short. Public morale was expressed as fi erce devotion to the nation
or the cause until a fi nal victory quickly won. Morale in the century
or more ahead, however, will require an extraordinary stamina
and more extensive loyalties that unleash creativity, not animosity.
In such circumstances, people will respond with greater intelligence
and alacrity if they see themselves as part of something
noble, not just as consumers and cogs in an economic machine. In
short, beyond better technologies and policies, morale in the years
ahead will depend on a widely shared vision of a livable future in
radically altered conditions.
The list of things to be done is long. We must, accordingly, summon
the clarity of mind necessary to separate the urgent from the
merely important and identify strategic leverage points where small
changes will generate large effects. To stabilize and then reduce
concentrations of greenhouse gases we must make a rapid transition
to a resilient economy organized around energy effi ciency and
solar energy while reversing ecological deterioration and fending
off probable terrorist attacks on cities and critical infrastructure. On
the global level the United States must help to lead the effort to
forge a global bargain that fairly distributes the costs, risks, and benefi
ts of the transition within and between generations. Theologian
Thomas Berry calls this our “Great Work” (Berry, 1999).
GOVERNMENT AND MARKETS
But how will we organize to accomplish that Great Work? We
presently have no system of governance adequate to the stresses
and challenges of the century ahead. This fact has led many