{"id":5200,"date":"2015-05-25T08:21:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T19:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=5200"},"modified":"2015-05-25T08:21:44","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T19:21:44","slug":"leadership-abandoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=5200","title":{"rendered":"Leadership abandoned."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pat3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-87\" src=\"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pat3.jpg\" alt=\"Pat3\" width=\"90\" height=\"90\" srcset=\"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pat3.jpg 90w, http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Pat3-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 90px) 100vw, 90px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0Pat Odea Climate change editor<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/climate-change.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5206\" src=\"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/climate-change.jpg\" alt=\"climate-change\" width=\"900\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/climate-change.jpg 900w, http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/climate-change-300x187.jpg 300w, http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/climate-change-495x308.jpg 495w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The memory of leadership and leadership abandoned<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All men are created equal&#8221; ABRAHAM LINCOLN<br \/>\n&#8220;Quit India&#8221; MAHATMA GANDHI<br \/>\n&#8220;We shall never surrender&#8221; WINSTON CHURCHILL<br \/>\n&#8220;I have a dream&#8221; MARTIN LUTHER KING<br \/>\n&#8220;The ideal of an equal society&#8230; It is an ideal for which I am prepared<br \/>\nto die.&#8221; NELSON MANDELA<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In December, the world will come together at the UN Climate Conference<br \/>\nin Paris, and we will see whether or not we can muster the collective<br \/>\npolitical will to reach an ambitious, comprehensive agreement.&#8221; JOHN KERRY<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ha ha&#8221; NELSON MUNTZ<\/p>\n<p>The United States of America comports itself among nations as a global<br \/>\nworld leader.<\/p>\n<p>So when the US Secretary of State speaks we should listen.<\/p>\n<p>In the lead up to what has been billed as the world&#8217;s penultimate<br \/>\nclimate summit, The current US Secretary of State, John Kerry gives an<br \/>\naddress outlining America&#8217;s approach to combating climate change.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks on Climate Change at the Atlantic Council\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JTwmKe_iNO8?start=1690&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Though obviously well meant, John Kerry&#8217;s address contains two main<br \/>\nflaws. These two flaws are interrelated :<br \/>\n1\/ A lack of courageous and inspiring leadership from the front prepared<br \/>\nto take risks and go out on a limb.<\/p>\n<p>In past summits the US and the EU have not been been prepared to meet<br \/>\nthe Third World leader&#8217;s calls, for First World financial help to help<br \/>\nthem make cuts demanded of them.<\/p>\n<p>There are several themes raised by John Kerry in his speech that are<br \/>\nworthwhile, particularly his comments about the future of oil and coal<br \/>\nand the certainty of climate collapse if we do nothing. But overall I<br \/>\nthink Kerry and other global politicians failings are this; They are all<br \/>\nwaiting till they can achieve universal global agreement, and are too<br \/>\nhesitant to agree to do anything meaningful themselves until this<br \/>\nuniversal agreement is achieved.<\/p>\n<p>What Kerry misses is that real leadership comes from the front.<\/p>\n<p>What other country will be prepared to make the painful cuts in green<br \/>\nhouse gas emissions the scientists tell us are necessary, when the<br \/>\nrichest and most powerful nation on earth refuses to do so?<\/p>\n<p>When what is required is one leading nation to make a unilateral break<br \/>\nfrom the herd, and lead from the front. The take home message from John<br \/>\nKerry&#8217;s address is this; the US will not be that nation. Instead the US<br \/>\nis looking to impose big cuts in emission cuts on the whole world, which<br \/>\nthe First world, the US and the EU, and possibly China and India will<br \/>\nthen all agree to match, but which look likely to fall particularly hard<br \/>\non those countries trying to lift themselves out of poverty. The rich<br \/>\ncountries, (which historically are the most responsible for climate<br \/>\nchange, and who can most afford to make these changes), will not agree<br \/>\nto compensate or fund the poorer nations to make these same changes. So<br \/>\nno one will change, and so business as will usual continue in both the<br \/>\ndeveloped and the developing world, unchecked to any major degree.<\/p>\n<p>This is the rock on which the last global climate summit floundered on.<\/p>\n<p>Without massive First World funding, those countries that are trying to<br \/>\nclimb the development ladder will keep milling the rain forests and<br \/>\nbuilding new coal power plants. (After all that is what we did to get<br \/>\nwhere we are.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/amazon-deforestation-takes-a-turn-for-the-worse\/\">http:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/amazon-deforestation-takes-a-turn-for-the-worse\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>With John Kerry&#8217;s first world superpower view of the world, the Paris<br \/>\nclimate summit, like all the preceding summits before it, will not find<br \/>\nagreement, because no nation, not even the US, wants to be the first<br \/>\ntake the lead, and take the hard but necessary decision to make the<br \/>\nmassive cuts in emissions that the science says are the only way to save<br \/>\nour world .<\/p>\n<p>In his speech John Kerry praises great political leaders of the past<br \/>\nthat took risks, but he and most (if not all) of the other mainstream<br \/>\npoliticians and leaders taking part in the talks in Paris are very<br \/>\nhesitant to take any political risks at all. Each waiting for the others<br \/>\nto make the first move.<\/p>\n<p>The approach of trying to get universal agreement before committing to<br \/>\nanything will undoubtedly fail, (again).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Start at 36:11 minutes in<br \/>\n&#8220;Through my life I believe that you can take certain kinds<br \/>\nof risks in the course of public affairs and life. My heroes are people<br \/>\nwho dared to take on great challenges without knowing for certain what<br \/>\nthe outcome would be.<\/p>\n<p>Lincoln took risks, Ghandi took risks, Churchill took risks, Dr King<br \/>\ntook risks,<br \/>\nMandela took risks. That doesn&#8217;t mean that every risk taker is a role<br \/>\nmodel. It is one thing to risk a career or a life or on behalf of a<br \/>\nprinciple, or to save or liberate a population, it quite another to<br \/>\nwager the well being of generations and life itself simply to continue<br \/>\nto satisfy the appetites of the present.&#8221; JOHN KERRY<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The dance between leadership and people is a subtle one.<\/p>\n<p>It is an inescapable fact, anything worth doing by humans requires<br \/>\nteamwork, whether it is building a house, or a road, or crossing an<br \/>\nocean. (or fighting a war). Teamwork is our greatest strength as a<br \/>\nspecies. It is also another inescapable fact, teamwork requires leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Notice that John Kerry tempers his praise of leaders of the past that<br \/>\ntook risks with a qualifier, that not all risk takers should be<br \/>\nfollowed. I think that Kerry&#8217;s dilemma is that he knows that leadership<br \/>\nthat gets too far ahead from the mainstream risks becoming isolated. And<br \/>\nthis is a risk that he and other mainstream politicians are currently<br \/>\nnot prepared to take. It is safer to hide in the herd.<\/p>\n<p>As our climate more obviously decays, if real leadership on climate<br \/>\nchange is not forthcoming from the top, it will have to come from the<br \/>\nstreets. As people demand action from their government&#8217;s, and raise the<br \/>\ndemand that they can not to wait for any other country to act first.<br \/>\nThen, we may be able to see the rise of the sort of political leadership<br \/>\nthat John Kerry longs for.<\/p>\n<p>2\/ As well as shying away from leadership, Kerry&#8217;s address contains one<br \/>\nother major flaw.<\/p>\n<p>John Kerry&#8217;s speech on the climate is a worthwhile contribution to the<br \/>\nglobal debate on climate change, and the possibilities for changing<br \/>\ncourse, coming as it does, from a top world politician. But John Kerry&#8217;s<br \/>\nspeech however, does in my opinion, deliver one particularly bum note.<\/p>\n<p>Giving up on his wistful wish for inspiring political leadership, in the<br \/>\nlast ditch, John Kerry makes a misguided call to hand power over from<br \/>\npolitical organisations to the autocratic top down dictat of the big<br \/>\nfaceless global corporates.<\/p>\n<p>In his speech on the climate John Kerry, expresses his ambition to<br \/>\nsomehow, (using America&#8217;s dominant hegemonic position of power in the<br \/>\nworld), force the changes he wants onto other nations. John Kerry<br \/>\nexpressing the view, that handing more power to global corporations to<br \/>\ncontrol, other formerly independent, nation&#8217;s affairs through the TPPA<br \/>\nand the TAPA, that these corporations will get the nations subject to<br \/>\nthe TPPA and TAPA to make the changes he seeks.<\/p>\n<p>Completely at odds with the rest of his speech, Kerry espouses an<br \/>\nautocratic top down approach to climate change that is a retreat from<br \/>\nthe cooperative approach that the Paris talks are supposed to be about.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Secretary Kerry Delivers Remarks on Climate Change at the Atlantic Council\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JTwmKe_iNO8?start=1690&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Start 28:16 minutes<br \/>\n&#8220;We have to strengthen legal and regulatory frameworks in<br \/>\ncountries overseas to help spur investment in places where it is<br \/>\ninsufficient. It is much easier for businesses to deploy capital when<br \/>\nthey have confidence in the local legal and regulatory policy, and to<br \/>\nattract money we need to control risk, the more you can minimise the<br \/>\nrisk the greater confidence people, investors will have to bring their<br \/>\ncapital to the table.<br \/>\nWe also have to continue to push for the world&#8217;s highest standards<br \/>\nin the environmental chapters of the trade agreements that we are<br \/>\npursuing. Just like, we are doing in the Trans Atlantic Trade and<br \/>\nInvestment Partnership, and the Trans Pacific Partnership, and just like<br \/>\nlabour standards in other agreements, these environmental agreements,<br \/>\n(nervous cough), have to be really fully enforceable.&#8221; JOHN KERRY<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>End 29:11 minutes<\/p>\n<p>Talk about US superpower political hubris.<\/p>\n<p>If change is to come, it will come through international cooperation,<br \/>\ndelivered from inspirational and visionary leadership, leadership that<br \/>\nappeals to the best in humanity. It will start when the leading powers<br \/>\nstart making the necessary changes and set the pace. Positive change<br \/>\nwill never come from imposition by faceless global corporates, because<br \/>\nas well as having a vested interest in exploiting the natural and human<br \/>\nworld to the point of destruction, generally these multinational<br \/>\ncorporate investors operate behind the scenes and on their own secret<br \/>\nprofit driven agendas, (except under extraordinary circumstances) never<br \/>\nhaving to bow to any democratic, or any other sort of public input.<\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, John Kerry&#8217;s hope that giving these global corporates,<br \/>\nlegislative oversight over sovereign governments, (even his own), will<br \/>\nsee them use this legislative power for the good of humanity and the<br \/>\nenvironment, is wishful thinking.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, with more leaks of the secret draft of the TPPA, we may soon<br \/>\nbe able to verify if John Kerry&#8217;s lofty claims for the TPPA, &#8216;that the<br \/>\nTPPA contains the protections for the environment and the climate&#8217;, that<br \/>\nhe says it does, are actually in the TPPA. Or whether this is just<br \/>\nwishful thinking on his part.<\/p>\n<p>Frankly, I personally strongly doubt John Kerry&#8217;s claims for the TPPA.<\/p>\n<p>We also have to ask ourselves; Is John Kerry&#8217;s shameless plug for the<br \/>\nTPPA in his climate speech, politically naive as it sounds? Or is John<br \/>\nKerry&#8217;s artless insertion of his administrations support for the TPPA, a<br \/>\npolitically necessary nod to the corporate lobbyists and donors and<br \/>\npolitical backers, to which the Obama\/Kerry administration are beholden<br \/>\nto? Are these the ones that are really forming the Obama\/Kerry<br \/>\nadministration&#8217;s global stance on the climate?<\/p>\n<p>No matter how much Kerry wistfully praises political leaders of the past<br \/>\nfor taking risks.<\/p>\n<p>It is a fact; That it is the global corporations that Kerry wants to<br \/>\nhand legislative oversight power to, to maximise their profits have a<br \/>\nfinancial and economic incentive to wreck the environment, particularly<br \/>\nthe climate.<br \/>\nIt is also a fact; It is these global corporates, that leading world<br \/>\npoliticians, like John Kerry, are the ones, that leaders like him are<br \/>\nhesitant to take the risk of opposing.<\/p>\n<p>Witness the Obama administration granting Shell permits to drill in the<br \/>\nArctic. Or their shilly shallowing over the XL pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>Or the Obama administration&#8217;s granting permits for more unnecessary and<br \/>\ndangerous coal mining.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Leadership abandoned:<br \/>\nCarbon pollution from publicly owned coal leased just<br \/>\nduring the Obama administration will cause damages estimated at between<br \/>\n$52 billion and $530 billion, using the federal government&#8217;s own<br \/>\nmethodology for estimating the social cost of carbon. In contrast, the<br \/>\ntotal amount of federal revenue generated from those coal lease sales<br \/>\nonly amounted to $2.3 billion. Nationwide, the value of federal coal to<br \/>\na domestic coal burning power plant averages $35 a ton. For this, the<br \/>\nfederal government collects a mere $2. This is a giveaway of a vast<br \/>\npublic resource &#8211; a taxpayer rip-off virtually unparalleled in the 21st<br \/>\ncentury.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.truth-out.org\/news\/item\/30790-coal-conspiracy-stoking-climate-disaster-at-the-blm\">http:\/\/www.truth-out.org\/news\/item\/30790-coal-conspiracy-stoking-climate-disaster-at-the-blm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In my opinion, in his speech on the climate, raising the example of the<br \/>\ncourageous leaders of the past, John Kerry has expressed a subconscious<br \/>\nwish to have the courage of these past leaders, to stand up to the<br \/>\ncorporate driven agenda destroying our planet.<\/p>\n<p>It is up to all of us to give him and leaders like him the courage he seeks.<\/p>\n<p>Pat O&#8217;Dea is the Mana Movement Spokesperson On Climate Change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Pat Odea Climate change editor The memory of leadership and leadership abandoned &#8220;All men are created equal&#8221; ABRAHAM LINCOLN &#8220;Quit India&#8221; MAHATMA GANDHI &#8220;We shall never surrender&#8221; WINSTON CHURCHILL &#8220;I have a dream&#8221; MARTIN LUTHER KING &#8220;The ideal of an equal society&#8230; It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.&#8221; NELSON MANDELA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":5206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5200"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5207,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5200\/revisions\/5207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}