When you are looking for leadership, you look to leaders. And anyone who was looking to Canada for leadership on combatting climate change was never looking in the right places. Canada has been an embarrassment on the international stage since the days of Stephen Harper and before and we have missed every single target, KPI, milestone and commitment we have made because we are not serious about addressing climate change. We refused to make a choice to become a world leader in the development and deployment of renewable energy even though we have the material and intellectual resources to have done so. At the beginning of this century we had an OBVIOUS opportunity to completely reinvent our economy and energy system. Instead we pandered to a handful of oil and gas companies who held federal and provincial governments hostage to their rapacious need for profit at the expense of, well, the entire planet’s liveable future.

We faced a choice and we made it, and now the rest of the world is trying to ignore us and our neighbour as we just give up on trying to make a contribution to this cause and instead lay down and create the conditions for death merchants to acquire profits in these waning days.

So don;t look to us. Look to the people that are actually doing something about it. I have some faith – what else is there to have – that a behemoth like China has the scale and capacity to make some kind of dent in the catastrophic numbers the world is facing. And along with countries in the global south who are now buying the affordable renewable infrastructure that China is manufacturing at scale, there might be a tipping point for the world that will eventually reach North America, even as we erect walls around our temple of oil and gas.

Who knows? Perhaps that might be enough to get the world into the right lane on this journey. That would be great. But Canada will be a backwater in this new world, contributing a few minerals here and there if provinces can even be bothered to talk to First Nations and avoid the inevitable legal morass that will come when they pursue projects at the expense of the laws of the land. We have probably lost the ability to compete for any sector of the generation of the planet’s next form of energy dependance. The sycophantic governments in Alberta and Ottawa and elsewhere bleat on about fossil fuel projects as if they are the adults in the room, while the rest of the world tries to pry itself away from the poisons that will end us.

I’m encouraged by Bill McKibben’s observation about what’s happening at scale on this issue. And then I look at the current policies of our governments and just shake my head at their naiveté. Watching people year after year, government after government, burn their own house down to sell matches to the to arsonists is frustrating and infuriating. But I can only hope that the market they hold so sacred will finally turn their heads to the opportunities that have been lost and help them realize that they bet on a losing horse and all that is left to do now is cut our losses and get out before we are dragged into oblivion.

I learned of Bill Torbert’s death today through a nice collection of links and tributes at Benjamin Taylor’s blog. I met Bill several times at the Shambhala Institute on Authentic Leadership where we were both on faculty in the late ‘aughts. Being on the faculty at that Institute was a mixed blessing. While one got to hang out with some true lions in the field, and make some unique memories, we never got to take each other’s sessions. Bill taught with Mary Stacey at those sessions and I was constantly intruiged by their module. He was also a friend and loving champion of Peter Frost’s, Caitlin’s father. After Peter died in 2004 and we made that connection he shared some very sweet memories of their times together at Academy of Management conferences over the years. Most of Bill’s research is freely available at ResearchGate.

Bill had an erring eye for the kinds of intangible resources that built capacity, like reflection, inquiry and relationality. In that vein thinking about systems change from the perspective of weaving relations and resilience inside a system is important. Here are some resources about the work of the Collective Change Lab who focus on just that work.

I was out at a play Friday night, a terrific local production of Tom Stoppard’s clever and funny Rough Crossing, and so I didn’t see the final score in the first game of the World Series. I knew the game was tied 2-2 for a while, but when the break came in the play I was told that the Jays had won 11-4. Later, watching the highlights, it was amazing to see the atmosphere in Toronto. Sport culture is such an abiding interest, and there is nothing more elevating as a communal experience than witnessing your underdog team beat the Champions in the most important game of the past 32 years.

Last night I was performing in a coffee house fundraiser on our island while the Blue Jays suffered a loss in Game 2. The chemistry and camaraderie and feedback loops across time and space are plainly visible with this team. They aren’t as talented as the Dodgers but they are exhibiting the power of those intangibles.

Different types of conflict responses from Dan Oestreich. He charts the dysfunctional behaviours of Withdrawl, Passive Resistance, Passive Aggression and Open Combat and counters these with the better Third Party Tactics and Human Contact. Go for Human Contact whenever you can. The relational approaches are the strongest peacemaking you can do.