Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

The value of a bright light is that it takes away the darkness where our leaders often run to hide. For too long, we've let our leaders off the hook when it comes to addressing problems - and surprise, surprise - our problems don't go away when we ignore them! They come back bigger and stronger, more intractable.

Political courage is hard to come by these days, especially when it comes to dealing with climate change - that may be one of the things I admire most about Obama. He seems intent on tying economic recovery to investment in green infrastructure. Let's hope he keeps his spine up in the face of all those who will try to sway him this way and that, in hopes of avoiding taking the medicine they know they need.

The world has a portentous meeting coming up in Poland next month, which will be an opportunity for world leaders to demonstrate the leadership the represent.

In a recent analysis by Alister Doyle for Reuter's printed in the Toronto Star (see Economy offers excuse to avoid climate fight: But Obama's election seen as cause for hope ahead of Polish summit), we find a discussion of how political leadership is severely challenged by the need to balance economic needs and environmental ones.

TheStar.com - World - Economy offers excuse to avoid climate fight

"The days are gone when the EU can hide behind the United States and still look good," concluded Jennifer Morgan, of the E3G environmental think-tank.

But isn't "economy v. ecology" a false argument? Devilstower in Daily Kos thinks so. In No Dark Cloud without a Darker Lining the argument is made for rejecting any continuance of old conservative ideologies that got us into problems. It's hard to let go of cultural handholds when hanging on a cliff, but we must.

Let's face it, leadership is best demonstrated when dealing with intractable problems. Leadership in good times is easy, what many aspiring "leaders" seem to hope for when they seek the mantle of leadership. In contrast, leadership in hard times is difficult, but sublime - that's where leaders earn a place in history - by pulling people together to overcome difficult problems.

Perhaps finally, at this time in history, we will see some leaders step up to the plate instead of stepping away - perhaps now, finally, our leaders will lead the world population to do some things that are on the face, unattractive and at an individual level, unappealing. That is the crux of it - we must cooperate at a society and do things the whole of human society desperately needs - economic and environmental reform - but which the individual human finds against his/her personal best interest - in a word, our leaders need to address the Tragedy of the Commons.