Desmond Tutu, “Without Forgiveness There Is No Future”

On December the 26th the human race lost a centerpiece of its moral compass. Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his outspoken and unyielding fight against apartheid in South Africa, died at 90. Known as “Arch” to his friends, he could also have won awards for his dance steps, his self-deprecating humor and his fierce determination to stand up for the rights of the poor.

I had the privilege of being with Arch in Northern Ireland when he turned down the protection of a security detail and walked alone through a crowd of Catholic and Protestant militants. He did not flinch and neither side dared to move. I was with him for ten days in Bali in 2004 and 2007 when Carole Angermeir, Marsha Jaffe and I held two Quest for Global Healing conferences totaling 750 participants from over forty countries. The following photos will give you a sense of the man, and what humanity has just lost.

With hopes that we will all stay healthy and thrive in 2022.
–Wilford

He loved to dance:

He loved to play:

Behind his laughter there was serious intent. Here he was with two other Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Jody Williams for her work to remove land mines, Betty Williams for her Northern Ireland peace efforts, and the author:

With Leah, his wife of 67 years, who was also a fierce activist:

With the three princes of Ubud, Bali, the author, Carole Angermeir and Agung Rai, the founder of the Agung Rai Museum of the Arts:

We experienced soaring beauty…

And solemn ceremony

Desmond Tutu
A man with messages to us all of inclusion, love, peace and reconciliation

Please Join Me in Taking Action to Solve the Climate Emergency

Dear friends, 

The COP 26 Climate Summit demonstrated that the human race is not yet up to the task of saving itself from fossil fuel induced global warming and the potential collapse of the human race this century. While progress was made, it was not nearly enough – and we are running out of time. 

Governments demonstrated that they are driven far more by short term domestic political concerns than the eventual collapse of their societies when today’s elected officials, who failed to take the courageous actions needed today, are out of office.

The fossil fuel industry demonstrated that they are far more interested in preserving their profitability than preserving our common home. There were more delegates associated with the fossil fuel industry at the Glasgow summit than from any single country.  Exxon, Chevron and Saudi Aramco in particular deserve our ire. They will milk their assets as long as we let them get away with it. 

Conversely, the young activists who spoke truth to power deserve our support.

This decade is humanity’s last chance to effectively deal with this crisis, as suggested by this graph from the 2021 edition of In Our Hands.

Now that we are experiencing the pain, suffering and financial costs associated with the increase of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, imagine the pain, suffering and financial costs that will be caused by another 3 degree increase above today by 2050, and 7 degrees by 2100. A 7 degree increase would wipe out much of the human race in a mere eighty years.

The last thing I wrote in the 2021 edition of In Our Hands before sending it off to Barnes & Noble and Amazon a few weeks ago was this sentence in the Key Takeaways page (XV):

It is unclear whether the human race, at its current level of development, has the maturity and wisdom, individually and collectively, to do what is needed – or in the time it is needed.

Most people I speak to about this quote feel that we may indeed not be up to the task in a mere ten years. But instead of going into despair, I propose that we use this awareness to galvanize us into action. We need to mobilize on a local, national and global scale now.

The following are some of the actions I am taking, which I invite you to join me in:

    1.    Download, read and pass on the 2021 edition of In Our Hands

Download your copy of In Our Hands using the links that follow immediately here in blue: PDF, Kindle and iBook. I am giving these to all my friends and asking you to read it, commit to take action, and send the book electronically to everyone on your email lists (or you can simply forward this email you received to your friends and networks without having to attach any PDF files, as that might be simplest for you). Doing this will help lead to greater awareness, urgency and action than exists now, and to the mass mobilization that is desperately needed. 

Actions you can take: In addition to reading and passing on the e-book links from the prior paragraph (or just forwarding this email), there are many actions you can choose from that will reduce the severity of the climate crisis, help usher in a better future for your children and grandchildren and give you great satisfaction. Chapter 4 is filled with specific actions you can choose from.

     2.    Climate Essentials course for K-12 teachers nationwide

I have co-created with the Presidio Graduate School a “Climate Essentials” virtual nine week program for K-12 teachers throughout the U.S. (https://k12.presidio.edu/climate/) A new course starts every month.

Actions you can take: Please send the link above to any K-12 school superintendents and teachers you know. It is a terrific program and is being very well received, in part because superintendents and teachers have become increasingly aware of the importance of educating the younger generation about the future they face and what they can do to prepare for it. 

    3.    Awakening corporations to the risks and opportunities the climate emergency poses for them

Corporations have no desire to do harm, and they are far more nimble than national governments in responding to risks and opportunities. And, they have more power than most other groups to pivot away from being a major part of the climate problem to playing a major role in the solution.   

A colleague and I have just developed a presentation for corporations which essentially says that the climate emergency poses major risks to their bottom line if they do not develop strategies to deal with the physical risks to their infrastructure and supply chains. It also poses risks to their brand if their customers, employees and investors turn on them if they suspect that a company is “greenwashing”. Please use your considerable power as consumers, employees and investors to pressure them to stop doing things that add to global warming and shift to practices that will help address the crisis.  Here is the short video we have just produced:   ‪Reinventing Business in the Age of Climate Change.mov.

Actions you can take: I encourage you to call out any corporations you feel are generating significant fossil fuel emissions, or are greenwashing. They may not like what you have to say, but they know that you are the customers they need if they are to grow and prosper. If you are an employee they want to retain, or an investor, they will be sensitive to your calling them out and receptive to well thought out recommendations for how they can help address the climate crisis.

There is much we must all do together if the world is going to truly mobilize and "do what is needed, and in the time it is needed."  After 300,000 years of human development, this is the human species’ first and probably last “all hands on deck” moment, and to date we are showing we are not yet up to the task of digging ourselves out of the hole we have dug ourselves into. We are brilliant at technological innovation, as demonstrated by the industrial and petroleum revolutions, the internet and AI revolutions and nuclear fission, but we are adolescents in terms of our ability to deal with the unintended negative consequences of such technological advances.

We have everything we need to solve this crisis – except the individual, collective and political will to do so. We must change that, starting now. Please join me in taking action. Your and your children’s future is literally “In Our Hands”. 

Be well, 

– Wilford
Adjunct Faculty, Presidio Graduate School
https://k12.presidio.edu/climate/

In Our Hands 

A Handbook to for Intergenerational Actions to  Solve the Climate Crisis

A Guide

The “Key Takeaways” on page XV and the “Overview” chapter on pages 1-20 give an assessment of the challenges and opportunities we face. 

Chapters 2 and 3, The Possible Future – How we saved ourselves and who made it happen, starts from the year 2050 and looks back over the three decades from today to see what policies and practices we put in place that solved the climate emergency before it was too late. 

Chapter 4, What Specific Actions are you Going to Take? Highlights actions every individual can take, many that will save them money. 

Chapter 5, The Road to Ruin, should be read by those who need to understand where climate denial and the politics of fear could easily lead us in a mere thirty years. Granted, it is a worst case scenario, but I believe it is realistic as well as sobering. 

Chapter 6, Resources for Learning and Action, contains 150 carefully selected research papers, books and documentary films on all the topics covered in the book, such as the most recent climate projections, the coming water wars and the emerging and massive global refugee crisis that will dwarf the current refugee crisis we now have to deal with. 

Wilford@WilfordWelch.com

1 East Pier, Sausalito, CA 94965 – (415) 378-5493 

Wilford@WilfordWelch.com

www.WilfordWelch.com
Mobile: (415) 378-5493
Wilford@WilfordWelch.com
Author: 2021 edition of In Our Hands

Take any action you choose to reduce global warming, for action leads to hope, and hope leads to action.

Calling All Teachers

Regrettably, the lives of today’s children will be significantly impacted by global warming and climate change over the course of their lives—no matter where they live.

• And climate change will have severe economic and social justice implications that our children need to understand and prepare for, including choosing professions that will lead to solutions.

• 80% of parents in the United States support teaching climate change.

• 86% of teachers agree climate change should be taught, but many do not feel confident or knowledgeable enough to teach it.

• However, only 42% of teachers currently teach climate change, primarily in science classes.

For the past 18 months, I have been working with the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco to create an online nine-week course with 45 hours of instruction for K-12 teachers throughout the United States. The course uses the 2021 edition of my book, In Our Hands: A Handbook for Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis, as its primary text, and I will be one of two primary educators leading the program.

The teachers who participated in our pilot program this fall reported feeling not only knowledgeable about the climate crisis but also empowered to better teach their students about climate change and its solutions.

Our first official course begins April 12th, which we’re offering to 30 teachers, with more courses to follow. Our ambitious goal is to have 100,000 teachers take the course in the first year. The course costs less than $300. Scholarships are available, and 45 professional development hours or 4.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be awarded upon completion of the course.

Please go to https://www.presidio.edu/climate-change-k12/ for information on how to sign up, and please pass this information on to every teacher you know.

Be well, be safe, and be of service.

Wilford

My latest TEDx talk, "You, Corporate America, and the Climate crisis," is now up on TED.com

Dear Colleagues,

To solve the climate crisis, we face only two major obstacles, both created by humans and thus can be changed by humans. Find out more in my latest TEDx talk, "You, Corporate America and the Climate crisis.”

You have far more power to influence corporate actions on this issue than you may realize. In this talk, I lay out ways you can influence corporations to become a part of the climate solution. We have momentum on our side, and now is the time for you to step forward even more than you may already have. 

Be well,

WIiford

It’s Time to Change Humanity’s Hardware and Software

Dear friends,

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at TEDx Irvine’s “Countdown” conference which focused on original ideas to solve the global warming/climate crisis. My talk, entitled  “It’s Time to Change Humanity’s Hardware and Software,” has just been posted on TED’s YouTube channel. (Click here or see the video above).

As a result of our failure over the past six decades to take incremental steps to get off our addiction to fossil fuels, the 2020’s is the key decade to take the dramatic actions I call for - or pay the consequences. 

Stay safe and be well.
Wilford

PS. If you find my talk of value, please share it with people in your networks. And please get back to me at Wilford@WilfordWelch.com if you have comments.

Three Scenarios of the World Your Grandchildren Will Inherit

The science is now clear what will happen to the world your grandchildren will inherit if we do not take the transformative actions needed during this decade. What is not clear is how humanity will respond.

The following three scenarios of the probable future to mid-century offer some hope. They are written by futurists and whole systems thinkers who have devoted much of their lives to the challenges before us. The first two are recent books that are being provided to you in this email at no cost. The third is an article.

 1.  Choosing Earth: Humanity’s Great Transition to a Mature Planetary Civilization By Duane Elgin

 Choosing Earth is the best book I have read in the past fifteen years on the global warming/climate crisis. Duane lays out three possible, and equally plausible, futures: Collapse, Authoritarianism, a Great Transition. He lays out the stages of pain, suffering and (hopefully) transition to a positive future.

 If this book speaks to you, please download the eBook for free here – and, if you are inspired, join one of the Choosing Earth discussion groups.

2.   In Our Hands: A Handbook for Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis  By Wilford Welch 

In the attached book, I outline two futures over the next thirty years:

• The Probable Future we face if we allow the politics of fear and nationalism, as well as denial of global warming and climate change, to propel the world to economic, social and political collapse.

• The Possible Future that our grandchildren will enjoy if we rise to meet the challenges before us. Specific solutions and actions are presented along with 180 live links to other books, documentaries and research covering such interrelated issues as the science of global warming, climate refugees, the plastics crisis, and the possible evolution of our business and economic systems.

Click here to download your free copy.

3.  “Pandemics: Lessons Looking Back from 2050” By Fritjof Capra and Hazel Henderson

This hopeful look at the next thirty years by an eminent physicist and systems thinker, and an enlightened futurist and science-policy analyst, make the case for the Covid-19 pandemic being the wake-up call the world has needed to move humanity to a “new normal” based on collective responsibility for our planet and each other. Click here.

 Be well,

Wilford

The Momentum Just Shifted

 Last week I watched the historical series The Last Czars and the movie Gandhi. They reminded me of the two videos I had seen earlier in the week: one of George Floyd being suffocated to death by a policeman, the other of President Trump parading to a church across from the White House for a photo-op after police had cleared the area of protestors using chemical grenades and helicopters. Both the series and the film illustrated how citizens who unite around a common cause can overwhelm what appear to be invincible power structures. Both videos highlighted the dire need for change in this country and the importance of citizens coming together to demand it.

When Russian soldiers realized that Nicholas II was not concerned about their plight, they deserted in droves, leaving the Czar defenseless against mob rule. He abdicated, ending 300 years of Romanov rule.

Gandhi convinced the 350 million Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh  British colonial subjects that if they spoke with one voice and took collective action, such as conducting general strikes and confronting the British with non-violence, they would win independence. They did, ending 200 years of British colonial rule.

Most police killings or presidential failures of judgment hit the headlines and then move out of sight and our consciousness with seemingly little impact. But they don’t disappear. They linger in the air until yet another event may finally galvanize us to demand change. That moment has finally arrived.

 Before these two recent events, the criminalization of black men[1], income inequality, climate change, and Trump’s domestic and international politics of tribalism, were all bubbling to the surface but had not reached a boil. George Floyd’s murder recharged the Black Lives Matter movement, and protests against racial discrimination spread around the world in less than a week.  President Trump’s use of the U.S. military against civilians and his use of a church as political prop finally caused many silent dissenters to speak out forcefully 

Dangerous as it is to make a prediction in such chaotic times, I believe that we will look back ten years from now and see these weeks as a watershed moment in the United States experiment. And I hope all those who read this blog and agree with me will help make that happen. If you sit this one out on the sidelines, I believe you will look back ten years from now and conclude that you did not do your part when you had a unique opportunity to do so.

Trump has alienated a majority of those with whom he will need to work if he wishes to make progress on domestic and international issues or win a second term in November.

These recent events in America and the ensuing U.S. and global backlash, suggest that pushback against President Trump has now taken hold and that the momentum has shifted.

And, those pushing back are not only ordinary American citizens but many in the establishment, both currently in power and retired. For example, the U.S. military is now deeply disturbed by Trump’s politicizing their profession, including General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who apologized on June 10th for participating in the photo op alongside President Trump.

Highly respected former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said it very clearly last week :

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society.

Conservative columnist George Will was even more prescriptive when he wrote last week:

Trump must be removed, and so must his congressional enablers.

Several leading Republicans, including former President George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Senator Romney, and Senator Murkowski, have indicated that they will not vote for Trump.

And, a group of prominent Republicans and Democrats who fear that political tribalism is taking the country down a path to disaster have formed the organization www.InThisTogetherAmerica.org to work across the political divide towards a shared, positive vision for the United States. They aim to solve problems rather than polarize:

We are “Solution Citizens” – resisting ideological litmus tests and interest group manipulation as we work together for pragmatic, real-world solutions for climate change, democracy, education, justice, and the health of ourselves, family, community, country, and planet. 

All these leaders have provided cover for other members of the military, Republican members of congress, and wealthy conservatives to speak out.

When people ask me: “But, what can I do?” My answer is:

Become an activist and support groups like The Sunrise Movement and other youth-led non-violent groups working to address global warming, inequality, and racism, while creating millions of jobs by transitioning to a green economy.

And, do your civic duty and vote to remove President Trump and his enablers in the U.S. Senate from office so our great nation can get on with the enormous challenges we face.

[1] I encourage you to see The 13th on Netflix

Intriguing Ways to Mitigate Global Warming and Understand its Causes

THE CLIMATE SIMULATOR

I recently came across this fascinating climate solutions simulator that MIT Sloan School and Climate Interactive recently completed. The EN-ROADS simulator enables you to visualize how actions—like a price on carbon, reducing deforestation, or shifting to renewables —would affect CO2 emissions and the earth’s temperature. The simulator provides surprising insights into how effective—or ineffective— certain actions are likely to be in limiting the rise of global temperatures.

You can see an intriguing explanation of how the simulator works here.

Or just start experimenting with the simulator yourself by clicking here.

And please consider taking their free training to become a workshop facilitator.

It is hard to imagine a more valuable contribution you could make to getting individuals, organizations, and government agencies to mobilize and take effective actions to solve the global warming/climate crisis.

 You can also read about the simulator in this Bloomberg article: “The Best Way to Slow Global Warming? You Decide in This Climate Simulator.”

WHAT’S REALLY WARMING THE WORLD? 

This video, produced by Bloomberg Media from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies data, is equally enlightening. It examines the extent to which such forces as the earth’s orbit, solar flares, volcanoes, or aerosol pollution have changed the earth’s temperature since 1880. It systematically debunks each of these alternative theories and shows, with extreme clarity, the strong correlation between human-generated greenhouse gas emissions and rising global temperatures.

You can find the original Bloomberg article explaining the video here.

And, for those of you who want to understand the methodologies used to compline the data for this video, please click here.

Let’s use this period during which Mother Nature has forced all 7.7 billion of us to take a breather to create new ways of living within earth’s boundaries. If we snap back to the old normal we will have missed a critical opportunity to change our ways and deal with global warming and climate change.

What’s the New Story?

The story we have been living has gotten us into a world of trouble

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed how, even in the darkest of times, there are silver linings. The stay-at-home orders have created opportunities to connect with our families and to better appreciate health care workers, teachers, and other service providers. It has shed new light on the plight of the elderly, those without health care, and the 60% of Americans without even $500 in savings for an emergency.

But COVID-19 has created another silver lining as well. It has given us time to reflect on those embedded human values, behaviors, and systems that have contributed to the global climate crisis.

The 75 years since WW II have seen unparalleled global economic growth and a 5x increase in the human population. Much of the credit for this can be given to fossil fuels and free-market economic policies. But now we can see two of the many unintended consequences of this fossil fuel-driven growth: global warming and climate change. If left unchecked, continued CO2 emissions could easily kill billions of people within decades.

For more than fifty years, scientists have been sending us the same message supported by increasingly solid data and delivered with mounting urgency. The message is simple: a climate crisis is coming. Incremental changes in our energy and economic systems and policies could have helped avoid the monumental challenges we now face. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet demonstrated that we are ready to make the changes now required if we are all to survive and prosper.

COVID-19 may be just the wake-up call we have needed. The pandemic is proof that, when under duress, humanity can mobilize and take the drastic actions called for. What will it take for the people and institutions of the United States to understand the positive future within reach if we take the actions called for to address global warming and climate change?

Among other things, we need a new story.  

The story we’ve been living since WW II—a story of economic growth at all costs driven by both fossil fuels and free-market neoliberalism—is so embedded it will be hard to transform. That is now our challenge.

Several interesting articles have been written on this subject recently, including Coronavirus Spells the End of the Neoliberal Era. What’s Next?  by Jeremy Lent. I hope you will read it.

And here is a link to a talk I gave recently on the same subject. What's the New Story? The talk explores the values and actions embedded in our current story that have created the climate crisis. It also explores a new story that could guide us to a new, life-affirming future in which prosperity has been reimagined. The talk is an expansion of my blog, Turning the Climate Crisis into an Opportunity.

And, this from Arundhati Roy: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next." 

Watch the video

Finally, the documentary Polar Extremes | NOVA | PBS, explores what is likely to happen to our planet and humanity if we do not immediately mobilize around the climate crisis the way we have around the COVID-19 crisis. The documentary is powerful and beautiful. It is also a terrifying look into what’s in store if we do not change our ways.

If you feel this blog might have value to others, please pass it on. And, if you have a comment on what I have written, please email me at wilford [at] wilfordwelch [dot] com.

Transforming the Climate Crisis Into an Opportunity

I see this current pandemic crisis as an opportunity and a wake-up call coming from the natural world. Nature is reminding us who, ultimately, is in charge. She is reminding us that we must respect her laws. Hopefully, the corona crisis which is currently threatening humanity with real consequences, and the climate crisis which most of humanity has been unwilling to come to grips with, will finally cause us to heed these wake-up calls. Humanity has to stop exploiting the natural world, assuming there will be no consequences.

We also need to start working together rather than seeking to satisfy our individual wants at the expense of the whole. Every day now, Carole and I are witnessing an outpouring of good will and mutual support within our community as we all seek to deal with the virus. If there is to be any silver lining, it will come in the emergence of a great collaborative effort to support all of humanity through these crises. It will also come from greater respect for and stewardship of the natural world.

Since the publication of In Our Hands two years ago, I have been surprised to find that the book was just the foundation upon which I would undertake deeper reflection on how we can all join forces to solve the climate crisis and evolve to a higher level of well-being. The corona pandemic has brought into even greater focus the opportunities that are now before us for humanity to reach its full potential.

The video Transforming the Climate Crisis into an Opportunity highlights portions of a recent talk I gave on this topic. I hope you will take the time to watch it - and pass it on to others if you feel it has value. Over the next weeks, I will alert you to three other short clips entitled: 

• What’s the new story? - The story we have been living has gotten us into a world of trouble

• Business Solutions to the Climate Crisis

• Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis

Be well,

Wilford

THE GREAT TRANSITION IN HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

“The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

-William James

Last April I participated in the Climate and Consciousness conference in Findhorn, Scotland. Since then, I have become engaged with groups exploring how the world can use the global climate crisis to awaken humanity to the destructive course it is on, and to transition humanity to a higher level of consciousness. These organizations have names such as A Social Movement for the Great Turning, Evolutionary Leap, The Great Transition, Climate Hope and Voyage into the Resonance Code.

While each group has its own particular focus, they also share many perspectives:

• Global warming and climate change will soon lead to global chaos if it is not effectively addressed by all of us.

• Many of the assumptions held and the actions taken in the modern world’s pursuit of economic growth and consumption have inadvertently led to this crisis.

• The crisis is an opportunity for humanity to examine these assumptions and to rethink our priorities.

• To achieve a transformation in consciousness and take the actions that are needed, we must reimagine our relationship with the natural world, with each other, and the role each of us needs to play. We must do this if we are to avert the worst results of the path we are on and move us to a higher level of consciousness. Stated otherwise, we need to learn how to live in harmony with the natural world and each other.

I believe that the following three deeply embedded assumptions of the modern world have led us to the brink of chaos. These assumptions now need to be re-examined:

• That we can use the earth’s resources without consequence.

Humans seem to be the only animal, or indeed living thing, that consumes more than it needs to survive and procreate. We have assumed that we can take from mother earth to satisfy not only our needs, but also our wants, all without consequence.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, the number of humans inhabiting earth was 2.3 billion, and the earth’s resources appeared limitless. Now there are 7.7 billion of us and we are extracting far more of the world’s natural resources than the earth can resupply, particularly fresh water and agricultural land. The notion that “more is better” may or may not be true, but it is clearly no longer sustainable if all of us are to survive. Mother nature will soon show us what happens to human beings and all other living things when they grow beyond her capacity to support such wants and needs.

• That we can continue to pump CO2 into the atmosphere without consequence.

The extraction and use of petroleum and other fossil fuels has enabled us to produce many of the things most of the 7.7 billion of us want. As a result, we have polluted virtually all parts of the earth’s surface and atmosphere. Last year we pumped an estimated 30 billion more tons of CO2 into the first six-miles of atmosphere over our heads. Unless we can effectively drawdown that carbon it will remain trapped there, as if under a blanket, for years to come. As a result, the earth’s atmosphere continues to heat up and is causing increasingly severe changes in the earth’s climate.

• That each person is an island.

In reality, we are all part of one living system of many parts that are all dependent upon each other for our collective survival.

For many years, I have had opportunities to explore the ways of indigenous peoples around the world. While each group is unique, I have observed that some indigenous cultures hold two values in particular that may help us in our quest to address global warming and climate change, and may help lead us to a higher level of human consciousness: 

• To live each day in balance with the natural world.

These cultures believe that they must steward the natural world that they depend upon for their survival. In the modern world’s drive for economic growth at all costs, we have come to assume that we can exploit the natural world without consequence.

• To live each day in balance with others in the community.

While the shift in our attitudes towards the natural world and towards each other will help address the climate crisis, I believe it will also lead to a different and more meaningful form of well-being for those who embrace it. This is very different from the tendency to measure prosperity in terms of the material goods we possess and consume in our pursuit of happiness.

The Balinese have a Hindu phrase that acts as a guide for their daily behavior: “Tri Hitta Karana.” Loosely translated it means, “I will seek to live today in harmony with the natural world, with others in my community, and with myself. (In place of myself they often use the expression “spirit”).

Maxwell Williams, who is a high school senior and a friend of mine, has turned this notion into the illustration at the top of this blog. It is my hope that if it has meaning to you, you will use this image in any way you see fit. You may use it to remind yourself and indicate to others that you are part of a movement of people who seek to be in balance with the natural world, with others, and within yourself.

In addition, my colleague Nancy Margulies from the Evolutionary Leap Group, a part of Elders Climate Action, has produced the following illustration to reflect our recent discussions about this very same topic.

Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis

For the past seventy-five years since World War II, fossil fuels have created a period of global economic and population growth that few imagined possible. Throughout those seven decades, virtually all governments and industries have worked hand in hand with the fossil fuels industry to deliver an unprecedented period of prosperity. That is the good news.

The bad news is that all these institutions showed little interest in listening to, much less responding to, the voices of scientists like James Hansen—director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies from 1981-2013 —who told Congress in 1988 that continued CO2 emissions generated by all this fossil fuel driven exponential growth would lead to global warming and climate changes with disastrous consequences.

Most citizens around the world also showed little interest in such bad news. They did not demand action to stop fossil fuel emissions, nor did they change their fossil fuel enhanced lifestyles.

And still today, despite increasing evidence that disaster is fast approaching, our entrenched institutions are only making incremental changes at the very best, and pushing back against those sounding the alarm at the worst.

• Enter the Children’s Trust lawsuit in 2015 against the U.S. Government brought by 21 youths between the ages of 10 and 21. They accuse the government of depriving their generation of the right to life and liberty by not addressing global warming. Their suit continues to move forward in the courts despite numerous attempts to stop it.

• Enter 16 year old Greta Thunberg of Sweden, who in 2018, started skipping school every Friday to protest for a sound climate policy in front of the Riksdag, Sweden's national legislature. Her small act of defiance has since resulted in more than 2,000 protests in 125 countries. (https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/)

Here are two of Greta’s more poignant statements. The first is from her remarks at COP24, the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

“We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. […] We have come to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

“You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes. [...] We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. […] If solutions within the system are so impossible to find, then, […] we should change the system itself.”

• Enter the Extinction Rebellion movement of young activists in Europe. When I was in London recently, thousands of young adults were blocking all sorts of economic activities and finally getting the attention of government and business leaders.

• Enter the youth-led Sunrise Movement in the United States which is focused on political activism. Their objective is to stop climate change and create millions of green jobs in the process. They are gaining momentum week by week.

All these young activists would seem to have little power. Many do not even have the right to vote yet. But they know that they have everything to lose. By their actions, they are waking up the entrenched government and business elites.

There are two actions those of the older generations can take to support these young activists. The first is to support them in every non-violent way possible - with our own activism, with our money and with our connections.

The second action is to work beside the younger generations in their efforts to find real solutions to the climate crisis.

In an effort to see how collaboration between the generations might best work to solve the climate crisis, in early April, I organized a two-hour workshop in San Francisco during which 25 students from the Presidio Graduate School of Sustainability and 20 retired professionals explored the three questions noted below. At the Climate and Consciousness conference in Findhorn Scotland in late April, a young colleague from Our Children’s Trust and I explored these same questions with ten young activists and ten “elders.” Lastly, three weeks ago, I explored the same questions again with 30 sophomores at a local high school in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here are the three questions and some of the comments from the young and old at these events:

1. What can we do together that we cannot do alone?

• Unpredictable solutions can come out of collaboration between the generations that cannot be achieved if the generations remain in their silos.

What do the youth think they have to offer?

• We may have unique ideas that the older generation has not thought of.

• We have energy and vitality.

• We feel empowered, in part because of the crisis we are facing.

• We have social media knowledge.

What may the elders have that the youth feel they could benefit from?

• Financial capacity, legal knowledge, connections, campaign development experience.

• Platforms for youth voices to be heard.

• A more global perspective.

• Wisdom and mentoring capacities.

• Life experience, such as guidance when others might try to manipulate us.

• Stability, such as dealing with emotional trauma.

2. What are some of the barriers preventing the generations from working together?

From the perspective of both generations

• Lack of opportunities to naturally connect, such as spaces like churches where the generations in the past have interacted.

• Categorization of youth and elders by each other. (We/They).

• Emotional barriers, such as guilt and not knowing how to process.

• Educational disparities.

• Age differences are challenging enough, but doubly so if interracial.

 From the perspective of the youth

• How can we trust elders who have let us down and saddled us with the problem?

• Elders have had a lot of time and made it worse, so why would we want to approach them?

• Real or perceived resistance to going to a meeting with elders where they might be lectured to rather than listened to.

• We feel that many elders lack motivation and don’t care.

• Older people’s rigidity.

• Transport and food scarcity. (One possible solution: provide food and drinks).

• “We aren’t raised with a third person perspective.” Meaning, we aren’t taught to think of others as much as we should in order to deal with big issues such as global warming and climate change.

• We are discouraged. Our elders tell us that they have been through things before, and know the outcome. So we give up and don’t even try to make a difference.

• Young people don’t speak out since there are standards, and it would be “weird.” 

From the perspective of the elders

• Fear of going to some places where youth might be comfortable meeting but their elders might not be comfortable.

 3. What are some solutions?

• For the elders to acknowledge that they were slow to recognize the problem and sincerely say they want to work “along side” the younger generations to effectively address the crisis.

• Elders need to recognize that when youth speak their truth, that that is an act that should be respected.

• Older people need to prove themselves by being activists themselves, and thus demonstrate that they really do care.

• The young need to get beyond their anger and disappointment and recognize that both parties have much to offer each other if we are going to more rapidly and effectively solve the climate crisis.

My goal is to help get a movement going with all organizations that are working on climate change adding an intergenerational dimension to their initiatives. Our small planet and its 7.5 billion people need all the help we can muster during this tipping point in human evolution.

You can engage directly in the building of this movement by emailing Wilford@wilfordwelch.com and asking to be invited to join a Google Doc where everyone’s voice can be heard on this issue. And, if organizations choose to start intergenerational programs to help solve the climate crisis, I hope they will consider using the illustration that Damon Guthrie created for this blog. If everyone chose to use this illustration, like the “Rosie the Riveter” poster during World War II, it would help build the intergenerational movement we all would like to see take off.

Which Future Will You Vote For?

Global warming and climate change are coming at us faster and with more destructive force than most people realize. They are heading at us like a freight train while we play on the tracks, distracted by our daily wants and needs.

The question before us now is not whether that freight train will hit us, but with what force and effect. It is already clear that no matter what we do, the oceans lapping our shores in 2050 will be 1 ½ - 3 feet higher than today. And the earth’s atmosphere, which is about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than in 1880, is very likely to rise another 2 degrees by 2050. We will be experiencing heat waves, hurricanes and the like that will make today’s climate extremes modest by comparison. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything to stop this, and more, from happening.

If you would like to get a clear understanding of the crisis we are facing, please watch the recently released BBC documentary on YouTube entitled Climate Change – The Facts, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. It is balanced, frightening and hopeful at the same time – just as this blog seeks to be.

The good news is that the climate we create after 2050 is entirely in our own hands. We are not victims. We have choice. We have all the technological solutions we need to slow down the train and limit the damage. It is now up to each of us to choose how this story ends. The only thing we lack is the willingness to acknowledge the crisis we are facing and the will to address it head on.

At one level, our inattentiveness is understandable given all the distractions of our daily lives and the fact that it is difficult to see or understand what's coming at us. Our citizens, politicians and business leaders have never encountered a “frog in a slow boiling pot” situation like this before.

Our citizens focus on their own, near-term wants and needs despite their genuine desire to assure a good future for their grandchildren.

Our politicians pander to the near term wants and needs of these same citizens to get elected.

And, while many CEOs are well aware that the train is coming right down the tracks, in the final analysis, their first priority is to satisfy the near-term financial desires of their shareholders.

The net effect is that while we have the solutions we need in our hands, we are not showing the will to do all that is necessary to avoid climate catastrophe. Incremental actions may be politically expedient, but will fail to stop the train in time. Far bolder actions are required.

Does this mean that we are assured of the “Probable Future” laid out in chapter two of In Our Hands? I do not think so.

How, under these conditions, can we get the citizens, the government and businesses in the United States to mobilize, like they all did in the Second World War?

Buckminster Fuller provided us with an answer when he wrote:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that makes

the old model obsolete.“

At its core, this new model must call for the United States (as well as the rest of the world) to transition off fossil fuels as fast as humanly possible and replace the jobs lost in the fossil fuels and related industries with jobs in the renewable energy sector. This sector includes solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, hydrogen, and if necessary, nuclear power. If we don’t get off fossil fuels and create a stable, “green” economy, we will have climate, economic and social chaos by the end of the century the likes of which we can hardly imagine.

We must not accept the argument, which is certain to come, that our current contentious politics make it impossible to get off fossil fuels and move to “green jobs.” We have seen rapid shifts in our politics and in the behavior of our citizens and businesses before. On December 8th, 1941, one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States mobilized for a war that 90% of its citizens were against entering just two years prior. Four years later, we and our allies had changed the course of history. We can certainly do that again.

So, what will it take to get us to wake up and mobilize now and not wait until we have a catastrophic wake-up call like Pearl Harbor?

The mobilization of voters of all ages is our best hope. Voters need to demand of their elected officials in 2020 that they make getting off fossil fuels and creating green new jobs their top priorities. We all need to ask those running for national, state, county and local office what they will do about global warming and climate change. If they suggest that they do not take the crisis seriously, tell them you will do everything in your power to vote for a candidate that will. Become a political activist as if your life, and the lives of those who follow you depended upon it – because that is in fact true.

These twin goals of shifting from fossil fuels to renewables and creating green jobs must become national and bi-partisan. The role of the politicians in Congress is to debate and decide how these national goals can most effectively be implemented.

A good place to start would be to end the $26 billion in subsidies currently provided to the fossil fuel industry each year. These funds could then be reallocated to renewable energy solutions and green jobs.

Another good place to start is to use the government’s regulatory powers to encourage all businesses to take the lead in implementing this new model. Businesses need to be nimble and attentive to the demands of their customers, investors and employees. These corporate stakeholders are increasingly telling businesses what they think by who they choose to buy or not buy from, where they want to work, or not work, and where they will invest their capital, or won’t.

The tipping point may arrive far faster than one might expect. The people and organizations fighting against the the fossil fuel industries and their backers are finally winning the climate tug of war. (See previous blog). Already, 21% of is U.S. population are alarmed by global warming while another 30%, (100 million Americans), say they are “concerned.” With the momentum we now have, we will soon reach that “tipping point” when global warming and climate change become the main topic of conversation and action in the United States, including who one votes for.

This blog has been focused on the United States, for if we continue to drag our feet on this issue, humanity will remember us as the country that failed to act when the imminent threat of global warming and climate change was clear. History will remember the United States as the nation whose inaction at this point in our evolutionary path, led to global collapse for the sake of near term political and financial gain.

Let this crisis be an opportunity, not to grasp at what we're losing, but to create something new, something more meaningful. Few in the history of the world can say they were part of a greater quest on behalf of the human race.

Winning the Climate Tug of War

A year ago, I was discouraged about our nation’s ability to rise to meet the twin challenges of global warming and climate change. Since then, it has become clear that the power dynamics in the United States have shifted. Most segments of U.S. society are waking up and taking actions to address the crisis. This is happening despite the efforts of the Trump administration, big oil, big gas, big coal and the United States Senate to deny that continued emissions of CO2 will lead to the calamitous future many of us are convinced is fast approaching. Such a shift does not require a majority of the people. Policy decisions are often made and held in place because a relatively small percentage of voters are  deeply committed to achieving a certain outcome. Good examples are U.S. policies towards gun ownership and Cuba. Changes in such policies occur only when another relatively small but deeply committed group of voters comes into being and forces such a change.

Change is sometimes difficult to recognize when one is focused on day to day activities. Before the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 1980s, few observers saw it coming. On the surface it appeared that Moscow had total control. But, under the surface, support for its rule had been weakening little by little, and the willingness of many of the people and institutions to mount resistance was growing. Suddenly Moscow’s grip slipped. It lost control and a new era came into being. Millions of people and thousands of groups played a part. There was no single hero. As Margaret Mead wrote,

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. It’s the only thing that ever has.”

So too, a year ago the current United States administration, the U.S. Congress and the fossil fuel industries appeared to be in control and a large percentage of our people were unconcerned about global warming and climate change. But now I believe we are moving rapidly towards that critical tipping point. We are finally winning the climate tug of war.

According to a new national poll by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 29% of the American people are now “alarmed” and are deeply engaged in taking actions to avert the global warming/climate crisis. This is a very significant 8% jump since March of 2018. But that is still clearly not enough.

Another 30%, (100 million Americans), say they are “concerned” but remain distracted by their day to day concerns. If you are one of these 30%, now is the time to get off the sidelines and start pulling your weight. As a previous blog noted, you can choose among many satisfying actions to take, some in your personal life, some within your community and some in your  professional life.

The following are examples of segments of our society who are now pulling their weight and providing the momentum we desperately need to win this tug of war against those well entrenched, powerful segments of our society who fear that they have much to lose if they admit that global warming is a significant threat that calls for immediate action.

The Green New Deal

Members of The U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled by a party that takes global warming seriously, recently introduced the “Green New Deal”, which has gathered an extraordinary amount of interest and momentum in the media and among the American people in a very short period of time. As I will discuss in my next blog, The Green New Deal is based upon deep concern about global warming and income inequality and provides a vision of what needs to be done by 2030 and by whom.

While these aspirations are facing considerable pushback, I applaud its goals if not necessarily its means, for if one does not start with a bold vision one is not likely to achieve any of it by any means. Remember that two years before President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and Germany in 1941, more than 90% of the American people were against becoming engaged in foreign wars. Remember the skepticism President Kennedy faced when he announced that we would put a man on the moon in just ten years.

Indigenous peoples

For most of the years since the global warming/climate debate began in earnest in Rio in 1992 at the UN “Earth Summit,” the voices of indigenous peoples have been sidelined. Only recently have their voices been formally recognized at international conferences on climate change and their presence as a political force on this topic been felt, most notably in Ecuador to stop oil exploration and in the United States. The scope of their resistance at Standing Rock in an effort to block an oil pipeline across their territory in the North West exceeded just about every other protest in Native American history.

Climate scientists

The leading U.S. climate scientist and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), report author I met with several weeks ago reiterated unequivocally that 97% of all climate scientists are clear that global warming is occurring, and that over 90% of the warming comes from human activities. He confirmed my deepest concerns. He stated that he cannot conceive of a way the world will achieve the Paris Climate Conference goal of limiting global warming to only 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Furthermore he thinks it unlikely that we will even hold it to 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels. His views also reflect the dire predictions of the 18 U.S. Federal Agencies which I mention below, of which he was also an author. He foresees average sea level rise by 2050 to be around two feet above current levels with ever more fearsome storms and storm surges during the intervening years.  

Not for profit environmental organizations

Environmental not for profits, (NGOs), have made heroic efforts for many years to get Americans to address the global warming and climate challenges we face. Providing the public with ever more accurate data did not, however, do the trick. It was only after many forest fires and a series of “once in five hundred years” weather events ravaged parts of our country, coupled with the public’s concern about the Trump administration’s denial of global warming, that many Americans started taking this seriously. As a result, financial donations to environmental NGOS have surged. Individual donations to 350.org, for example, increased by almost $3,000,000 from 2016 to 2017.

Eighteen Federal Government agencies

The United States government’s “Fourth National Climate Assessment,” prepared by 18 Federal Government agencies, was released by the White House over Thanksgiving weekend in 2018. Mandated by Congress, the report laid out in great detail the enormous economic, social and environmental consequences that will result if these very same government agencies fail to address global warming and climate change. (See this previous blog or go to https://www.globalchange.gov/nca4).

President Trump has nominated, and the U.S. Senate has confirmed, the heads of each of these agencies, who have been relaxing regulations and maintaining fossil fuel subsidies that are making global warming worse. It is of some comfort however to know that many of the men and women in these agencies spoke “truth to power” in the Fourth National Climate Assessment and will be in their jobs far longer than our current President or his cabinet appointees.  

State and local governments

California, the fifth largest economy in the world, has taken the lead in pushing back against the Trump administration’s relaxation of regulations on the automobile and other carbon emitting industries by establishing initiatives to reduce carbon emissions

Last September, then California Governor Jerry Brown hosted the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, which I attended.

The summit brought together over 5,000 climate leaders from more than 103 countries, including representatives of most every segment of U.S. society, to share initiatives each was engaged in to address the climate crisis. This is the most prominent example of how states and cities across the United States have been stepping in to counter the pro fossil fuel policies of the current federal administration.

Millennials

Millennials, between the ages of 23 and 39, are well aware of how global warming and climate change will affect their lives. They are becoming a powerful voting block and they are mobilizing, a good example being the Sunrise Movement.

The subtitle of my book, In Our Hands, is A Handbook for Intergenerational Actions to Solve the Climate Crisis. I included this subtitle with the hope that the older generations who have benefitted so much from the fossil fuels that will do great damage to the lives of the millennials and other younger generations, can work together to advance solutions to solve this crisis. To test this intergenerational opportunity, I have been working with the Presidio Graduate School, whose students focus on sustainability, and Elders Climate Action, a program of the Elders Action Network, to explore how the generations can most effectively work together.

Our Children’s Trust v. the U.S. Government

The child on the left in the illustration that opens this blog is pulling far above her weight.

In a landmark climate lawsuit, formally called Juliana v. U.S., twenty-one plaintiffs from all over the United States between the ages of ten and twenty-one filed a suit in 2015 against the U.S. government. Their complaint asserted that, through the government's affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken agreed, writing “Exercising my ‘reasoned judgment,’ I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society.”

(For more, go to https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/juliana-v-us).

The suit, which pundits derided as a nuisance suit, is very soon heading to trial despite many efforts by the Trump administration to get it dismissed. Whether or not it ultimately prevails, the upcoming testimony by Nobel climate scientists and economists will be powerful expert testimony that could be used in many future cases. Hopefully the mainstream media will highlight this testimony and cause many more people to shift their views on the threat we face.

Many more segments of our society are becoming involved

The mainstream media, which has been reluctant to get into the middle of the climate debate, stepped out on December the 30th when NBC’s Meet the Press had an hour long hard hitting special on climate change.

The coal museum in Eastern Kentucky recently shifted to solar power to save money.

University endowments, pension funds and insurance funds, who invest for the long term, have divested trillions of dollars of their fossil fuel stocks, not only for moral reasons but because they have concluded that the world is moving away from fossil fuels. And foundations are doing the same, the most striking example being the divestment of fossil fuels by the Rockefeller family foundations. As is the case with the coal museum’s shift to solar, the Rockefeller Family foundation’s actions is ironic given that the very basis of their wealth was petroleum.

As suggested by the group sitting in the stands in the Tug of War illustration by Woody Guthrie’s grandson Damon that opens this blog, the world is watching the United states. An example of one particularly poignant observer is the 15 year old Swedish girl named Greta Thunberg who spoke at the Global Climate Summit In Poland last December, and also gave this compelling TEDx talk in Stockholm.

Contrary to what Moscow assumed for years, power does not always reside at the top. Average Americans as well as major segments of our society are finally getting the upper hand in this tug of war. Please join them. Run over and grab the rope and start pulling with all the strength you can muster.

Like bamboo in a strong wind, China will bend but not break

Like bamboo in a strong wind, China will bend but not break in response to the current trade war initiated by the United States. The Chinese government will tell its people that China stood up to the United States. Likewise, regardless of the outcome, President Trump will tell the people of the United States that America achieved a great victory. That is the nature of politics.

But far more is at stake. Global warming is clearly the greatest threat to the human race that has ever existed. If we want a chance to get it under control, it will require the active leadership of the world’s two largest economies. For several hundred years leading up to World War II, the world was driven by nations competing for greater slices of the global pie. Today, if nations do not work together in greater harmony, there will be no pie.

China has a well thought through plan. The United States does not. China has followed a highly successful five-year national planning approach to economic development pioneered by many other East Asian nations including Singapore, Korea and Taiwan in particular.

By thinking long-term and strategically, from 1959 – 1990, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew transformed Singapore from a nation with a weak economy and unstable society into a nation with a strong economy and stable society. In similar fashion, South Korea, which had a per capita GNP at the end of the Korean war less than that of Haiti, Ethiopia, or Yemen, is now the world’s 11th largest economy.

In each case, economic growth was prioritized over democracy and the protection of human rights. But over time, as their economies have leaped ahead and their citizens have become better educated, greater democracy and the protection of human rights have followed. One can argue with the costs in terms of democracy and human rights but one cannot deny their economic success. One can also debate whether continued economic success and better educated citizens in China will lead to greater democracy and human rights, but that is not the subject of this blog.

The Chinese economy today is second in the world only to that of the United States. This is due in large measure to the central government’s Five Year plan and immense central government spending. In the Made in China 2025 initiative, President Xi made clear where he wants to take the country both domestically and globally and the industries in which he intends China to take the lead. President Trump has reason to be concerned about this economic juggernaut, and to be frustrated that China has often gained access to advanced technologies from the U.S. and other countries by not abiding by the rules. He has the choice to be belligerent or seek common ground for the betterment of both countries and the world. The latter approach is essential if our world is ultimately going to survive and prosper.

For all the inherent strengths of the United States, the short-term thinking of our government, our corporations and our people is not one of them. Short-term thinking makes it difficult for the U.S. to focus on, much less invest in, the education of our children to prepare them for the very different future they will inherit, or invest in our physical infrastructure. Far more dangerous is our inability to focus on global warming, that freight train approaching at high speed and with destructive force while we play on the tracks and choose not to notice that the tracks are vibrating.

The United States Government has no long-term strategic vision or plan. Rather, despite the many civil servants who are committed to enacting sound long-term policies, we are driven by the short-term political aspirations of our politicians who feel compelled to appeal to the near-term wants of their constituents if they are to be elected or retain their offices. That was clearly demonstrated two weeks ago when thirteen U.S. Federal agencies released the Fourth National Climate Assessment, (see previous blog), predicting disastrous economic consequences coming from global warming over the next decades. The next day, the President dismissed the report saying, “I don’t believe it.”

Our corporations, who have many thoughtful leaders and employees, are well aware when their products are polluting the atmosphere and increasing the likelihood of global warming. But in the last analysis our corporations are driven largely by the near-term demands of investors for robust quarterly profits.

Most Americans, despite their genuine concerns for the long-term well-being of their children and grandchildren, make decisions every day to achieve their near-term wants and needs that will have long-term negative impacts on their kin. French President Macron’s recent plan to raise gas prices as part of his efforts to shift France to a green economy ran head long into the near-term concerns of French citizens. The problem was neatly summarized in this statement by one of the protesters: “Macron is concerned about the end of the world. We are concerned about the end of the month.”

In the current face-off between the United States and China, the stakes for both countries as well as the world as a whole could not be higher. President Trump is focused on achieving a short-term “win” that will demonstrate his tough negotiating prowess to help him win a second term, while President Xi can take a longer view. His power appears secure for far longer than the next two years, he has far more control over the Chinese economy and what his people will be told when some settlement is reached.

Clearly President Xi has to be deeply concerned about the near-term economic damage of an ever more divisive trade war with the United States, but I believe he also sees this as an historic opportunity to show the world that China is now an equal to the United States and will no longer be subservient to the West. Since the mid 1800s, when the British and other Western powers were victorious in the two Opium Wars and extracted commercial privileges and territorial concessions, China has wanted to gain the respect it feels it deserves from the rest of the world.

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Author’s note: I feel I may have a perspective about China as well as the long-term economic planning of the nations of East Asia that has been worth sharing. I studied Chinese and taught in a Chinese college for two years in Hong Kong right after Yale. I then went to law school at Berkeley for the sole purpose of studying the Chinese legal system and subsequently played a role as a U.S. diplomat in the Nixon administration’s internal deliberations about exploring diplomatic relations with China. With regard to the long-term strategic thinking and planning of the nations of Asia, I led consulting teams that helped formulate the five-year plans for the electronics industries of both the governments of Korea and Taiwan.

“I haven't met many Americans (or Europeans) who understand Chinese's deep need for respect, as well as the strong desire to "get back at" the west. I harbored that in me too. Your understating of China is rare. I see that the West's ignorance of these needs and desires have been really costly and detrimental to itself. Because if the west can acknowledge this deep need and consciously engage with the Chinese, there is more potential to build more mutually benefiting relationship, rather than locked in competitions.”

-Spring Chen, PhD. Author, The Resonance Code: Empowering Leaders to Evolve Toward Wholeness.

"Excellently done. I am with you totally re mentioning the discrepancy between “Short Term vs Long Term” thinking.  And, of the importance of acknowledging China as the next partner, not as adversary— avoiding the usual mistake of creating “faces of the enemy” in competition, instead of cooperation/collaboration.”

-Chungliang Al Huang, Founder/Directer, International Lan Ting Institute, Living Tao Foundation (www.livingtao.org).