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

the upshot: what is to be done? S 211
• making more radical changes that might someday lead a more
civilized America to confi scate 100 percent of the profi ts from
making weapons.
As educator-in-chief, the president must help to rebuild our civic
intelligence, emphasizing why fairness and decency are fundamental
to prosperity and our well-being lest under the duress of
hard times we forget who we are. The president must also help to
extend our notions of citizenship to include our role as members
in the wider community of life and knowledge of why being
good citizens on both counts is the bedrock for any durable civilization.
The president must help us understand the ties that bind
us together and extend our sight to a farther horizon.
The challenge of transformative leadership in the age of consequences,
however, does not fall only to the president and those
in Washington. Far from it! The greater part of the work will be
done—as it always has been—by those in leadership positions in
nonprofi t organizations, education, philanthropy, media, churches,
business, labor, health care, research centers, civic organizations,
mayors, governors, state legislators . . . virtually all of us. It is mandatory
that we all contribute to the effort to minimize and then
eliminate carbon emissions, deploy solar technologies, make the
transition to a post-carbon economy, reengage the international
community, and come to regard ourselves as trustees for future
generations. This is a paradigm shift like no other. It is what philosopher
Thomas Berry calls our “Great Work.” Like that of earlier
times, it will be costly and diffi cult, but far less so than not
doing it at all.
From nearly a half century of work in sustainable and natural
systems agriculture, urban design, biomimicry, ecological engineering,
green building, biophilic design, solar and wind technology,
regenerative forestry, holistic resource management, waste
cycling, and ecological restoration, we have the intellectual capital
and practical experience necessary to remake the human presence