rogat+-+sustp+-+go+fix+it+collage

Michelle Rogat Sustainability Problems Go Fix It - Collage and 500-word Caption

__"Environmental Crises & the Rise of Transformational Leadership" __ 
 * (I made the collage so that the problems involved in the "future environmental doomsday" lie above the red horizontal line, the political "hero" is center stage as I'm sure they would be in the public eye, and the solutions the hero could carry out lie below the horizontal green line.)**

I decided to do my presentation on the lack of political leadership we have addressing climate change and sustainability for a couple of reasons. My first motive was that I really wanted to do something a bit different and try to have a bit of fun with the concept of needing a superhero. I was picturing a sci-fy movie of an environmental crisis and having a green superhero flying in and saving the day. I realized that this hero would be in a leadership role interacting with the public, government, and business, so the hero depicted in the collage looks like he could be a politician. I found out rather quickly that it wasn't that much fun diving into the complexity of problems and solutions they would need to address. My other motivation for this topic was that I didn't think that anyone else in the class would portray the issue the same way I think of it.

It is pretty obvious that in the US we haven't had a politician be successful running on an environmental platform. I think there are many reasons for this, a large on being that Americans aren't well informed about environmental issues, how their lives are directly affected, or the extent and magnitude of the problem. So my train of thought with this presentation is that an environmental leader won't be able to gain the support they need to make the changes that need to be made until the forecasted environmental crises are upon us. Unfortunate, definitely. Pessimistic, perhaps. Anyway, in general terms my presentation first explains why an environmental "hero" is likely to emerge and gain leaderships during the pending environmental doom, then describes some of the main problems that make up the complexity of the environmental "doomsday" situation, explains what characteristics and skills this hero will need, and finishes with some of my outlandish ideas for the actions or "solutions" this hero could focus on. I went at this assignment treating it more of like a thought exercise that I could play out in my mind like a B-rated sci-fy movie.... But, the literature I read up on does lend support to this theoretical span of events and actions. Here goes...

__Transformational Leadership in Times of Crisis__ A crisis is described as a situation where the solution requires engaging in new, untested, unlearned behaviors in order to maintain or obtain the desired goals. Without the collective notion that there does exist a crisis, there would be no need for a leader to propose radical bold changes (Bass 1996). The crisis is what makes new leadership possible because it needs to hit home for the majority of people first. (This is just one reason why I am a big fan of using empathy as a tool to work through problems and create solutions, and it is a tool that can be applied to almost any situation.) During a crisis people tend to panic, their emotions intensified, and they look for or to a leader for direction toward safety and solutions; the more qualified or knowledgeable about the problem to leader is, the more likely they are to gain support and have people follow their guidance. This is why I believe that if large all inclusive environmental crises were to finally arrive or be recognized, then an environmental hero would be able to rise to leadership; specifically a politician or activist that is already known to the public for their work involving climate change such as someone like the Greensburg Mayor Bob Dixson.

"To be effective in crisis conditions, the leaders must be transformational—able to rise above what their followers see as their immediate needs and appropriate reactions... To be effective, leaders need to be transformational in providing goals transcending self-interests for hyper-vigilant followers in a state of panic. To be effective when panic is imminent, leaders need to provide clear, confident direction. The transformational leader's vision for the future may set the stage for effective planning ahead; nevertheless, transactional leadership may also be important in planning." (Bass 1996) This leader would have to be able to keep their "cool" while implementing bold changes, gaining public support, and instructing society on how to move forward. Krackhardt and Stern emphasize " the importance of adaptation and cooperation", which requires trust and friendly relationships. Those can be created by charismatic and transformational leaders (Bass 1996). So not only does this person need to be charismatic, direct, and bold with creative new solutions, but they also have to be able to collaborate, empathize, and be humble enough to understand that they don't know the whole situation and it is important to listen to what others have to say. This leader will need to be a great negotiator as well, because it the environmental crises would be a global issue, which means that countries all over the world will have to work together for solutions and hopefully won't turn their focus to holding someone accountable with another world war.

The public is likely to have strong emotional responses to what is occurring, and this can bring out defensive avoidance reactions such as sticking with the status quo, making hasty decisions, or panic which can only exacerbate the problems (Bass 1996). Leadership can be an effective tool for avoiding these irrational coping mechanisms through identity campaigning (which will be discussed in solutions) and instructing the public on how to be safe and get involved with groups working on solutions.

__Support for the Hypothetical Future Crises__ Climate scientists and countries around the world have come to this consensus that a rise of 2 degrees Celsius is the range of what we want to try to stay in so that the planet is still habitable and humans don't go beyond a triggering point in which the climate will just continue to rise. It is known that we have already increased the world temperature by 1 degree Celsius and scientists think the sea levels could rise by several meters this century (350, 2014). This impacts the environment by increasing temperature and humidity, which increases the strength and occurrence of storms like hurricanes and tornadoes. It affects precipitation in general by making rainfall more intense and concentrated in random areas rather than consistent and spread out, causing floods in some areas and droughts in others. You can imagine the impact this has on the availability of water, food production, and the security of people being able to continue living in their homes which might become resource scarce or might not be sufficient enough protection from the elements.

I went to a seminar held at RPI recently where economist Prof. Faye Duchin presented her most recent research into the future of global food production. The main points that I found very interesting were that she and her research partner have found that major food production seems likely to shift to other countries in the world, I believe (if I remember correctly) they projected it to be South America and Africa. What was even more interesting, and I remember this from taking her International Economics and Globalization class, that China is already buying up land in Africa using sovereign wealth funds because they are worried about providing enough food in the future to their growing population, and this is known as a 'land grab'.

__Environmental Crises - "The Doomsday Situation"__ This is a hypothetical future situation the world ends up in because not enough action was taken to reduce or prepare for climate change. I wanted to just go for the more dire scenarios that reminded me of a mix between the disaster films The Day After Tomorrow, The Book of Eli, After Earth, as well as some apocalyptic TV shows. However, I reined myself in to sticking to scenarios that actually have support from the science I discussed above. This is the scenario I imagine the world could likely find itself in if we continue with the "business-as-usual":

The world temperature continues to increase, slow enough that the world didn't take enough action to prevent it or slow it down. This caused the sea levels to rise a few meters, which has more of an impact horizontally than it does vertically because it submerged thousands of square miles of coastal and island lands. This causes millions of environmental refugees around the world to seek help and a place to live in other states, nations, sometimes even other countries. The state of countries all over the world is in an image close to that from the Great Depression, there's an economic crisis, people are without a home, food, a job.... the general public's mood is that of despair. It reminds one of the fictional Gotham City where the gap between the rich and poor was ludicrous and the rich are able to distance themselves from any dangers or inconvenience with their lavish homes that have been relocated to more habitable heights. Crop production where it normally was has diminished to almost nothing, the land either drenched or in drought, the soil sapped of its nutrients. People are hungry, and with the flood of environmental refugees into the land, there are the hungry on the streets, and the crime rates sky-rocket. The world is in a mess from suffering the consequences of polluting and neglecting the environment, and world leaders are simultaneously coming together to try to figure out solutions while figuring out who to blame. With food production having shifted to other countries, so has the power, and tensions around the world are rising. The whole human race is on the brink of world war.

The nation is in a terrifying state. It has to attempt to deal with hundreds of thousands of environmental refugees, provide them with food, shelter, a means to make a living, an education, etc. They have to do this while having to argue in the debate that continues on whether or not environmental refugee is even the correct term and if they deserve the government's help, do they have any right to stay, does the government have any responsibility to help them? (McNamara 2007) (Climate Refugees is a film on the current plight and systemic issue surrounding environmental refugees.) There isn't enough food available so the nation is hungry, or going hungry. Disease is increasing throughout because the increased temperature and humidity is conducive to the spread of malaria and other viruses, and without proper nutrition people will have a somewhat weakened immune system to begin with. People are also sick with lesions and deteriorating endocrine systems because the water throughout the country is for the most part no longer clean and safe to use because businesses and especially the oil industry has been polluting the rivers and groundwater for hundreds of years.

__Solutions - the Realistic and the Bold__
 * environmental identity campaigning - climate hubs
 * redefining eco-terrorist - so that the CEO's of oil companies and other unethical industries are understood to be the ones who caused much of this problem
 * 'New Deal' with climate hubs and public works job creation (describe picture in collage)
 * funding solutions through divestment
 * collaborating and calling upon the brightest minds in universities and industry
 * negotiations to prevent war and gain access to food trade
 * changing the health care system so that environmental factors are recognized and most importantly, so that everyone has access to birth control to slow population growth

Bibliography:
 * 350. (2014). The Science. Retrieved May 04, 2014, from http://350.org/about/science/
 * Bass, B. (1996). A New Paradigm for Leadership: An Inquiry into Transformational Leadership. Retrieved from http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA306579
 * Crompton, T., & Kasser, T. (2009). Meeting Environmental Challenges : The Role of Human Identity (p. 93). Surrey: WWF-UK Panda House, Green Books Ltd. Retrieved from www.wwf.org.uk/strategiesforchange
 * Halloran, L. (2014). White House Creates “Climate Hubs” To Help Rural Towns, Farmers : It’s All Politics : NPR. Feb 5. Retrieved May 01, 2014, from @http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2014/02/05/272062504/enviros-praise-obama-climate-hubs-but-no-keystone-cover
 * McNamara, K. E. (2007). Conceptualizing discourses on environmental refugees at the United Nations. Population and Environment, 29(1), 12–24. doi:10.1007/s11111-007-0058-1