Dear Partners, Associates and friends of GRLI
Surfers know the impact zone as the churning area where incoming waves fold and break. With the wave about to collapse and explode, the surfer can either harness the wave's peak power before it breaks, or can duck below the surface and deliberately miss the opportunity to catch the wave. Failure to exercise one of these two options leaves the surfer vulnerable in the impact zone where the majority of surf-related injuries and deaths occur.
With recent events and the potential outcome of COP21 churning in my mind, I cannot help but imagine humanity as a surfer paddling dangerously close to the impact zone.
In preparation for COP21 and the Collaboratory on Higher Education and Climate Change (4 December) I have been reading a recent report from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). Drawing on their database of more than 21,000 technological and natural disasters from 1900 to the present day, CRED points out that 90% of disasters over the past 20 years have been caused by floods, storms, heatwaves and other weather-related events.
Over this 20 year period, weather-related disasters claimed 606,000 lives, with an additional 4.1 billion people injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance. It is notable then how the Indonesian forest fires, currently emitting more carbon dioxide per day than the entire U.S. (according to the World Resources Institute), has gone largely unreported in mainstream media. Jeremy Rifkin's description of the human story as a paradoxical relationship between our growing empathic awareness and ever-greater entropy of Earth's resources rings truer than ever.
I would like to urge the GRLI community to join together in advocating at COP21, other upcoming events and through other channels and platforms for Global Responsibility, and remind you of the Three Laws of Globally Responsible Leadership as a useful framing in this regard.
With the prospect of world governments reaching a binding and adequate climate deal, and in keeping with the Thanksgiving spirit, there are many positive opportunities to celebrate and highlight at this time.
Government leaders agreed the adoption of the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development earlier this year, and there's an encouraging increase in company coalitions forming and committing to responsible business practices (e.g. We Mean Business Coalition for a low-carbon future).
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Collaboration and impact throughout the Management Education ecosystem is also scaling up and will help ensure the development of a next generation of globally responsible leaders. A few upcoming events and opportunities in this regard warrants a mention:
In closing, and in thoughtful remembrance of the many tragic and unfortunate events that have taken place in recent weeks and months, I leave you with the grieving words of one of our Associates at Oasis School of Human Relations. Thank you Chris Taylor for sharing this at a time when words fail and we have nothing to say.
Warm regards,
John North
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