I’m talking more about the lack of leadership I see regarding the environment and global warming. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to make the world a better place or who opposed clean air and water, but we were born into a world that makes it difficult to avoid polluting it.
As everyone knows, if billions of us don’t change our behavior, we could face big natural problems. Since no one else is stepping up, or don’t have the skills, awareness, and credentials to, I am.
My friend Lee Kuczewski and I have talked about the topic. He’s wanted to organize talks on topics he loves, so he organized my first public talk on leadership and global warming. We held it last Thursday at NYU-Stern. I was nervous about presenting to people I didn’t know about a topic that people push back on. I liken talking to people about significantly changing their behavior to walking through a mine field.
But if I don’t do it, I don’t see anyone else doing it. We’ve waited for things to change for generations, or hoped we wouldn’t have to face things like hundreds of millions of people being displaced from their homes. Now those changes make front page news.
Here is the audio of that talk. It’s a first pass, a work in progress, so if you rate it against finished products it will compare poorly. But I consider it a good start and will continue to develop it and find bigger audience.
Here are some relevant posts that complement the talk:

• A recent post on the New York Times’ take on Antarctica’s ice melting
• A post with charts of CO2 emissions for flying to LA, Paris, and Shanghai (plus a link to the source)
• A post on how the U.N. is trying to change institutions but not people

Remember, it’s a work in progress, not a finished, polished presentation.

I’d love your thoughts.