In the spirit of John F. Kennedy’s call for a ten year mission to put a man on the moon, State of the World Forum and partners around the world call for world leaders and concerned citizens everywhere to engage in a ten year "Global Transition Initiative" to green the global economy and develop more sustainable lifestyles. This Initiative calls for a form of moral leadership that transcends the narrow self-interests that have so badly damaged our economies and prevented serious efforts to mitigate the escalating effects of climate change.

Our Deteriorating Crisis

In the Fall of 2008, we slammed into the limits of our ability to manage the complexity of our social, economic and environmental systems. This failure started in the United States and quickly spread throughout the world. The result has been stark and humbling. Massive failures in financial markets, deteriorating environmental conditions, and a pervasive failure of moral leadership was contrasted only by a message of audacious hope offered by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. But since Obama’s election, we have witnessed continuing deterioration in our standards of living and an ongoing culture of greed, partisanship, and provincial thinking amongst global leaders that impedes the generation of effective solutions.

It is clear that virtually none of our national leaders, nor our national legislatures, nor our international agencies, nor the global financial community, nor any of our political and business elites have offered either a comprehensive analysis of what is happening or an overarching solution to humanity’s central challenges. What we see is a lack of the moral leadership required to save our planet from the escalating effects of climate change and to rescue the world economy from ruinous deterioration. Thus we drift deeper into chaos.

At this point we need more than rhetoric. We need a plan. We need a campaign that brings people together - that mobilizes action in ways that make common sense and offer all sectors of society a common good. We need a compelling vision of future possibilities that unites people and governments everywhere - irrespective of their color, creed and political beliefs. This plan must be global in scope because today’s most pressing issues are global in their effects. And it must address these threats to our civilization in ways that provide a more viable strategy for society’s interaction with the environment.

A Ten Year Global Transition Initiative to Green our Economies

Put simply: The world must unite in the spirit of John Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon, committing ourselves to a ten year initiative to green our economies.  Nothing less than this will suffice to address the magnitude of the economic and ecological crises we continue to perpetuate.  If we rise to this challenge, if by 2020 we can shift the basis of our economies to renewable energy, we will have done most of what is necessary to deal with global warming. We will have generated a global economic boom by implementing clean green industrial policies. Most importantly we will have fashioned a new foundation for future prosperity by realigning our relationship with the earth beneath our feet.

President Obama has articulated something akin to this with his commitment to eliminate America’s dependence on foreign oil within ten years. Al Gore has also called for a commitment to source all electricity from renewable energy within ten years. These are good ideas but were simply rhetorical statements, not comprehensive proposals, and were not presented with any detailed plans. These ideas must now become a central pillar of government policy and among the core organizing principles underpinning how we are to deal with our increasingly dire economic and ecological woes.

A global commitment to green our economies by 2020 would give purpose and meaning to the various bailout plans have been put into action by national governments, it would give direction to the entire global economy, and it would provide hope to the international community. Equally importantly, it would cut through much of the international wrangling and bickering around cap and trade, carbon sequestration, reductions in emissions etc. Each country can be free to green its economy in the way that works best for that country. What would be universal is the ten year commitment to do so. Each country would conduct its own analysis and work out its own pathway, with the goal of transitioning to essentially renewable energies within ten years. But within that goal, we should endorse as much diversity as possible. Then not only will the full plethora of human ingenuity burgeon but we will learn from each other along the way as we pursue different pathways.

The 2010 State of the World Forum

It is to support this effort that the State of the World Forum is convening the 2010 Forum February 28 - March 3, 2010 in Washington D.C. The Forum will continue a ten year campaign that will meet in a different world city each year. Our intention is to catalyze a demand for new standards of moral leadership. Our ultimate goal is to empower people everywhere, personally and collectively, to create greener and more resilient lifestyles and communities. In order to realize this plan we are bringing international thought leaders, specialists and activists together to begin work on what a ten year plan to green our economies would actually look like, even as we appeal to our governments to take immediate and decisive action.

A Call to Engage

It is remarkable that just as global warming threatens the world and our financial and economic structures are collapsing, endangering our political institutions and our way of life, new social values are emerging along with the appreciation, skills and technologies that can shape a future sustainable and resilient enough to meet the challenges besetting us. The implications of this emerging wave of change are as profound as the threat of global warming is imminent, and the Forum will explore the deeper meanings and implications of this potential.

We are in a time of enormous transition, when the present is crumbling right from under our feet, but the future is not quite clear enough for us to grasp. What is needed is imagination and a sense of possibility to bridge the gap between present and future.

The State of the World Forum is committed to working with partners worldwide to catalyzing the imagination needed and the collaboration required to both envision and implement the world we must fashion as humanity moves beyond the fractious and narrow self-interests that characterized 20th century progress into the next phase of human development. Joining together to make this commitment can generate a veritable renaissance of international solidarity and good will.

Please join us in this global initiative to be the cause of a history we will write together, or not at all.

We look forward to working with you.