Rinsing and Repeating Our Way to Climate Disaster? Is There a Better Way?
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
10/30/25
•33m
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Thirty years ago, the United Nations challenged the political leaders of the world to do something about global warming. The politicians responded as politicians always do: they convened meeting after meeting, talked endlessly and---of course---agreed to keep on meeting. Rinse and repeat, year after year, even as the warming and its impacts became more obvious and more consequential.
Why? Effective global governance is largely a joke in a world organized around nation-states and characterized by dramatic inequality of power and by great power tension. Sweeping, top-down proposed solutions to global challenges inevitably fail. Sadly, there is no reason to expect a different outcome from the upcoming COP 30 in Belém, Brazil...but the beat goes on.
Like frogs in slowly boiling water, are we condemned to a future of cascading ecological disasters? Is there a better approach?
Linwood Pendleton, founding executive director of the Ocean Knowledge Network, thinks there might be. Although he has spent more than his share of time trying to make the global system produce better outcomes, he is increasingly persuaded that the better possibilities come from indigenous knowledge, wisdom, and science. There are solutions, he insists; we are just looking for them in the wrong places.
Previous Episode
Conserving Nature and Humanity—For the Good of Both
October 23, 2025
•36m
One of the most amazing animals on the planet is the snow leopard. The smallest of the big cats is indigenous to the twelve countries sharing the High Himalayas including China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal. Those countries disagree on most things: borders, values, economics, religion---but amazingly agree that the survival of the snow leopard is in their national and collective interests.
The High Himalayas are a microcosm of the problems confronting the planet. Because it is cold, high, and glaciated, even small increases in temperature cascade into large ecological and societal impacts. Border conflicts are always bubbling---and often boiling over---while internal conflicts are rife in much of the region. And economic development, in many parts of the Himalayas is aspirational at best.
How can such a complicated group of countries, peoples, and leaders ignore their differences when it comes to protecting the snow leopard? Even more, how to agree that protecting the snow leopard should be done in ways that are in concert with, not at the expense of, the needs of the people who live in the High Himalayas?
Dr. Charu Mishra is Executive Director of the Snow Leopard Trust and one of the prime movers in an ongoing, but increasingly successful conservation campaign that defies geopolitical gravity. Listen as he describes how he and his colleagues have persuaded countries that are sometimes literally at war with each other to act together for a common purpose.
LEARN MORE
- Snow Leopard Trust: https://snowleopard.org/
- International Snow Leopard Trust: http://www.snowleopard.org/
- The Ethical Conservation Alliance: http://www.ethicalconservation.org/
Next Episode
Interesting Times: Colombia Edition
November 6, 2025
•31m
“May you live in interesting times,” the saying goes—and for Colombia, these are truly that. Rising violence, political divisions, and economic uncertainty test the limits of leadership. Paula Moreno—former Minister of Culture and the first Afro-Colombian woman to hold a cabinet position—joins this episode to explore how leadership grounded in purpose and empathy can meet the challenges of our era.
Paula Moreno served as Minister of Culture under President Álvaro Uribe, becoming the first Afro-Colombian woman minister in her country's history. She is the founder and president of Manos Visibles, a Colombian NGO dedicated to strengthening local leadership, fostering inclusion, and empowering communities to drive sustainable change.
Podcast webpage → https://tallbergfoundation.org/podcasts/interesting-times-colombia-edition/ Manos Visibles → https://manosvisibles.org/en/
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