…then please take the LEAP with me.
(This organization is not affiliated with any political party.)
The Leap exists to inject new urgency and bold ideas into confronting the intersecting crises of our time: climate change, racism and inequality. We work through:
• storytelling and public interventions
• local organizing around climate and social justice solutions
• silo-busting movement gatherings.
The Leap began in 2015 with the launch of The Leap Manifesto: 15 political demands from a coalition of 60 social movement leaders across Canada. It offered an inspiring, big-picture narrative for an energy transition based in principles of justice, human rights, and worker solidarity.
The Leap Manifesto is a plan to shift to a clean energy economy in a way that addresses systemic racism and economic inequality. It started in Canada but is spreading around the world. Use the 15 demands to start a plan for your community.
https://theleap.org/sign-the-leap-manifesto/
Legacy – Home Page Template
Naomi Klein discussing The Leap in a TED Talk titled:
How shocking events can spark positive change.
Crisis
Shock
Wake Up
A Leap (into action)
© 2026 – SoulSequel
17 responses to “Would you like to build a world based on caring for the earth and one another?”
When it comes to innovation and change, people of liberal behavior traits certainly have proven their worth.
But the problem is their creative energies seem to stop, at creativity regarding the first step. Almost always it is up to those of conservative traits to follow through on the vision — because the creative liberals are off chasing another vision, signing another petition about how everyone has to change.
So my question is, has there been any real thought put into this rather than “just being nicer” to people and the planet? (The formatting messed up and if there are any vids or presentations, I cannot see them.)
It is one thing to say, “Yea, we’re going to do this” and “I’ll put my name to doing this”. OK. Then what? If your job over by putting your name/approval to it? (Or protesting about it?)
Almost all of the changes I hear touted, are things to do with human nature. We tend to do what is easiest. We are opportunistic. We are greedy. We are short-sighted. We are ego-centric and self-serving, even while trying to disguise it as caring about others. And of late, we’ve jumped into these “political power groups” that while they feel nice, bring up serious SERIOUS concerns from past societies that have fallen into them.
So while it can be nice to talk about (and yes, protest and “sign” about changes), how to each of us move in that direction?
I know that first steps are important. But what’s the plan when it comes time for the next step. Because we’ve been at this “first step” too many times before.
We cannot just say, “Oh, let’s do this!”, get all excited about it, and then blame everyone else for not implementing it even as we spin off onto another “nice” project.
Yeah, the site or something is f’ing up the format. type: theleap.org
A direct link to stories, many from your country.
https://theleap.org/stories/
This isn’t just a liberal idea. For example, for years environmentalists and hunters of all political persuasions have gotten together with the common love of the outdoors. This org inspires people to stop arguing and listen to each other. People Power!
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead
@Gina
I have no doubt that a group of creative people can change the world. Every change/innovation has come at the hands of just a very few creative people — and on the backs of the people of more conservative behavior/personality traits! Because creative people are SHITTY organizers and administrators. (They are high in trait-intelligence and openness, low in trait-conscientiousness and duty).
So any solution is going to HAVE to involve both creative liberal mindsets and processes to get the ball rolling, and the enduring dutiful and highly orderly mindsets and processes of conservatives (and no, I’m not talking political groups — although character traits do strongly affect voting patterns).
From what I’ve been able to see of their site, it has promise. But so too have a lot of other things. While creative and open liberals are going to visit the site, read the stories and get involved, what “carrot” is there for conservatives?
I do believe in the power of stories. But then my personality traits lean towards the liberal. How does one get people of more conservative and dutiful mindsets engaged?
@griz Hhhhmmmm, what carrot is there for conservatives? Well, we are all in this together. We breath the same air, drink the same water, walk the same soil, drive the same roads, live in the same economy. The conservative who is a denier of the truth will never come to the table, but they are the minority.
@Gina
“We’re all in it together” tends to only go so far. It’s a “poor glue”.
Politics aside for now, people who are trait-conservative are very very different kinds of people than those who are trait-liberal. But almost every innovative change in Human history has required both.
Right now politics creates such a blistering bi-partisan mis-trust and adverserialism between people that bringing them together becomes harder and harder over time because of the political battle and rhetoric.
I don’t know right now how we can overcome this. But I think it starts with understanding that the person across the table fighting against unifying reforms aimed at a better future is probably not the fool or uneducated clod that might be thought.
They are just very different kind of person, on a fundamental biological level. (Psychological science is producing a lot of studies that show behavioral traits are FAR more tied to the biology of the brain than was previously thought).
So I like this new (but not so new!) push. My thoughts turn to how we can make it more appealing to conservatives so it doesn’t fizzle like most others have? Because really, the “We’re all in it together” could, in a conservative biological mindset, be equatable to a threat (if we don’t our kids are toast!), or to an upsetting of the order that while imperfect, has worked just fine up ’till now.
(Consider that a primary argument/fire-back, is that “proof is inconclusive — so why change what has “made us great” for generations?)
Saving the planet and the species . . . turns into an exercise of better understanding the variations in the Human race and experience.
@griz I disagree with you on liberals not following through with their creative visions. I can think of many “liberal” orgs that have visions and accomplishments to match from Greenpeace, Southern Poverty Law Center, The ACLU, on and on. I have helped raise millions of dollars working side by side with radical liberals in the fight against AIDS. We supplied meals on wheels, “taxi” services, home services, helped take care of pets for people living with HIV/AIDS. Our vision was starting the first Walk-a-thon for AIDS, and then a Dance-a-thon that continues this day to raise awareness and $$$$. Our vision is still kicking AIDS ass.
Here is a slice of history for the Sierra Club. Granted the Sierra Club is probably a mix of liberals and conservatives, as I stated before, where hunters and hippies found common ground.
I stopped at 1905, you can continue reading here:
http://vault.sierraclub.org/history/timeline.aspx
1892 – Sierra Club founded on May 28 with 182 charter members. John Muir elected first President. In its first conservation campaign, Club leads effort to defeat a proposed reduction in the boundaries of Yosemite National Park.
1893 – The first Sierra Club Bulletin, forerunner of SIERRA magazine, is issued. U. S. President Benjamin Harrison establishes a 13 million-acre Sierra Forest Reserve. Club establishes an office in the California Academy of Sciences Building in San Francisco.
1894 – Sierra Club climbers place registers on the summits of six peaks and begin recording ascents.
1895 – John Muir and professors Joseph LeConte and William Dudley speak on preservation national parks and forest reserves at the Club’s annual meeting. Muir urges the return of Yosemite to federal management.
1896 – Club publishes a map of Yosemite Valley and the central Sierra Nevada.
1897 – Club urges strengthening of public forest policy and supports U. S. Forestry Commission recommendations for additional “national forest parks,” including Grand Canyon and Mt. Rainier. Membership reaches 350.
1898 – Club establishes an office in Yosemite Valley to aid and educate visitors; William Colby is attendant. Club urges establishment of parks to preserve coastal redwoods in California. Headquarters moves into Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco.
1899 – Congress establishes Mt. Rainier National Park through legislation, based on a statement prepared by the Sierra Club and several other organizations.
1900 – Club assists in preserving the North Grove of Calaveras Big Trees.
1901 – In the Club’s first outing, William Colby leads 96 participants on a trip to Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows, beginning a tradition of annual High Trips.
1902 – Sierra Club High Trip visits Kings Canyon.
1903 – President Theodore Roosevelt visits Yosemite with John Muir. High Trip to Kern Canyon includes an assent of Mt. Whitney by 139 Club members. LeConte Memorial Lodge built in Yosemite Valley in memory of charter member Joseph LeConte, Sr. Club office moves to Mills Building in San Francisco. Membership reaches 663.
1904 – Club first local outings begin in San Francisco.
1905 – In one of the Club’s first conservation victories, the California Legislature agrees to return Yosemite Valley to federal management. Fifty-six members on the annual High Trip climb Mt. Rainier in the first Club outing outside of California.
@Gina
I’m still waiting for you to list an accomplishment.
@Weenis I don’t recall talking to you about this. If you don’t think conserving land i.e. establishing Mount Rainier as a National Park is an accomplishment. Or creating a Walk-a-thon and Dance-a-thon that has raised millions of dollars to help support people and assist in finding a cure for AIDS as an accomplishment; I have nothing further to say to you.
@ladybarbara Same goes to you since you liked that weenis comment:
If you don’t think conserving land i.e. establishing Mount Rainier as a National Park is an accomplishment. Or creating a Walk-a-thon and Dance-a-thon that has raised millions of dollars to help support people and assist in finding a cure for AIDS as an accomplishment; I have nothing further to say to you.
@Gina
I question the “one side can do it all” scenario.
True creatives, who come up with the innovations, rarely are the ones who administer them well for years. Even these great “aren’t we great” organizations probably have a few more trait-conservatives stashed away than you might think, dealing with administration, paperwork, accounting, scheduling, legal, keeping things from flying apart etc.
These are things that true creatives just cannot do for very long without going bonkers.
I return to the assertion that no one side can “do it all”. Besides, what is so appalling about using this to start to heal rifts that political warfare and gesturing has kept poking open and pouring salt into for generations?
@griz Did you read anything from the LEAP site, or watch the video? I don’t know where you are getting this “one side can do it all”.
@Gina
I said it’s a good site.
Where I get the “one side can do it all”. . .
Well the bipartisan bickering of the people does reach a crescendo at times
I’m not faulting the message Gina. I’m inviting deeper thought as to how it might go further than a million other ventures of this type.
The kind where one side figures everything will be fine if only the other side comes around to their way of thinking and acting. That is the nature of the American Quagmire right now.
A great presentation.
One thing I really like about the approach is the focus on what can be done, versus outlining the challenges and just commiserating on that. Identification of the objective first and then establishing a plan to get there.
She’s right. Every alarm is going off. Time to leap.
Here is The Leap Manifesto.
Its an interesting read and at the least it provides a direction to look towards. The challenge is that as people look at it personally, as opposed to from a big picture perspective; there will be people who fear for their jobs. It is very easy however to see how there will be jobs in a new economy to replace them. It really is going to take government intervention to support many of these changes and we need a government that looks at the big picture rather than the politically oriented view currently prioritized.
It is honest about how we have failed and that is always a good starting point if you true objective is improvement.
From http://www.theleap.org
We start from the premise that we’re facing the deepest crisis in recent memory.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has acknowledged shocking details about the violence of Canada’s near past. Deepening poverty and inequality are a scar on the country’s present. And Canada’s record on climate change is a crime against humanity’s future.
These facts are all the more jarring because they depart so dramatically from our stated values: respect for Indigenous rights, internationalism, human rights, diversity, and environmental stewardship.
Canada is not this place today— but it could be.
The leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the original caretakers of this land, starting by fully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The latest research shows we could get 100% of our electricity from renewable resources within two decades; by 2050 we could have a 100% clean economy. We demand that this shift begin now.
No new infrastructure projects that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard.
The time for energy democracy has come: wherever possible, communities should collectively control new clean energy systems. Indigenous Peoples and others on the frontlines of polluting industrial activity should be first to receive public support for their own clean energy projects.
We want a universal program to build and retrofit energy efficient housing, ensuring that the lowest income communities will benefit first.
We want high-speed rail powered by just renewables and affordable public transit to unite every community in this country – in place of more cars, pipelines and exploding trains that endanger and divide us.
We want training and resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to participate in the clean energy economy.
We need to invest in our decaying public infrastructure so that it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
We must develop a more localized and ecologically-based agricultural system to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, absorb shocks in the global supply – and produce healthier and more affordable food for everyone.
We call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging extractive projects.
We demand immigration status and full protection for all workers. Canadians can begin to rebalance the scales of climate justice by welcoming refugees and migrants seeking safety and a better life.
We must expand those sectors that are already low-carbon: caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media. A national childcare program is long past due.
Since so much of the labour of caretaking – whether of people or the planet – is currently unpaid and often performed by women, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income.
We declare that “austerity” is a fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on earth. The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available — we just need the right policies to release it. An end to fossil fuel subsidies. Financial transaction taxes. Increased resource royalties. Higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people. A progressive carbon tax. Cuts to military spending.
We must work swiftly towards a system in which every vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.
@spitfire3dc Thanks for posting this. I am glad you read it and dug deep into the site, and you watched the video! Naomi Klein is amazing. And it’s nice to talk about another country, talk about our planet since we mostly talk about the USA and all our troubles. We are all in this together, we need to remember that.
@Gina FYI, I just wrote to my Member of Parliament (like your Congress representative) with a link to watch the Klein TED talk and a link to the Leap Manifesto. I told her I wanted to know that somebody who is representing my views needs to know what they are. I’ll be interested to see her response.
@spitfire3dc Way to take a giant LEAP!!! Thank you earth warrior friend! Did you see all the stories from various cities in Canada on the site?