Just two days into the Education Exchange Corps leadership academy, the young leaders have signed an international agreement on respect, a so-far unenforceable global compact on climate change restricting marker usage (human marker usage is directly linked to global warming say the scientists), and budgeted several government-run services.
The global compact on climate change was in doubt just moments before its final signing. The last country, Tiger (run by K-1), really liked markers. They had a lot of markers and they meant a lot to their people. The government was deadlocked on what to do. Only two leaders remained at the end of the day, one in favor of limiting marker use, and the other opposed to the global agreement.
One of the leaders' advisers asked about the suffering polar bears and the threat to plant life, and life in general. Still, the holdout would not budge.
I asked the leaders, "How does your government break ties?" Silence. "Well, it looks like you have two options. You can figure out a way to break the tie..." [still silence] "or you can not make a decision now and see what happens..."
"Yes," said the holdout. "We should do that."
At that moment, I realized the world's marker problem was a lot realer than I thought.
