Another day, another dollar, another report on climate change and how it’s about to really ruin our day. This latest report, however, approaches the issue from a slightly different angle.
The non-partisan research group Risky Business Project, which is co-chaired by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, former U.S. treasury secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and former hedge fund manager Thomas Steyer, examines how climate change will directly affect industry, business and the economy in the immediate future.
It’s not only academics and scientists who are concerned now: According to the Risky Business Project, industry leaders are going to have to start taking the dangers of climate change into account if they’re to protect the health of their companies.
Planning for the future from an industry perspective requires considering the money, property and human lives that will be lost as a result of storms, drought, extreme temperatures and other effects of global warming.
The International Monetary Fund’s own report concurs.
Gary Yohe, vice-chairman of the American National Climate Assessment, suggests that the report doesn’t go far enough, but says that its “general conclusions are right on the money” (if you will forgive the pun). In discussing the legitimacy of the report’s findings, Yohe says: “These are people who have managed risk all their lives and have made an enormous amount of money doing so.”
On one hand, I find it frustrating that environmentalists have been making this argument in a thousand ways over the past four decades, and we’re only just beginning to see industry leaders think about action beyond a few “green” PR stunts.
Climate change has been linked to damage and deaths the world over for many years. From a moral perspective, it’s unacceptable that we’re interested in dealing with the effects of climate change only when it affects our money, not when it affects our environment or endangers other people’s lives.
On the flip side, whatever works.
It’s a shame we’re too late to stop global warming, but hey, at least we’re all on the same page about it.
The leaders of American industry and business are being advised to account for the effects of climate change. The implicit wisdom here is that business leaders as well as governments should be doing whatever they can to limit climate change, since whatever the costs of limiting these changes will be, it will surely be less than the cost of the changes themselves.
It’s frustrating, given this, that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project.
Although I am not so sanguine as Greenpeace’s Mike Hudema that the project won’t come to fruition, it’s heartening to remember that there are still a few hurdles in its way — namely, a premier who so far hasn’t signed off on it, a population that has been outspoken (though not unanimous) in its opposition and First Nations groups who are rejecting the proposal.
Investing in a pipeline at this moment — when our environmental integrity is being threatened not only by tankers and oil spills but by a global threat — is a signal that we don’t care. We don’t care about our environment and we don’t care about the world’s.
Canada used to be a leader when it came to environmental protection. To be dogmatic for a moment, I would say that a key part of being Canadian is respecting the land, protecting it and using it responsibly.
Fighting global warming isn’t a matter of trying to convince a few outlying climate-change deniers; most academics, scientists, businesses and governments are on the same page about the undeniable effects of climate change.
It’s now a matter of fighting against those whose political and financial interests cause them to look at climate change and say: “I don’t care.”
Are there good reasons to go through with the pipeline? Absolutely. As Enbridge executive Janet Holder is constantly reminding me on the radio, it would mean jobs and economic benefits. But to gain those, we would have to look at the dangers of refusing to invest in alternative energy, of supporting the oil industry, of increasing our emissions and say: “I don’t care.”
There’s no neutral ground when it comes to climate change. The problem is escalating, and if you’re not part of the solution … well.
