Next Tuesday, you'll hear two announcements that will have the words "tipping point" on the tongue of every analyst and pundit in medialand. For once, they may be right.
The first will come during a "town hall" with Chairman and CEO Chad Holliday of global chemical behemoth DuPont (webcast here). The company is not exactly beloved of environmentalists -- it was whacked last year by the U.S. EPA, to the tune of $16.5 million, for failing to report the dangers of a toxic chemical used to make teflon. But greens may well forgive them after this.
DuPont will announce a series of ambitious sustainability initiatives, relating not only to its own operations but to its business strategy. That means directing big-time R&D and marketing money toward developing and selling sustainable products. (I hope green chemistry plays a big role.) The details haven't been leaked yet, but I'm hearing it's big -- big enough to rival or exceed GE's much-ballyhooed Ecomagination program.
The second report comes from U.S. insurance giant Allianz, which partnered with the WWF to look into the effects of global warming on risk, and thus on the insurance industry, in the U.S. The report will strongly argue that more needs to be done to prepare, and will include some initial commitments from Allianz.
The significance here is less about Allianz than about starting a much overdue conversation in the U.S. insurance industry. Despite a strong warning last year from Ceres, U.S. insurers have lagged behind their European counterparts in discussing and adapting to the uptick in risk that's already underway as a result of climate change. As far back as 2001, insurance giant Munich Re was warning in a report to the U.N. that global warming could bankrupt the industry. In 2004, the Association of British Insurers echoed the warning.
It's time U.S. insurers joined the conversation. Insurance is not the sexiest industry in the world, but it touches almost every other industry and its financial clout is enormous.
Changes around global warming and sustainability are happening at a dizzying pace. Momentum is building. I suspect that five years from now, on these issues at least, we'll live in a political landscape that none of us today would even recognize.
Comments
View as Flat
Zarkov Posted 8:28 am
05 Oct 2006
Long after the horse has bolted.
>> I suspect that five years from now, on these issues at least, we'll live in a political landscape that none of us today would even recognize. >>
I suspect you won't know this world in five years time. Ever heard of chaos ?
Politically ?, The goddess, Mahdi will rule.
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Delay And Deny Posted 9:14 am
05 Oct 2006
Well, gee, now that Katrina and the Waves have left for a while there's nothing to drive up oil prices.
Wait a minute -- Global Warming is now the perfect marketing vehicle for business...it's year long, has a constant rate of increase (and return). It's worldwide, and available in all markets.
So instead of these "local disasters", we can now offer a truly long-term, internationalized disaster, that can "interface" into a wide variety of Green Products (sold to you by Al "Mr. Haney" Gore).
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dobermanmacleod Posted 5:59 pm
05 Oct 2006
Dr Hansen of NASA estimates that a further warming of about 1C will rapidly melt permafrost, starting a runaway global warming chain reaction. The earth has warmed .2 C each of the last 3 decades. Due to the greenhouse gas in the air, we are committed to 30 years of further melting even if we stopped emitting CO2 today.
Frankly, I think only a hopeless optimist would think that lowering human emissions can prevent a climate catastrophe. Unfortunately, those that prescribe reduced emissions as the strategy to prevent global warming think that being a hopeless optimist is a necessary part of being a Public Policy Advocate.
"Changes around global warming and sustainability are happening at a dizzying pace. Momentum is building. I suspect that five years from now, on these issues at least, we'll live in a political landscape that none of us today would even recognize."
Don't you see that a changed political landscape is mute? Solutions won't come from people changing their behavior, because caps on emissions is only a mitigation strategy (and a poor one at that, since it is unrealistic that a growing population and growing per capita energy demand will result in dramatic enough cuts fast enough to stop runaway global warming).
What is needed is a program to remove the CO2 from the air after it has been emitted. This isn't a political landscape, it is a technological landscape. If the CO2 isn't removed from the air soon, the earth will have less than one billion people on it by the end of the century.
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kmp Posted 11:31 pm
05 Oct 2006
Firstly, I don't know who the goddess Mahdi is (our voice on all things religious and historical, Canis, probably does), but what kind of goddess is she if chaos will reign?
Secondly, seriously - Al Gore has invented global warming to sell us shit? I mean, wouldn't it have just been easier to go the book tour route?
Thirdly, rarely have I seen a better oxymoron than "hopeless optimist." Thank you for that, dobermanmacleod. Other than that, however, your post is riddled with "facts" that are presented as such, yet with no links to support your statements. Hence, even if there is a nugget of truth in there, it will tend to be ignored.
Kaela
p.s. "Mute" means "cannot speak." "Moot" means the point is no longer valid, an issue, etc.
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lkinsell Posted 3:59 am
06 Oct 2006
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BobAegerter Posted 5:21 am
14 Oct 2006
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Biodiversivist Posted 9:13 am
14 Oct 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/business/14online.html
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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BobAegerter Posted 12:08 pm
25 Jan 2007
We are waiting.
by d41295 at 4:18 PM on 25 Jan 2007"
I have a real problem with an annomious posting this crude directed at a person with Andrew Dessler's stature. Has d41295 read The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change. Why doesn't he just go home and bury his head in the sand?
Bob Aegerter
Pacific Northwest
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