Climate Change

 

UN Report

On August 9^th, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued their 6^th Assessment Report.  New reports called it the most comprehensive report yet on climate change.  Listening to the various reports and reading the various articles about these Assessment Report conveyed that they were this 6^th report was also the most ominous one yet.

Reuters published a very concise summary of the rather lengthy UN report.  Here is the list.  The article elaborates on each:

• Humans are to blame
• Temperatures will keep rising
• Weather is getting extreme
• Arctic summers could soon be ice free
• Sea will rise no matter what
• Running out of time

This report is not a surprise to me.  It is more dire, however, than I expected. 

For years, we have been debating the idea of global warming and climate change.  We have heard the scientists and we have heard the rebuttals and refutation from basically the business community and the pseudo-science politicians.  Those that do not believe in the evidence are more concerned about the short-term.  The business world and Wall Street are overly focused on short term profit and stock price.  Buying into climate change would result in legislation that could easily raise the price of energy and automobiles which will basically raise prices across the business world.  It would impact the wealth and wealth potential of those running the large corporations.  Therefore, it is not in their best interest to believe that climate change let alone to act on it.

This view was definitely part of the platform of President Trump.  It is the “drill baby drill” of, I believe, President Bush.  We consume President Biden has challenged us to take a larger roll in the global effort to stem the output of carbon dioxide given our disproportional use of cars and gasoline.  He has gotten large companies like Amazon and GM to commit to being carbon neutral by 2035.  If they and others can do it, this, to me, marks a shift to more long-term business planning which the world sorely needs. 

IndexMundi

We consume 8,682 thousand barrels of oil per day.  China, with more than four times our population, is second with 1,908 thousand barrels.  We are the largest
consumer by a large measure.  When it comes to coal consumption, we are third behind China and India per the Statistica graphic. The average person is most likely blissfully unaware of the magnitude of these numbers and profits they generate for so many companies and their executives. 

In recent years, there has been a movement by younger generation to want to work for socially responsible corporations.  They are wanting to work and make a good life for themselves and their families.  This includes handing off a world in better shape than the one they inherited.  This was the flower power vision of the hippies and the generation gap generation.  We seemed to have failed miserably given our noble intentions.

Population growth is the major factor in all of this.  The world population was 3 billion in 1960 and 4 billion in 1970.  This year, the population is projected to be 7.9 billion.  The contribution of population and our dependence on energy generation and mechanized transportation, both of which barely existed before the industrial revolution, has been tough on the environment and climate.  The solutions of the crises require more long-term planning, discipline, and innovation than mankind has ever had to muster.  The big question is are we up to it?  We would have to stop bickering about whether all of this is true or not.  The 6^th Assessment Report from the UN should quell these politically and short-term focused arguments.  Hopefully, they will.

I wrote about this in 2018, Economics and Climate Change.  The gist of that piece was the very real impact of climate change on coffee production and how the world banking community was charging higher interest rates for agriculture in regions where crop yields are down due to increased temperatures.  Whether we believe or refuse to believe, the laws of economics and finance were reacting to the changes in the climate despite whatever we might believe.

Combine this news on all the impending negatives on climate change with the pandemic and it seems we are living in a time that is downright Biblical.  I hope and pray that we can unite globally to be harmonious and to work toward the long-term well-being of mankind and this planet.  I think this is the promise of the Age of Aquarius. 

 

Statistica

 

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