Global warming breaches the dyke around corporate world’s consciousness
In the Melbourne Age today: Global warming breaches the dyke around corporate world’s consciousness
Peter Kinder, the president of Boston-based KLD Research and Analytics, an institutional investment social research firm, says consensus is growing among the big investors that global warming is now too big a risk to ignore.
The wilder weather combined with the potential impact on water availability and outbreak of pests and diseases has linked environmental impact with business risk. As a result, socially responsible investment is moving into the mainstream.
“It’s ironic now that people can see these connections between environmental policy and investment risk, using the word ‘environment’ is no longer toxic,” Mr Kinder says. “What’s fascinating here is the dyke has been breached and it was breached by global warming.”
Towards the end of the article he goes on to add:
And with scientists both here and in America claiming they are being muzzled, Kinder says politicians still haven’t realised the ground is shifting.
“One of the things that has been grossly underestimated is the degree to which people in corporations, and Americans in general, are concerned about the environment. It is something that people on the progressive side of the fence have totally misplayed and on the conservative side have really undercut their own power.
“Let’s take the estimate from four years ago about a one-metre sea level rise over the next 30-50 years. A one-metre sea level rise means that the floodgates at the mouth of Thames will no longer work, it means that Amsterdam is under water and probably New York is under water.
“If you are in the financial services industry, your location has just been wiped out.”
Slowly a giant is waking up. - DS
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