My father has been in the cattle business his entire 89 years and in the vineyard business for 45 years. Climate change will have a major impact not just on our family’s cattle and grape businesses, but on agriculture generally. Yet, whenever I mention global warming to either of my parents, they respond with outrage. They are not alone in denying climate change, but the number of their co-believers is dwindling fast.
Recently, Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz, announced his company would buy renewable energy credits from Boulder’s Renewable Choice Energy, offsetting 100 percent of their ski areas’ power usage with wind power credits. Whole Foods, also present in Colorado, is the largest purchaser of wind power in the United States.
While former Vice President Al Gore has heightened the debate over global warming with his movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” the reality is that businesses and governments alike are ignoring the Bush administration’s denial of climate change and taking action to protect themselves and their future.
When both BusinessWeek and Fortune, two major business publications, begin to write about global warming, it’s clear that businesses are experiencing consequences from climate change – and responding. BusinessWeek recently highlighted some companies’ reaction to the impact of warmer weather. The magazine reported, for example, that Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. customarily transported diamonds, equipment, and heavy materials across Alaska over ice highways. Last year, however, they resorted to far more expensive air transport because the ice on the tundra, lakes and rivers was not thick enough to support a truck. While in 1970, there were 220 days when it was possible to travel on the tundra, today it is only 100 days.
Fortune devoted a lengthy article to Wal-Mart’s climate-change initiatives. Wal-Mart not only invited Gore to show their executives his movie, but also announced significant sustainability initiatives. According to Fortune, Wal-Mart is also investing $500 million in these efforts.
Meanwhile, Alaska is setting up a commission to study the effects of global warming and to develop strategies for adapting to it. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a joint initiative to study ways to reduce carbon emissions, a rather unusual partnership that goes around the Bush administration and the usual nation-to-nation agreements.
Even the U.S. Department of Defense is studying the security consequences of global warming, with its potential for violent storms and flooded countries. They believe the American military must be prepared for the potentially massive effects of climate change.
During the violent hurricanes of last summer, oil companies suffered enormous losses of equipment. As a result, the American Petroleum Institute set new and tougher standards for offshore rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico.
Something new is happening here. Companies, organizations and governments are ignoring national policy because they see a real danger to their long-term well-being. In some cases, they are responding to the demands of voters and consumers for greater accountability and sustainability. In others, they see immediate harmful impacts to their line of work.
For some, the negative jolt of rapidly rising fuel costs forces them to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. Some realize their customary business practices will not survive rapid global warming and decide to change now.
Even as the administration denies global warming and refuses to join the rest of the world in taking action to slow it down, American businesses and individuals are acting on their own. Once again, when our political leadership fails to lead in solving a critical problem, Americans will find their own solutions.
While to survive, my family must try to understand how climate change will affect our agricultural businesses, throughout the U.S. others will simply bypass this administration and act in their long-term self-interest regardless of what President Bush tries to sell us.
Gail Schoettler (gailschoettler@email.msn.com) is a former U.S. ambassador, Colorado lieutenant governor and treasurer, Democratic nominee for governor and Douglas County school board member.
