IN FOCUS
HOTTER AND MORE INTENSE MULTIPLE CATEGORY 5 HURRICANES. DROUGHT. WILDFIRES. CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T JUST DAMAGING THE ENVIRONMENT AND OUR HEALTH. IT’S IMPACTING THE BOTTOM LINE. By Lori Tripoli
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eather extremes and an increasingly warm planet are taking their toll not just on our ecosystem but also on our economy. In the last decade, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported1 that the federal government has spent more than $350 billion for extreme weather and fire events, including disaster response and relief, crop and flood insurance, and maintenance and repair to federally managed land, infrastructure, and waterways—and that was before Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria pounded Houston, Florida, and Puerto Rico during the intense 2017 hurricane season. Many of the monsoons, flooding, drought, and other extreme weather events of recent years “bear the tell-tale sign of climate change caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities,” says Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, upon the issuance of its provisional Statement on the State of the Climate that predicted 2017 would be one of the three hottest years on record.
1 www.gao.gov/products/GAO-17-720. 2 www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/01/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord.
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BUSINESS EDITION | WINTER 2017
istock.com/Paul-Daniel Florea
A SWITCH IN U.S. POLICY
While many nations agreed to fight climate change and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by ratifying the United Nations Framework Convention IN T H E L AS T DECA DE, T H E U.S. on Climate Change’s Paris Agreement, President G O V E R N M E N T A C C O U N TA B I L I T Y Donald Trump announced in June 2017 that OFFICE REPORTED THAT THE FEDER AL the United States would be withdrawing from GOVERNMENT HAS SPENT MORE THAN it in part because it was “negotiated badly” $350 BILLION FOR E X TR E M E W E ATH E R by the Obama administration and required AND FIRE E VENTS, INCLUDING DISASTER the United States, as a developed country, to RESPONSE AND RELIEF, CROP AND FLOOD cut carbon emissions while allowing China to INSUR ANCE, AND MAINTENANCE AND increase emissions until 2030.2 REPAIR TO FEDERALLY MANAGED LAND, “The loss of federal government support, INFRASTRUCTURE, AND WATERWAYS. especially in terms of funding and incentives for clean energy projects, has the potential to limit progress,” says Dani Glaser, founder and CEO of Green Team Spirit, LLC, which helps businesses become more sustainable. Nevertheless, corporations and other organizations persist in their efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.