It took me nearly two weeks to get up the nerve to watch the abc network’s doomsday scenario of global warming in the U.S., titled “Earth 2010.” The special was the fictional account of a young girl growing up in the not-so-distant future—a world of extreme temperatures, lack of water in some parts of the country, rising sea levels and food shortages.
In the fictional account, people were fleeing barren, drought-ridden regions of the West for cities on the East Coast. In New York City, sea walls had to be built to keep out rising waters. When the wall failed in a big storm, however, New York was flooded, rendering it nearly uninhabitable.
Sounds like science fiction? I’d say so, were it not for the number of scientific reports coming out—including those commissioned by insurers and reinsurers and a new one by the U.S. government—that one after another make similar claims about changing weather patterns, floods and drought (which we are already witnessing).
As if the reports weren’t enough, it’s a proven fact that mammal and bird migration patterns are changing, due to fluctuating temperatures and food availability. So whether or not you choose to believe the scientists, the facts remain that glaciers are melting and our wildlife’s patterns are driven by survival—that’s food and water, not politics.
Changes need to be made, and fast. We no longer have the luxury of looking the other way or denying the situation exists. While it may be a little more comfortable to nay-say all the scientists and their research, in the long-run, denial will be a very painful course to take.
Meanwhile, risk managers are in a position to have a say in decisions that may affect us all for years to come. There is much that can be done now, such as turn out the lights at night and on weekends in office buildings, keeping temperatures moderate in winter and summer, urging recycling in businesses instead of blindly throwing items into the trash pile, and making energy-saving choices when upgrading buildings or fleets.
And while we’re at it, it’s not difficult to give migrating birds a break. Simple guidelines to help them avoid window collisions are available on the New York City Audubon Web site.
There is much that can be done by risk managers who are attuned to not only looking out for the environment, but also saving money for their companies.
Is there something interesting that your company is doing? We’d love to hear about it.
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Caroline, I would like to know where you are getting your information from? There is less and less evidence that man made global warming exists. Twenty years ago it was global cooling. Global warming is nothing more than a front for liberal politicians to enact big government programs that will hurt businesses and prevent oil companies from drilling for more oil. I would encourage you to read the work of climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer, http://www.drroyspencer.com. Dr. Spencer will probably help dispel some of the myths you have come to believe as fact.
Global Warming is a hoax. Do some real research and not pay attention to the state-run media. The government has incentives to declare global warming is coming and that we should act now. It is an excuse to control more of our lives and to raise taxes without justification to support some elected official’s pet projects. The temperature of the earth has been actually cooling over the past several years. What really controls the climate is the sun, not man. The sun hasn’t had a lot of sun spot activity for much of the past decade so we have actually been cooling.
Not to worry about global warming, Caroline; it’s happening, but at only about 1 deg F per century — the same rate as the last 200 years. And the sea is rising at about 8 inches per century, again, the same rate as always. Human CO2 is doing nothing to hurt anything.
BUT the imbecile reactions to the panic would give anyone reason for concern — in Europe, for example, wind farms are destroying the landscape at an alarming rate, contributing zero useful electricity, and costing billions upon billions of euros in subsidies in countries where the health care system is nearly broke. Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and Spain have had such bad experiences with windmills that their electrical authorities have announced they’ll allow no more of them onto their national grids. In Spain, wind power cost two jobs for every one it produced. In the US, one wind farm in West Virginia alone kills at least 2000 migratory birds annually. (Maybe they SHOULD have changed their route.) In Wisconsin, the noise from wind farms is so upsetting to livestock that they cease giving milk and don’t reproduce.
So don’t fear the climate; fear the politics.