Bookraft

With the publication on Friday February 2 2007 of the Climate change Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the last vestiges of a hiding place for Global Warming Deniers like President George Bush and political commentator George Will fell like collapsing icebergs into the ocean of facts that indeed humans are the agents for recent climate change and that change is not just warming but more drastic variation and hostility in weather patterns.

So as if to confirm their role not as far sighted leading indicators but rather as almost reluctant coinciding indicators of change, Business Week and Business 2.0 both featured stories and articles on going green twice in the last two months -
Business Week Dec 12th on Global Warming and Business - predates IPCC report by 6 weeks (but they knew what was coming)
Business Week January 19th 2007 - green in corporations transitioning from PR to strategy
Business 2.0 January 29, 2007 - "Go Green, Get Rich"
Business 2.0 Green Blog - Green Wombat is the name of Business 2.0's Green Blog
But now business has quite a mixed record on not just climate change but energy independence (moving away from fossil fuels to renewables like wind, solar, ethanol and hydrogen resources) and resource conservation in general. On energy independence North American auto and oil companies, despite receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to advance energy independence, have accomplished nothing but increased energy dependence on fossil fuels. And some like ExxonMobil are funding and fighting against both Global Warming and energy independence studies and initiatives.

But there are some substantial positive signs in the business world. The Ceres Group, is a coalition of pension funds and investment companies commanding $3trillion in capital - and they are publishing and reporting on how well Fortune 200 and S&P 500 companies are planning for Global Warming and Resource Conservation in general. The business press, as cited above, is leading with the notion that Global Warming and Intense Resource Conservation will transform markets - curtailing some industries while creating new and huge expanding markets. Go Green, Get Rich may very well be a line for survival.

One has only to look at the North American carmakers who invested in major ways on gas guzzling SUVs and trucks and at the same time playing lip service to energy conservation while their Japanese counterparts delivered not only better mileage but also the first and second rounds of energy transformational vehicles using electric, hydrogen and other energy alternatives to market. The North American car industry is now seeing wrenching $10-15 billion dollar losses per quarter adjusting to the new market realities. Likewise, Airbus lost its hard gained lead to Boeing because Boeing anticpated energy conservation as being one of the primary drivers in the airline industry.

Yet these initiatives are scarily - just in time. Because the next 3 decades at least are going to be about how the world's economies adjust to Limits to Growth. Yes, the book on environmental Limits to Growth is now read out to us by the Earth. We saw it first with the Ozone-layer Problem and now with Global Warming and possibly the very real threats of Global Disease Pandemics. In effect, Earth's natural cycles start to bite back and control exactly how much and how far human kind can run off the road before natural constraints start to establish their unyielding and often dire if not tragic consequences on those who seek to trespass. If you are in business your sustained success over the next 20-40 years will be dependent on how well you anticipate and plan for both environmental limits and new opportunities. It is not Go Green, Get Rich - but rather Go Green to Survive and Thrive. Remember Global Warming and Environmantal Limits are primarily economics problems - the failure of large businesses to recognize and respond to fundamental changes in their markets.