The White House Doubts Climate Change. Here's Why The Pentagon Does Not

MilitaryTimes - Shawn Snow

WASHINGTON — The contentious debate over climate change is entering a new phase, with skeptics in the Trump administration poised to roll back regulations governing everything from clean-water standards to fracking — convinced that doing so will boost the U.S. economy. But the Pentagon views the issue differently.
For Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, climate change represents a significant national security threat, one that's "impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today," according his written testimony to Congress provided in January ahead of his confirmation. The news site ProPublica was first to publish Mattis' remarks, pitting the retired Marine general's views against those held by the commander in chief and others in his administration.
The topic has renewed relevance as the White House aims to grow defense spending substantially — hoping to add personnel, and buy more ships, aircraft and weapons — while making major reductions to other parts of the federal budget, including at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which researches climate change and provides weather forecasting data to the military.
It's a tricky predicament for the Pentagon, which has conducted substantial climate-related research, too, dating back at least to the 1990s. Officials continue to factor this data into core military doctrine. In fact, the most recent Quadrennial Defense Review, a 90-page document that outlines the Defense Department's strategic trajectory, includes the phrases "climate change" or "severe weather" at least 10 times. On the one hand, the Defense Department stands to benefit from funding rollbacks at other agencies. But on the other, senior officials see immediate, practical reasons to be worried.
Here are three:

Economic competition
Thawing in the Arctic has opened new maritime routes and revealed new energy sources, creating new competition between the U.S. and Russia. The Pentagon's 2013 Arctic Strategy statement details its plans for safeguarding American interests there and ensuring freedom of navigation. It calls the region a "strategic inflection point," noting that as the ice caps continue to melt, there will be rush to claim the oil, natural gas and other resources there.
The Pentagon views the Arctic as vital for establishing ballistic missile defenses to safeguard the homeland. But  Russia's buildup there has greatly exceeded that of the United States. Its military has established a new Arctic command, added four brigades, 14 airfields, 16 ports, and has 40 operational icebreakers and 11 in production. The U.S. has only one working icebreaker, and it was commissioned in the 1970s.
In the South China Sea, warming waters have forced fish stocks to migrate north, increasing the potential for conflict between China and U.S. allies whose economies depend on that trade, says Frank Femia, who heads the Center for Climate and Security. The non-partisan think tank includes several senior retired military officers concerned about climate change and its impact on national security.
Tensions are particularly high between Vietnam and China, which have competing territorial claims to the Spratly and Parcel islands. The Chinese have harassed several Vietnamese fishing boats, even sinking some of them. One such incident, in 2014, was caught on video. The Chinese maintain the Vietnamese boat ventured too close to one of its oil rigs, an incident documented by The Diplomat. Another confrontation happened in 2015 near the Parcel islands, when armed men boarded the Vietnamese boat and removed navigation equipment, according to Voice of America.
The U.S. Navy has stepped up its presence in response. Tension in the region will only increase as China aggressively defends its claims there.


Military infrastructure
Rising sea levels threaten several major U.S. installations while prolonged droughts, which can lead to forest fires, put bases and other military infrastructure at risk.

Last summer, the Union of Concerned Scientists published a report indicating a three-foot sea level rise would threaten 128 bases. Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and 17 other facilities that reside on waterfront property could experience hundreds of floods a year and, in some cases, become mostly submerged by the year 2100. Cleanup or relocation costs could stretch into the tens of billions of dollars.
Drought-fueled wildfires are an equally troublesome threat. In the spring of 2014, a major fire started on Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in southern California, a facility adjacent to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. It forced the evacuation of nearly a thousand people and destroyed roughly 6,000 acres, according to NBC San Diego.

U.S. Marines and fire crew on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., respond to wildfires ablaze in southern California May 14, 2014. The Tomahawk fire, in the northeast section of Camp Pendleton has burned more than 6,000 acres forcing evacuations of housing areas on base and various schools both on and off base. (Photo credit: Lance Cpl. Anna Albrecht)

Mass migration and instability

The world's most fragile and unstable regions tend to be hit hardest by climate change, Fermia says. In Bangladesh, for instance, a former military leader has warned that rising sea levels could force mass migrations and potentially lead to the radicalization of marginalized people in a region already challenged by violent militant groups. 

Pakistan, a nuclear power also contending with a resurgence in terrorist activity, depends on glacial melt for drinking water. Abrupt changes in the water supply can result in major security shifts there. Pakistan and India have fought several wars over the contested regions of Jammu and Kashmir, where both countries derive most of their fresh water. A deadly terror attack on an Indian base in September set off a major diplomatic row, with India's foreign minister suggesting the two scrap a 56-year-old accord ensuring access to fresh water. 
"The consequences might well be humanitarian devastation in what is already one of the world’s most water-starved countries — an outcome far more harmful and far-reaching than the effects of limited war," analyst Michael Kugelman wrote in Foreign Policy.

An aerial view of a town surrounded by flood water as U.S. Marine pilots from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit begin their landing approach to deliver food supplies in support of the Pakistan flood relief effort in Pano Aqil, Pakistan, Sept. 14. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Wayne Gray)

In parts of North Africa and the Middle East where there is weak governance, climate change is ”acting as an accelerant of instability or as a threat multiplier,” Femia told Military Times. Lake Chad, which borders the African countries of Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon, has been drastically affected by drought. This harms people's livelihoods, making the region fertile ground for groups like Boko-Haram, an Islamist terror group, to recruit.  

Prior to the revolution in Syria, which has led to a six-year civil war, the region was experiencing one of its worst droughts ever recorded. And although it was not a factor in starting the conflict, which has left an estimated 500,000 dead and caused more than 11 million to flee their homes, climate did create the conditions for mass displacement, Femia said. And researchers have predicated that will only get worse, with large swaths of the Middle East and North Africa becoming increasingly uninhabitable. 
So Mattis’ recent comments on climate change represent a "practical view of what the military needs to do," he added. It's an issue that has crossed previous administrations, both Republican and Democratic, and demonstrates the Pentagon has "thought about this in an apolitical way."

Links

• The Age of Consequences (Four Corners)
• Climate Change & National Security
• Climate change is major threat to readiness, expert says
• Rising oceans threaten to submerge 128 military bases: report
• Military's shift away from oil clashes with Trump's promises
• Retired 4-star: U.S. military ill-prepared for Arctic confrontation
• VIDEO How green is 'Mad Dog' Mattis?
• VIDEO Climate Change & National Security

How An Indigenous Renewable Energy Alliance Aims To Cut Power Costs And Disadvantage

The Guardian - Dyani Lewis

First Nations lobby group will support remote communities looking to make transition – and tackle climate change

The First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance will lobby government and partner with private enterprise and other community energy alliances to support Indigenous communities. Photograph: Calla Wahlquist for the Guardian

Like so many of the Indigenous communities dotted across the Australian continent, the remote communities in north-west New South Wales are struggling. "These are not happy places," says the Euahlayi elder Ghillar Michael Anderson.
Many of the 300 or so residents of Anderson's hometown of Goodooga rely on welfare, he says. Exorbitant electricity bills – up to $3,000 a quarter for some households – further exacerbate the poverty. "We're always at the end of the power line, so the service that is there is quite extraordinary in terms of cost."
Many other communities rely on expensive, emissions-intensive diesel-powered generators to meet their electricity demands. "It's a real problem and we need to make sure that we fix this," Anderson says.
To that end, Anderson and 24 other Indigenous leaders have formed the First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance, which aims to tackle high power costs and entrenched disadvantage – along with climate change – by pushing for renewable energy in Indigenous communities.
The alliance, formed at the Community Energy Congress in Melbourne last month, will lobby government and partner with private enterprise and other community energy alliances to support Indigenous communities looking to transition to renewable energy.
Anderson, who is a member of the alliance's seven-member steering committee, says the move is an important step towards self-sufficiency for Indigenous communities.
The renewable energy company 360 Energy Group, which is based in Melbourne, has stepped up with $10,000 and an offer of office space and knowhow to help get the alliance off the ground.
Its director, Michael Anthony, sees immense potential for renewables – such as solar or wind power generation combined with battery storage – to empower remote communities. Renewables, he says, can "provide communities with a really strong, consistent, stable power solution at about half the cost of [current] solutions".
Whereas high energy prices often drive Indigenous people off their traditional lands, lower-cost renewables can help communities to thrive no matter how remote.
"We can build a power station where the community exists," Anthony says, "so people are able to successfully live in the environment the way they want to live and have access to power which enables them to better determine their economic future."
Only a handful of Indigenous communities have embarked on renewable energy projects in Australia. The Indigenous-owned and -operated company AllGrid Energy, for instance, has installed solar panels and battery storage systems to replace diesel generators in the Aboriginal communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara in the Northern Territory's Barkly Tableland. Within two months of the system being installed in May 2016, people were moving back to their homelands from Tennant Creek, the communities growing from just two permanent residents to about 40.
The Murrawarri elder Fred Hooper, also on the alliance steering committee, is hoping that Australian Indigenous communities can follow the lead of other Indigenous communities around the world. In Canada's First Nations communities, for instance, renewable energy projects are becoming commonplace. "It's very inspiring," he says.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, from the Lubicon Cree First Nation in Alberta, Canada, has led the push for her own community of Little Buffalo – which lies at the heart of the Peace river oil sands – to adopt renewable energy after a 2011 oil spill just 10km from the township. A 20.8kW solar installation, built and operated by locals, now powers the community health centre. Additional projects are being planned to wean the community off the propane heating and coal-powered electricity that it relies on.
Laboucan-Massimo, who is a member of Canada's Indigenous Clean Energy Network, has seen the benefits that alliances can provide. "It's really important to share information," she says, "because, when you're dealing with companies, or utilities, it's really good to know what's being told to one community or what kind of deals are being offered."
The First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance will go one step further, working with community leaders and acting as a conduit between the communities and the businesses they are dealing with. This is essential, says Anderson, to avoid predatory practices they have seen in the past, with companies "playing on the psychology of poverty" to gain advantage.
The alliance has drafted protocols and memoranda of understanding that will guide how companies engage with Indigenous communities for renewable energy projects.
While lowering the cost of energy is a high priority for remote Indigenous communities, the environmental credentials of renewables are also an important consideration, says Hooper. "One of the best things about renewable energies is that it's relying on natural sun from the sky, wind that's blowing across the landscape and other renewable energies are not raping our mother earth of the precious resources that she holds," he says.
One of the next steps for the alliance will be to identify a community that can act as a test case for a renewables project. "Our experience is that if we can make it work for one community, it will work in every other community," Anderson says.

Links

• People-powered: renewable energy project changes Indigenous lives in Barkly 
• Indigenous Purchasing Program: 'With a foot in the door, we proved ourselves' 
• We can climate-proof Australia, but we have to start now
• 'Clean coal', CCS and CSG will not save fossil fuels – their game is up
• Big tourism must demand action to save the reef – its business depends on it
• Energy positive: how Denmark's Samsø island switched to zero carbon

Australia's Peak Business Lobby Calls For Emissions Intensity Scheme

The Guardian - Gabrielle Chan

The Business Council has joined Energy Networks Australia, Energy Australia, AGL, the Climate Change Authority, the National Farmers Federation and the CSIRO in calling for a carbon market mechanism. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The nation's peak business body has joined the growing calls for an emissions intensity scheme (EIS) and argued coal-fired power stations should give three years notice for closure in its submission to the chief scientist's electricity review.
Jennifer Westacott, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia (BCA) also called for no further changes to the renewable energy target (RET), given it was the foundation significant investments. She also said there was no need for state-based targets.
Westacott, representing the biggest businesses in the country, argued that in the medium to long term, an EIS was both technology-neutral and would provide the policy signal currently missing to drive investment in energy.
"Australia's 2030 emissions target has been set," Westacott said. "What's missing is the signal that will support the investment needed for the electricity system.
"A signal such as an emissions intensity scheme for electricity is both fuel- and technology-neutral and preserves the broadest range of options to meet future emissions reduction targets.
"It also creates an incentive for investment in lower emissions generation technologies."
But she warned that if an EIS was imposed too quickly, it could lead to multiple closures in regional communities and place more pressure on energy security.
"Without access to competitively priced gas, an emissions intensity scheme could lead to multiple closures within one region in the short term, placing pressure on system security and regional communities all at once," Westacott said.
She said an emissions cap should be applied to coal-fired power stations to ensure they do not extend their operating lives.
"While less efficient than an emissions intensity scheme, the transition may be easier to manage and provide clearer signals for new investment in the electricity system in the short term," she said.
The BCA's submission is the latest to urge the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, to recommend an EIS for the energy sector, effectively imposing a carbon price. Other groups calling for an EIS or carbon market mechanism include Energy Networks Australia, retailer Energy Australia, electricity provider AGL, the Climate Change Authority, the National Farmers Federation and the CSIRO.
Energy policy remains front and centre for the federal government following Malcolm Turnbull's meeting with gas chiefs to address domestic shortages and his plan for a 50% expansion in the Snowy Hydro scheme.
Finkel is investigating the best way to provide security for the national electricity market at a time of rapid change in climate and technology.
After the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, openly canvassed an EIS as one of Finkel's options, conservatives in the Coalition party room including senior government minister Christopher Pyne objected vociferously. It led to Turnbull and Frydenberg dumping the scheme within days and was noted by the former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi as one of the last straws that drove him to establish his own party.
Notwithstanding the split, Finkel's preliminary report gave guarded support to an EIS 24 hours after the government ruled out the scheme.
The Coalition won the 2013 election on the back of Tony Abbott's anti-carbon tax policy and subsequently dismantled the carbon market system implemented by the Gillard government, with support from the Business Council.
On Thursday, Westacott said numerous modelling exercises had demonstrated an emissions intensity scheme for electricity would manage carbon abatement objectives at the least cost.
"An emissions intensity scheme provides a subsidy for less emissions-intensive generation with the cost of the scheme paid for by more emissions-intensive generators," Westacott said. "The net effect should be no increase in price for customers."
As the government prepares for the closure of the Hazelwood on March 31 with the loss of 1,000 jobs, Westacott said better market information was required to support the transition of the electricity sector, including three years' notice for power station closures.
"To enable effective system planning and support efficient decision making, the quality of market information could be improved by publishing aggregate fuel supplies for each region over a period of time," Westacott said.
"To support a managed transition of the electricity sector, a three-year notice period for the withdrawal of large generators and consumers could be considered. This would also give communities time to adjust.
"We also need stable policy frameworks with minimal government intervention in markets to support electricity investment. Policies that suddenly shift from one place to another or see governments entering markets risk jeopardising, or at the very least confusing, this investment."
As the Turnbull government continues to attack state renewable energy targets, Westacott backed the federal government by saying state based RETs were not necessary but urged the Coalition not to change the federal RET again.
"Although renewable energy targets are a source of market distortion, the RET has underpinned significant investments and it should be left alone," Westacott said.
"To make further changes would have a chilling impact on investment right across the sector. There is also no role for state-based renewable energy targets."
The BCA has argued the recommendations must ensure security of supply and restore community confidence in the national electricity market while creating conditions for energy investment to improve energy affordability.
It also recommends all energy options should be kept on the table, including nuclear power, coal, gas-fired generation and capture and storage. Finkel is expected to make recommendations within the next four months.

Links

• South Australia shows up the federal government ... and rightwing commentary
• Turnbull kicks the energy hornets' nest and goes Full Metal Export
• Renewable energy spike led to sharp drop in emissions in Australia, study shows
• 'Clean' coal won't be commercially viable before 2030, energy analysis says
• Energy executives say gas market – not windfarms – to blame for South Australia's woes
• Big Australian banks invest $7bn more in fossil fuels than renewables, says report
• Manufacturing union calls for land and tax deals for industry to help transition from coal
• Government 'clean coal' push would be likely to make Australia's emissions worse
• Australia should invest in coal power to reduce emissions, minister says

February 2017 Was Second Warmest February On Record

NASA

February 2017 was the second warmest February in 137 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

Last month was 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean February temperature from 1951-1980. The two top February temperature anomalies have occurred during the past two years.

The GISTEMP monthly temperature anomalies superimposed on a 1980-2015 mean seasonal cycle. — View larger image

February 2016 was the hottest on record, at 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the February mean temperature. February 2017's temperature was 0.20 degrees Celsius cooler than February 2016.

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations.

Global map of the February 2017 LOTI (land-ocean temperature index) anomaly shows that North America and Siberia were again much warmer than the 1951-1980 base period, and that Europe was relatively warm. — View larger image

The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet. Monthly analyses are sometimes updated when additional data becomes available, and the results are subject to change.

Links

• January 2017 Was Third-Warmest January On Record
• Global Temperature Record Broken for Third Consecutive Year
• NASA, NOAA Data Show 2016 Warmest Year on Record Globally
• The Last Two Novembers are the Warmest Novembers on Record
• Last Three Octobers are the Warmest Octobers on Record
• NASA Analysis Finds August 2016 Another Record Month
• NASA Analysis Finds July 2016 is Warmest on Record
• 2016 Climate Trends Continue to Break Records
• Record Warmth in February
• 2015 Was the Hottest Year on Record
• NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Warm Temperatures in 2015

Coral Reefs' Only Hope Is Halting Global Warming, Study Says

InsideClimate News - Nicholas Kusnetz

Bleaching events have stressed coral worldwide, particularly the Great Barrier Reef, and research says their survival depends on quickly slowing climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced a series of damaging bleaching events since 2014. Credit: Getty Images

Two doses of bad news for the world's coral reefs came in the last week. First, Australia's government confirmed that the Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of a second consecutive year of mass bleaching. It's the first time the reef has experienced back-to-back events, and it seems to be weakening many of the corals.

Then on Wednesday, leading scientists published a new study about last year's bleaching—the worst to date—suggesting that when the seas are hot enough for long enough, nothing can protect coral reefs. Their only hope is that we rapidly slow climate change.

The research, published in the journal Nature, looked at data from three bleaching events along the 1,400 mile-long Australian reef system dating back to 1998. By looking at factors including water temperature, water quality and fishing protections, the authors determined that last year's bleaching was linked almost exclusively to ocean warming.

Conservationists have long hoped that protecting corals from other threats, such as pollution and overfishing, might help shield at least some of them from bleaching, too. While the new paper doesn't entirely deflate that hope—such protections likely help reefs recover—it shows that such work provides little if any relief from severe bleaching.

"At the level of heat stress that was seen during this event, it just didn't matter," said C. Mark Eakin, coordinator of the Coral Reef Watch program at NOAA and a co-author of the paper.

Ilsa B. Kuffner, a marine biologist with the United States Geological Survey who was not involved in the research, said the new paper supports a solid body of evidence suggesting that disease and bleaching are driving coral mortality, while other factors play a more important role in the recovery from those threats. "It's a distinction that, while it's subtle, is also very important when you talk about what's actually causing coral reef decline," she said.

The paper also found that a reef's history made little difference. Some studies have suggested that previous bleaching may make reefs more resilient if they are given time to recover, perhaps by killing off weaker corals or driving some adaptive response.

Warmer-than-average temperatures can cause coral to expel the symbiotic algae that live on its surface, turning the reef white. Such bleaching stresses coral and can make it more susceptible to disease and death.

The world's reefs are in the midst of what scientists consider to be a single, mass bleaching event dating back to 2014. Climate models project that most of the world's reefs could experience annual bleaching by 2050 without rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

While coral can survive even extreme bleaching, surveys conducted this month along the Great Barrier Reef are showing evidence that successive hits take a toll. Eakin said the level of heat stress—a measurement of how hot the waters are for how long—is lower than last year, and yet the bleaching appears to be just as widespread.

"They haven't bounced back yet, so when you hit them with another event a year later, you can see more bleaching at a lower level of heat stress," he said. "A lot of the corals that have survived last year really are not ready for another event."

The bleaching has also spread to areas of the reef that escaped last year's event, according to the recent surveys.

Successive bleaching also appears to be reshaping the makeup of the reef system. Reefs are composed of a rich diversity of coral species, with some particularly sensitive to bleaching and some that recover much more quickly than others. With consecutive years of bleaching, and after four events over 20 years, the new paper said the composition of the reef is changing in areas that have seen recurrent bleaching, perhaps irreversibly.

"The good news is you've got some tough corals that are surviving," Eakin said. "The bad news is, one of the most important things about coral reefs is their diversity, and you're cutting out some of that diversity."

The paper's authors believe that protecting reefs from pollution and overfishing will help them recover from bleaching. But the most important action, they said, lies elsewhere.

"Securing a future for coral reefs, including intensively managed ones such as the Great Barrier Reef," they wrote, "ultimately requires urgent and rapid action to reduce global warming."

Links

• As Coral Reefs Continue to Struggle in Warming Oceans, a Group Forms to Save Them
• As Coral Bleaching Goes Global, Scientists Fear Worst Is Yet to Come
• Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Driven by Global Warming, Accelerated by Nature
• Chief Environmental Justice Official at EPA Resigns, With Plea to Pruitt to Protect Vulnerable Communities
• Exxon Concealed Tillerson's 'Alias' Emails From NY Climate Fraud Probe, AG Claims
• Scientists Call Out Pruitt's False View of Climate Change
• Massive Permafrost Thaw Documented in Canada, Portends Huge Carbon Release
• Rate of Ocean Warming Has Nearly Doubled Over Two Decades, Study Says
• What Slashing the EPA's Budget by One-Quarter Would Really Mean
• Cook Inlet Gas Leak Remains Unmonitored as Danger to Marine Life Is Feared

More Than 900 Examples Of How Climate Change Affects Business

Forbes - Carmen Nobel*

This word cloud is composed of blog posts by more than 900 students describing how individual organizations are likely to be affected by climate change.

Last fall, first-year MBA students at Harvard Business School received a new assignment in their mandatory Technology and Operations Management (TOM) course. The topic: How climate change affects business.
“Choose a company or non-profit organization whose operating model is likely to be significantly affected by climate change’s physical manifestations and/or related regulation, including threats and opportunities associated with mitigation and/or adaptation,” the assignment read. “Describe how the organization is likely to be affected, the steps the organization is taking to address those effects and describe and justify what additional steps you think the organization should consider implementing.”

Some 929 students took the Climate Change Challenge, analyzing organizations including Toyota, General Mills, Maker’s Mark, Amazon Web Services and Vail Ski Resort. Their responses, each 800 words or fewer, can be read on a public blog called Open Knowledge, which was designed to let HBS students discuss business issues with each other and to share their ideas with the rest of the world. (Because the posts are public, students have the option of whether to post under their own names or under a pseudonym.)
“We launched the challenge to expose students to the broad array of ways climate change is affecting organizations,” says Mike Toffel, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management at Harvard Business School and the head of the TOM course, who spearheaded the challenge. “It’s affecting the energy sector and agriculture, of course, but it’s also affecting supply chains and operations.”

The challenge was a pedagogical shift for HBS, which traditionally teaches management lessons via in-depth case studies about individual organizations. “Instead of presenting students with a case that distills a management scenario, this assignment required students to do research and cite reputable sources,” Toffel explains.
The new class format “allowed the students to appreciate the diversity of ways in which climate change affects companies and companies react to climate change,” says Assistant Professor Chiara Farronato, who was among several professors who taught the challenge. “For some, it's a nuance; for others, survival depends on their response to climate change. Climate change is multifaceted. It has many physical manifestations, regulatory standards, consumer preferences, and levels of uncertainty. One case study would have focused the discussion on one example, whose generalizability would have been limited given this diversity.”



The blog posts cover a wide swath of industries that grapple with climate change.
“Many of the students wrote about the industries and companies they were most familiar with, which led to a remarkable diversity of posts,” says Assistant Professor Ariel Dora Stern. “Students discussed the business implications of climate change in contexts ranging from fast fashion to cloud computing and from banking and financial services to leadership issues facing coastal municipalities. I believe we all came away with a deeper understanding of the ubiquity of climate change as a challenge for business leaders of the future.”
For example:

• Nikhil Dewan looks at how water scarcity affects a beverage giant in Is Coca Cola Staying Ahead of Climate Change? The blog post discusses the company’s 2007 pledge to replenish all the water is uses by 2020, and then takes a critical eye toward next steps. “Coke’s Replenish projects are not always to the aquifer from which the water was originally sourced,” he writes. “The strongest critics question the act of ‘balancing’ when depletion of a certain community aquifer is mitigated by replenishing water in another community aquifer that may be hundreds or thousands of miles away. I personally believe that Coke must double down on efforts to ensure that replenishment actually benefits the communities that were impacted by its operations.”
• Having lived through Hurricane Sandy, another student considers climate-change-related insurance claims in Insuring the End of the World: Allstate at the Intersection of the Causes and Effects of Climate Change. “In this rapidly shifting landscape, it is imperative for P&C insurers like Allstate to continue to adapt, not just to the newly arisen risks from climate change, but also to the opportunities to serve their clients better,” writes the student under the name “TOM.”
• And “SWSC” digs into the environmental impact of the apparel industry in The Nike Model: Garbage In, Sneakers Out. “With 666 factories in 43 countries and 1,000 retail locations across continents, Nike’s widespread operations and supply chains require significant amounts of water and energy to produce, package, and ship its merchandise to points of sale across the globe,” the student explains, going on to discuss what the company is doing to shrink its environmental footprint—and improve its reputation.

Other posts focus on entrepreneurial ventures borne of the need to fight climate change. “For many companies, climate change poses a threat to their current operating model,” says Assistant Professor Kris Ferreira. “However, there are also a few examples of companies or startups for which climate change actually poses opportunities.”
For instance, a post entitled Climate Change ... Understanding the Meat of the Problem looks at Impossible Foods, a food-tech company looking to create a veggie burger that tastes like a hamburger. “Livestock is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all transportation exhausts combined,” writes David Mravca, and the company is banking on people who care about that. “Impossible Foods is taking advantage of the effects of climate change to successfully obtain funding (approx. $180M), to build its brand, bring on staff, develop a great product, and market its product to the public,” Mravca writes, “… and it’s getting an advantage because of all the climate change articles being published and paid for by other groups.”

Lessons Learned
To prepare for the class discussion on the Climate Change Challenge, students were told to read a few of each other’s blog posts, along with the note Climate Change in 2017: Implications for Business, written by Rebecca M. Henderson, Sophus A. Reinert, Polina Dekhtyar and Amram Migdal.
The professors who taught the Climate Change Challenge focused on the business implications of climate change and presented the issue as an established scientific reality. “We wasted no time debating whether climate change is real: in the scientific community, there really is no such debate anymore. The note we assigned beforehand presented a summary of the science and its projections, and we focused our assignment and class discussion on what organizations are saying and doing about it,” Toffel says.
Each instructor picked five or six student posts to discuss in class. “I deliberately called on students with very diverse opinions to see if they could be swayed or constructively argumentative,” says Senior Lecturer Christina Wing. “In many cases, the blogs in conjunction with the classroom discussion open students’ eyes to potential alternatives to issues and a new way of thinking. In the end, the majority of my students were very open-minded."
The broad lesson of the challenge is that climate change matters to the world of business, and virtually no industry is immune to the change.
“I think our students developed an appreciation for the breadth of consequences of climate change across industries and the sheer scope of this problem,” says Assistant Professor Joel Goh. “Unlike a traditional case discussion, where we go really deep into analyzing the operations of an individual company, here they had to grapple with how this single phenomenon is impacting organizations across industries that we don’t even usually think of as being related. The sense I got was that many students coming into class already understood, cerebrally, that climate change is a big problem, but the class session and discussion made this problem real for them, showing them that it isn’t just an issue for policymakers and scientists, but that it has tangible implications for the companies and industries that they themselves will work or invest in.”
The assignment also provided practical experience in summarizing and proposing solutions for a business problem—in 800 words or fewer.
“Today, all managers must write two-page memos,” says Shane Greenstein, the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration. “A blog post is a version of that. This assignment provided great practice at being short, punchy, engaging and to the point.”

*Carmen Nobel is the senior editor of Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

Links

• Women Mayors From Across The World Step Up Fight Against Climate Change
• The First Climate Model Turns 50, And Predicted Global Warming Almost Perfectly
• Fearing White House Purge Of Climate Science, Scientists Frantically Copying Data
• Perspectives From Inside The Climate Change-Human Health Conference That Rose From The Dead

Climate Change Needs To Be Tackled For Better Health, Medical Groups Urge

NBC News - Maggie Fox

Heatstroke. Asthma. Zika. Climate change is helping illness and disease spread and become more common, according to a new consortium of medical groups.

A Contra Costa County worker uses a blower to kill off mosquito larvae found in a retention pond in Bay Point, California, in 2015. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images, file

It's not just extreme heat and flooding, but more intense storms — including blizzards — and a steady warming trend that lets disease-carrying mosquitoes thrive, the new Medical Society Consortium on Climate Health said.
The best answer? Cleaner energy, the consortium said, including agreements to cut carbon dioxide emissions and develop of solar and wind power.
"We believe the most important action we can take to protect our health is to accelerate the inevitable transition to clean renewable energy," the group of 11 medical societies, which includes pediatricians, gynecologists and infectious disease specialists, said in a statement.
To that end, the consortium is launching a coordinated public relations push of their agenda, including efforts to recruit hometown doctors to tell stories of climate-linked illness and injury.
"Doctors in every part of our country see that climate change is making Americans sicker," said Dr. Mona Sarfaty, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University and the head of the new consortium.
 "Physicians are on the front lines and see the impacts in exam rooms. What's worse is that the harms are felt most by children, the elderly, Americans with low-income or chronic illnesses, and people in communities of color," Sarfaty added in a statement.
It's hardly a new idea that climate change can affect human health. The Obama White House issued a report saying rising temperatures were making allergies worse and causing more heat-related deaths. The World Health Organization has issued several warnings, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a program dedicated to climate and health
But health experts are worried that the new administration of Donald Trump is not just less worried about the problem, but might be downright hostile to efforts to slow the human impact on climate change.
There was more than a little suspicion that the cancellation of a CDC-sponsored meeting on climate change last month was a response to fears about what the new boss might think.
The new group wants to press forward from a medical perspective.
"The reality of human-caused climate change is no longer a matter of debate," they say in a report released with the launch Wednesday.
"These harms include heat-related illness, worsening chronic illnesses, injuries and deaths from dangerous weather events, infectious diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks, illnesses from contaminated food and water, and mental health problems," the report adds.
"Unless we take concerted action, these harms to our health are going to get much worse. The sooner we take action, the more harm we can prevent, and the more we can protect the health of all Americans."
The full group:

• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, Immunology (AAAAI)
• American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• American College of Physicians (ACP)
• American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM)
• American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG)
• American Geriatrics Society
• American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA)
• Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)
• National Medical Association (NMA)
• Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM).

"Here's the message from America's doctors on climate change: it's not only happening in the Arctic Circle; it's happening here. It's not only a problem for us in 2100; it's a problem now. And it's not only hurting polar bears; it's hurting us," said Sarfaty.

Links

• Here's How Climate Change Might Kill You
• White House Says Climate Change is Ruining Health (2014)
• Trump Administration Reviews Fuel Efficiency Rules
• Is Global Warming Making us Sick?
• Earth Sets Record Temperature for Third Year Running