Despite Denial, Even Oil Companies Are Planning for Inevitable Climate Change

Erica Joy/CC BY 2.0

This is ironic.

Having bank rolled climate denial for years, it seems many oil companies and utilities are planning for the inevitability of man-made climate change. Marc Gunther has a piece on the coming shift to climate preparedness that is well worth reading:

Utilities, the oil and gas industry, agricultural companies and insurers are building assumptions about rising temperatures and extreme weather events into their scenario planning. This is what's being called climate adaptation or climate preparedness. The payoff from investing in adaptation could be substantial. In 2011, insured losses in the U.S. from natural catastrophes, including tornadoes, floods and hurricanes, topped $105 billion, breaking the record of $101 billion set in 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina, according to Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance firm. Some of those losses had nothing to do with climate change, but others did.

It seems resilient business is indeed becoming mainstream. It's just a shame that some of those businesses are responsible for landing us in trouble in the first place.

Tags: Activism | Corporate Responsibility | Economics | Global Climate Change