Big business says addressing climate change 'rates very low on agenda'

[truthisfreedom]

Source: The Independent

Global warming ranks far down the concerns of the world's biggest companies, despite world leaders' hopes that they will pioneer solutions to the impending climate crisis, a startling survey will reveal this week.

Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority, says the study, which canvassed more than 500 big businesses in Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, India and China. Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money. And the report's publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates.

The survey demolishes George Bush's insistence that global warming is best addressed through voluntary measures undertaken by business – and does so at the most embarrassing juncture for the embattled President. For this week he is convening a meeting of the world's largest economies to try to persuade them to agree with him.
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The survey, carried out by the consulting firm Accenture, found that only 5 per cent of the companies questioned – and not one in China – regarded global warming as their top priority. And only 11 per cent put it in second or third place.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/big-business-says-addressing-climate-change-rates-very-low-on-agenda-774648.html

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Another abject failure on the part of the bush administration. Their legacy will be infamy, plain and simple. They could have helped save the world... instead, they spurred and whipped on its destruction.

[gateley]

1. I can't believe how short-sighted these people are! nt

[Turn CO Blue]

11. Exactly on point. They are short-sighted.

the longest term plan most corporations are looking at is the "Five-Year Plan". Sheesh!

Anybody leading on alternative energy research right now, will be at the top of the Fortune 500 in 10 years...

[calimary]

20. Of course they're short-sighted. Deep-down, they don't even think in

terms as long as five years. All they care about is quarterly earnings - in particular, THIS quarter. Whatever quarter is immediately at hand.

[Auggie]

28. I can't believe they told the truth

[roguevalley]

30. I'm surprised there hasn't been armed revolution in this country.

There will be eventually. I hope they get blasted first. God, I am so tired of worrying about these kind of nazis. what do they expect to breathe?

[Blue_Tires]

32. i can

there are bucks to be made in the short-term...all they ever care about

[xxqqqzme]

2. '...nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority...'

And THAT is the bottom-line problem to oh so many trade woes.

[Afje]

3. Why would it rate high on their agenda =

there is no profit in doing the right thing. Anyhow, in our system profits are private and the costs/damages are social.

[izzybeans]

13. Sure there is, just not the type of profit that translates into personal bonuses

and stock options. Over the long term they have everything to lose.

[AndyTiedye]

27. Or They Might be Doing the Right Thing Already (Because it Saves Money)

Conserving energy is the biggest thing most businesses (and individuals) can do.
Most businesses are making some effort to do so, but they would not categorize that as having to do with global warming. They are doing it to save money.

Where the appropriate incentives do not exist (generally on the outflow side) they can be created by taxation. Outright regulation works too, as long as the regulated don't get control of the regulating agencies (as happens here all too often).

Our regulations of industrial pollution have been made all but moot by the outsourcing of practically everything to China, which does not seem to regulate anything. But even China cannot continue doing what it is doing.

[izquierdista]

4. Bush's insistence

Why do I get the idea that if Dubya was in the business of making clocks, they wouldn't even be right twice a day?

[Zorra]

5. Big businesses need strict regulation and supervison or they will

randomly and wantonly kill human beings and other living things for profit or in quest of profit.

[NYC]

31. That's precisely the problem.

We need regulation.

[SpiralHawk]

6. "We don't see a way to make massive profits, so screw it." - republicon corporations

"But war, oh yeah, war is absolutely, fabulously, ecstatically profitable. Smirk. Smirk, Smirk."

- Republicon-minded corporatons

[2Design]

7. same people getting the media to tell you who to vote for - and the ones

who are for the truth and making a difference the media has already dissed

[Plucketeer]

15. There's ONE person hangin' tough

<- It's this guy here. The other's (on both sides) have some loose change a-jinglin' in their pockets from these VERY SAME outfits that don't give a damn about this planet!

[alfredo]

8. There won't be a legacy. If you want to see runaway global warming

look at Venus.

[rayofreason]

9. Buy Green.

Every such purchase is a vote for changing business practice.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. This is maybe the most important, the most significant post on this board

for at least this month, and it's sinking.

Obama, Hillary, everything else. None of it matters if we don't get the environment under control, and like it or not, the corporations control most of what goes on in the world today. They control our resource allocation, they control the direction of research, they control public opinion, they control everything that matters, and they are totally unregulated.

And they're all a bunch of psychopaths working in a frame of short-term hedonism and social irresponsibility, motivated only by monetary profits to their shareholders.

This, children, THIS is the biggest threat to the survival of the species. Universal health care, economic justice, war and even nuclear war pale in significance in comparison to the prospect of abolute and total destruction of the biosphere.

[Rockerdem]

33. I take issue with your argument

Corporations can make and advertise their products, but the final decision is by the consumer. I watch my purchases and try to avoid the worst products and renegade companies. Others could too if they gave a rip.

The problem is with the citizenry. They avoid education on good green practices like the plague, and about half flaunt their arrogance. When half of the vehicles on the roads are SUVs and when many of them are Hummers, its says a lot about the mentality the the average American. Namely, they are jerks, dumbasses, and selfish.

I even know many Democrats who drive SUVs and haul travel trailers, and have a speedboat or motorhome in their driveways. They consume, consume, consume on credit, and their basements are full of junk that they thought they needed. Most of it is crap without even a fleeting purpose.

We're in a democracy. A democracy will fail when the people ignore the warning signs. It's not me or you personally (and many others who are trying). But the rest are failing miserably. Some of them are laughing at us.

Sorry for the rant.

[Jackpine Radical]

36. Corporations do much more than make & advertise products.

They buy legislation. They withhold information. They limit competition in many ways. They go offshore to avoid taxes. Did the victims of Enron choose to have their energy prices artificially jacked up? What about Monsanto, seeking a monopoly on the world's food? What about the active suppression of green technologies?

The notion of an operating free market is a greater myth than Santa Claus, and with less basis in fact.

[GliderGuider]

12. Why is anyone surprised?

Damage to the environment is a an externality to a corporation. There is no way they will internalize the costs of environmental cleanup without being regulated.

The social, economic, political, industrial and educational institutions we have created all support the hierarchical, competitive, growth-based aspects of our nature rather than our cooperative, altruistic, consensus-driven side. These institutions have tremendous influence over public attitudes world-wide, to the extent that a majority see these values as self-evident. It is not in their in their interest for these institutions to relinquish their position. They will fight to the death to stay in control.

Democratically elected politicians will not be able to address the converging crisis of ecology, energy and economics.

Leaders that require the consent of the governed will be hamstrung by dissent, denial and resistance among their electorate. Due to the nature of democracy disruptors can’t be excluded from the debate. As a result, their policy options will be quite limited, and even if leaders understand the severity of the situation they will be rendered impotent by the very nature of democracy.

Non-political individuals like Al Gore or David Suzuki can influence the debate, but have limited ability to directly act on events because they are lone individuals outside the corridors of power. As far as I can determine this means there are only two potential sources of effective action: autocrats who do not depend on consent, and consensual groups that self-select for altruism and awareness.

Individual awareness and action is the foundation of all change. However, most individuals have a limited effect on the world. To overcome this, individuals capable of reasoned thought, cooperative dialogue and some degree of wisdom can form communities of interest. These communities focus and amplify their members’ actions, bur more importantly they act to exclude people who oppose their methods or goals. As a result reasonable things can be accomplished, at least within the group’s sphere of influence.

Small communities (under 150 people) have always been the building blocks of human society.

“I get by with a little help from my friends.”

[FirstLight]

14. Yikes!

No, this is not surprising

And the huge question becomes HOW CAN WE FIX THIS? Can we, as individuals get off the grid and make changes...do we wait for our new president to do ti for us?


or do we find the nearest cave and begin setting up suplies for the ultimate "Survivor - Earth" episode?


ya, and when the plane crashes, they say to put your head between you knees - and kiss your as goodbye!

Beam me up Scotty! Let's HOPE that the ufo's or the Rapture is real - because it may be all we've got!

Start prayin' brothers & sisters...cuz this one is the one we can't fix!

[GliderGuider]

23. What should we be doing? Funny you should ask.

I just finished a Powerpoint for a talk I'll be giving this week in Ottawa. It's called "The Converging Crisis: Ecology, Energy and Economics". The talk addresses the realities behind the headlines of $100 oil, melting ice caps and wobbly stock markets, and talks about what individuals and communities can do to adapt and protect themselves when this triple threat converges on us over the next decade. Most of the material in my post above came from slides in the talk.

The slides won't be officially publicized on my web site until after I present the talk on Wednesday, but I've posted a PDF of the slides here (2.5 MB PDF). You might find it interesting.

[AndyTiedye]

19. Corporations Respond Very Well to Financial Incentives (Carrots and Sticks)

They are already responding to rising energy costs by reducing their energy footprints. Even the evil Walmart.
Internalize the costs of pollution by taxation if necessary. That will get the job done better than trying to micromanage.
Democratically elected politicians can do something like that.

[GliderGuider]

25. Some do, some don't.

Some just raise their prices and pass the costs along to the consumer. I agree that WalMart is going green, and appears to be serious about it.

There are two things that concern me, though. One is that this is a global problem, and I don't think Chinese or even Indian industry marches to the same drummer as we do in the West. As evidence I give you the 2 new coal-fired power plants being built every week in China, and India's new Tata Nano people's car. The other thing that concerns me is that it's already too late. CO2 is at 394 ppm already, and if every factory in the world shut down and we completely stopped driving tomorrow, the world would keep on warming for another 200 years.

[7 of 11]

16. Those that are surprised by this fail to understand the business objective

Business are in business to make money, point blank and period. They are not there to offer opportunity to anyone or create jobs or care for the community at large. These are all attention getter tools they use to increase there foot print on the world but the bottom line in the bottom line and business is there to make money. Period.

So what options does that leave us with?

Simply one: Legislation. Do you think cars have air bags and seatbelt out of the goodness of GM's and Ford's heart? NO, they are there because laws were passed forcing them to add these devices. Do you think air quality has gotten better over the last 50 years because business got overly concerned with the health of the local communities? No, they lowered their emission because the EPA forced them to. So that being said, unless we pass laws curtailing these carbon emissions there will be no change.

[kimmylavin]

17. Really good point.

Legislation and regulation are the only answers to this problem.

[TankLV]

35. damn pesky LIBERALS & DEMOCRATS & UNIONS!

interfering with the FREE MARKET by forcing all this UNNECESSARY and NEEDLESS bureaucracy on business!

[OneBlueSky]

18. corporate rule, and the failure of government to regulate and control corporate actions . . .

is the single most important issue facing this nation and the planet . . . every other critical issue -- the war, healthcare, the environment, jobs, infrastructure, and all the rest -- stem from the control corporations exert over government in pursuit of their one purpose: making money . . . every societal cost is externalized, particularly pollution/destruction of the air, water, and land . . . since they are not required to be responsibile for the damage they do, corporations forge ahead with no concern whatsoever about how their activities affect the world in which they operate . . . since they are not really "persons," they have no conscience, no sense of right and wrong . . . they exist only to make money . . .

the most important thing government could do would be to strictly regulate corporations and the way they do business -- including putting the worst offenders out of business . . . but since the corporations pretty much own the government, the chances of that happening are nonexistent . . . which means the chances of solving other critical problems that stem from corporate actions are also virtually nonexistent . . .

[7 of 11]

22. It not just that coprotaions own teh government , but they own a necon one to boot.

Ronald Reagan was the architect of current neocon government. And one of his mottos or war cries was deregulation. He preached that regulation is bad for business and this cry resonates to this day in the Repuke camp. So the answer is to sweep them out all out of office.

[The_Casual_Observer]

21. So much for market driven solutions.

There never were any anyway.

[percussivemadness]

24. Thankfully an American company is - Stoneyfield Farms

http://www.climatecounts.org

Watch the movie Unstoppable....

Much respect to Stoneyfield for funding this :)

Peace

[Uncle Joe]

26. With these corporations it's every person or corporation for them self,

however the greedy bastards are shooting them selves in the head with all the long term vision of the contestants from the movie "The Deer Hunter" they're playing Russian Roulette with the human species.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, truthisfreedom.

[drm604]

29. Once again it looks like it's only a UK paper that's reporting this. K&R

:kick:

[TankLV]

34. I'm shocked - SHOCKED - I tell ya...

kinda like finding gambling going on in a casino...