CEOs and Business Leaders: Money Won’t Save Your Children from Climate Change
By Marc Buathier-Phillips, July 23rd, 2022
Wealth and power can protect you from many things: famine, diseases, homelessness, war etc. Make no mistake however: your money won’t save your children and grandchildren from climate change.
If you’re part of the unlucky bunch of individuals with a house by the sea, you should be aware by now that your property might end up uninsurable and under water in the near future. The Union of Concerned Scientists report estimated that by 2045, “more than 300,000 of today's coastal homes, with a collective market value of about $117.5 billion today” will be at risk of chronic flooding due to sea level rise. According to a 2016 New York Times article, the impact of a coastal property collapse brought on by climate change “could surpass that of the bursting dot-com and real estate bubbles of 2000 and 2008.” If 2045 is too far of a deadline to prove the point let's use examples of the past.
In 2018, a wildfire in California reached the wealthy city of Malibu, a place home to Hollywood celebrities for the past century. After raging on for 13 days straight, the fire was eventually contained, but it had caused more than 6 billion dollars in property damage, burned 96,949 acres (39,234 hectares) of land, destroyed 1,643 structures, and killed multiple humans as well as wildlife. This rich and glamorous community wasn’t spared by nature, as wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis tend to hit communities regardless of their wealth: no amount of cash can change the course of natural disasters. This scenario isn’t exclusive to the US: Australia, Brazil, and parts of Europe have been the theater of spectacular wildfires in the past decade, with impressive footage that circulated the globe.
Regardless of where your home is, regardless of where you will build your new home if it burns down, the air pollution caused by such fires also affects people in the area and beyond. Sure, money can buy you a facemask, or even the best facemask on the market, but is that really a viable and long term solution to the problem? Research on how air pollution travels the globe demonstrates how pollution from one source can affect areas across the world: “Air pollution is distributed largely by air patterns and wind cycles around the world, but precipitation and transportation of food can also distribute it.”
In the end all these are just examples, and anyone can come up with counter arguments and try to point out flaws in the demonstration/illustration just made. But the reality of the problem is much larger and more profound than pointing out specific climate related problems with specific costly damages.
Wealth itself doesn’t provide security in a society disrupted by climate change. If the people who provide goods and services for you and your corporations are hit by the crisis, you’ll be hit too. If the whole system that guarantees your wealth becomes unstable, your money and power become destabilized and devalued as well. All the zeros in your bank account will not be able to provide a high quality of life for your family and loved ones in the event of the IPCC's worst case scenario. It may be possible for the wealthy to build a fortress that would allow them and their loved ones to survive a cataclysm, but the quality of life will be disastrously lower. Such a fortress of solitude would be like a prison within a massively disrupted society, stripping you and your families of your preferred lifestyle and sense of stability.
If leaving a livable world for your retirement and children isn’t enough to convince you, think about how you want to be remembered, not only by your descendents, but by the generations to come. Your wealth and your position as a leader holds you accountable in the eyes of the public, especially in the digital age, where everything is recorded and stored in data centers. Your actions, and inactions, will have consequences that will be remembered throughout history, and as of now the way you’re behaving shows that you want to be on the wrong side of history. You have the opportunity to join other world leaders and CEOs to call for the updating of governmental policies that will allow for the scaling up of already cost effective climate solutions to meet the targets scientists clearly say we can attain for 2030 necessary to stabilize climate change or at least prevent the worst impacts. The choice is in your hands.
For the past two years, we at Change the Chamber have been asking corporate and trade association leaders to publicly support the science-based federal legislation we need, showing the importance of this issue for corporate health and profits. Many have responded with support, but not nearly enough. Choose your legacy wisely. Lobby for climate.
Change The Chamber is a bipartisan coalition of over 100 student groups, including undergraduates, graduate students and recent graduates. Contact Change The Chamber at changeuschamber@gmail.com.