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Hot Topics: Climate Change

There is a consensus among the world's leading scientists that the global climate is changing rapidly and that industrial emissions are the root cause of these changes. The exact impacts of a changed climate remain unclear, but the evidence points to more frequent and intense severe weather events, significant sea level rise, and increased tropical disease, drought, and famine. Some scientists and economists have argued that the implications of climate change are on the order of trillions of dollars.

The following articles attempt to chronicle the economic impact of climate change on the global economy.

Selected articles

Due to contractual arrangements, access to some articles may be restricted to the Stanford community, and subscribers of the "Library Databases" offered through the GSB Alumni's Lifelong Learning Program. Inclusion below does not imply University endorsement of the ideas expressed.

Solar Oven Wins Climate Change Award, SustainableBusiness.com. April 13, 2009
A solar-powered cooker, made for $6 from two cardboard boxes, won a $75,000 award offered for ideas that can combat global climate change. Called the Kyoto Box, the device is meant to be used by the billions of people worldwide who rely on wood stoves for cooking and for sterilizing water. This little invention can help to reduce firewood use and carbon emissions in developing countries.View Article

Stern's approach to climate talks cautious but optimistic, New York Times- ClimateWire, April 6, 2009
The cheering that greeted America's presence at U.N. global warming talks last week was "gratifying" and a little surprising, President Obama's climate envoy, Todd Stern, said upon returning to Washington, D.C., after his first foray into international negotiations .Applause broke out after Stern pledged to a crowd of staid diplomats that America will "make up for lost time" in reaching a global emissions treaty. View Article

U.S. Climate Change Summit Sets Stage for National Response, PR Newwire, New York, March 30, 2009
A two-day summit on climate change is bringing together top scientists, members of Congress, Obama administration officials, business leaders, state government officials, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations kicked off today at the National Academy of Sciences. The summit an NAS project that will generate a series of congressionally-requested reports and will lay the groundwork for how the nation can limit the magnitude of climate change, adapt to its impacts, and provide paths to action. View Article

Earth Hour Clocks Global Success, eWeek - New York, NY , 3.30.2009
The worldwide event to call attention to climate change puts up its strongest numbers in the three-year history of Earth Hour. From the remote Chatham Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean to Sydney's Opera House to the Eiffel Tower to the Empire State Building to Seattle's Space Needle, lights dimmed for 1 hour in a symbolic call to change the Kyoto Protocol. View Article

Climate Morality and 2009, Huffington Post, February 23, 2009
"What right does someone driving a huge gas-guzzling SUV have to say to a poor Bangladeshi or Indian cooking over a wood stove to cut down their emissions?" View Article

Can Obama’s clean energy plan save the climate?, Christian Science Monitor, January 12, 2009
In a major economic speech Thursday at George Mason University, President-elect Barack Obama called for doubling domestic production of alternative energy over the next three years. But how much can one country impact the climate issue? View Article

Sorry, Climate Change Wouldn't Hurt America's Economy, U.S. News and World Report; Money and Business, January 04, 2009
One of the more sober arguments in favor of radical action to combat perceived climate change is that doing nothing would be economically calamitous. Economist Nicholas Stern concluded that we should spend 1 percent of the global economy every year to avoid the worst effects of climate change. But a new study from economists Melissa Dell and Benjamin Olken at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University's Benjamin Jones comes to a different conclusion. View Article

Acidification, climate change killing off corals. The Economic Times, January 5, 2009
Ocean acidification and rising temperatures are gradually killing off the biggest and most robust corals on the Great Barrier Reef since 1990, the "tipping point" year, says a new study. The study, authored by Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) scientists Glenn De'ath, Janice Lough and Katharina Fabricius, is the most comprehensive one to date on calcification rates of Great Barrier Reef (GBR) corals. View Article

Report Forecasts Sea Level Rise to 4 feet by 2100, SustainableBusiness.com News, December 29, 2008
According to a new report led by the U.S. Geological Survey, we "face the possibility of much more rapid climate change than previous studies have suggested." The new report synthesizes the latest published evidence on four specific threats for the 21st century. It uses studies not available to the UN's IPCC 2007 report which explored similar questions.
View Article

Humans, Oceans Shaped North American Climate Over Past 50 Years, Science Daily, December 29, 2008
Greenhouse gases play an important role in North American climate, but differences in regional ocean temperatures may hold a key to predicting future U.S. regional climate changes, according to a new NOAA-led scientific assessment. The assessment is one in a series of synthesis and assessment reports coordinated by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. View Article

Warming could doom "white Christmas" Reuters, December 22, 2008
The odds of a "white Christmas" in temperate parts of the northern hemisphere have diminished in the last century due to climate change and will likely decline further by 2100, climate and meteorology experts said. View Article

Consensus' and climate change, Victorville Daily Press, December 15, 2008
Last week, the Hawaii Reporter, an online news outlet, posted a report about the schism among scientists about climate change and man's responsibility for and man's responsibility for it. View Article

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Completes Prime Mission, MarsToday.com. December 11, 2008
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a diversity of past watery environments. View Article

Technology fixes for climate change
Financial Post, December 2, 2008
Murray Edwards, Canada's most successful oil and gas investor, said he started getting involved in the climate-change debate a decade ago. View Article

 

More Articles

FACTBOX: U.N. panel's findings on climate change, Reuters, November 25, 2008
Read findings of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 2007 report. The scientific findings are meant as a guide for government delegates who will meet in Poznan, Poland, from December 1-12: View Article

Climate Change Significantly Raising Ocean's Acid Levels, Ahn, November 25, 2008
Carbon dioxide is raising the ocean's acidity levels at a much higher rate than previously thought, according to a recently published study.This acidity is having a negative effect on the health of shellfish. View Article

Summit takes aim at climate change; Governor to host this week's talks, San Diego Union Tribune, November 17, 2008
World leaders in the campaign to address climate change will confront that question as they gather in Beverly Hills tomorrow and Wednesday to shape policies aimed at responding to the mounting threats to food production, public health and the environment. “The goal is very simple: to form a broad international alliance,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said when he called for the summit, the first of its kind in the United States. View Article

Groups to Provide 'Prebuttal' to Alarmist Climate-Change Denial Event in Detroit Held by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, WSJ -Market Watch, November 17, 2008
Experts to Caution Against Heeding Head-in-Sand Approach to Global Warming, Unwarranted Alarmism that Ignores the Strong Economic Potential from Green Jobs, Increased Energy Efficiency and Climate-Related Innovation. View Article

States, cities step up climate-change responses. Seattle Times October 20, 2008
Before the fiscal crisis, there was the global climate crisis. After the fiscal crisis, we'll still have the global climate crisis — for the rest of our lives.
The severity of the threat is underscored by new reports indicating worldwide carbon emissions rose almost 3 percent last year alone.
View Article

Salmon industry prepares for climate change. ABC News
 Mon Oct 6, 2008 6:44pm
Scientists predict the Tasmanian salmon, rock lobster and abalone industries will be among the hardest hit by the warming of waters in southern Australia.
View Article

Palin on Global Warming. RealClimate part of the Guardian Environment Network. Monday October 06 2008
John McCain and Barack Obama favour mandatory action to reduce US carbon emissions but Sarah Palin McCain's pick for VP. Palin's position on global warming quite clearly in this recent interview with the publication Newsmax, where she says: "A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made." seems to be at odds with McCain’s position.
View Article

City takes on Climate Change Battle. The Coloradoan,CO
September 15, 2008
The state of Colorado has adopted a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels by 20 percent by the year 2020, and by 80 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2050. The Fort Collins City Council passed a resolution, which mirrors these goals, including language that underscores the importance of achieving trajectory milestones, such as the year 2012 having greenhouse gas emissions not to exceed 2.466 million tons.
View Article

Does Palin miss the mark on a hot issue? Toledo Blade.Toledo,OH September 14, 2008
“Global climate change is the most important environmental challenge facing not only our nation, but the entire world.” The words of a Greenpeace blowhard? Nope, it’s how John McCain’s office began its June 5 press release in support of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008, a follow-up to similar legislation Mr. McCain had proposed with Democrat-turned-Independent Joe Lieberman in 2007.
View Article

Climate threat to Brazil’s soya exports, Financial Times, August 10, 2008.
Brazil’s soya exports could slump by more than a quarter over the next 12 years as a result of climate change, according to a study to be presented at an agribusiness conference opening in São Paulo on Monday. The study will add to concern over worsening food shortages around the world. It shows that even moderate rises in temperatures would cause significant damage to a range of agricultural produce in Brazil, which has emerged over the past decade as one of the world’s biggest suppliers of food crops.
View Article

The Next Industrial Imperative: Facing up to climate change requires a revolution in business thinking. Strategy and Business, Summer 2008
Of all industrial countries, Sweden is probably the fartherst along in weaning itself from fossil fuels. Today, the country depens on oil for only 30 percent of its energy, down from 77 percent in 1970. (The United States by contrast, depnds on fossil fuel for 85 percent of its energy.) View article

Holy Trinity: Religion, Politics, and Climate Change. The Wall Street Journal July 14, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI’s message to 5 million Australian Catholics 10,000 miles away from Washington might seem remote from the U.S. presidential race and the politics of climate change. It isn’t. Pope Benedict, pacing the aisles on his longest-ever flight as pontiff, laid out his key message before even touching the tarmac down under. Christians, he said, need to embrace the biblical message of caring for the earth, and that includes taking steps to fight climate change.
View article

Bridging the Gap on Climate Change. The Washington Post, July 14, 2008
Despite the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, there remain sharp political disagreements both here in the United States and around the world about how policymakers should respond. Nowhere is this gap more profound than between developed and developing countries.
View article

ICF International Recognized as the Leader in Climate Change Consulting. BUSINESS WIRE , Jul 14, 2008
IFC International, a leading global provider of carbon mitigation and climate change adaptation services to companies and governments around the world, was singled out as the leader in climate change consulting services by Verdantix, an independent business research firm focused on climate change, carbon markets, and corporate responsibility. Verdantix reported that "ICF International stands out from the pack...combin(ing) a long track record in climate change advisory, deep environmental expertise, business analysis skills and the capability to deliver engagements in energy intensive sectors and service sectors. View article

Climate change: The evidence. BBC News, July 14, 2008
Our world is getting warmer. Over the last 100 years the average global surface temperature has risen by about 0.74C. This seemingly small rise has already had a significant effect on our planet. For example, the record books have had to be re-written recently, as 11 of the 12 hottest years recorded so far have all taken place since 1995.
View article

UPDATE: US Senate Votes To Proceed On Climate Change Bill. CNN Money, June 2, 2008
The U.S. Senate voted Monday to go forward with legislation to cut greenhouse-gas emissions dramatically by mid-century, giving a lift to environmentalists who hope to limit the damage from climate change. View Article

NASA watchdog says press office distorted climate studies. USA Today, June 2008
"Political appointees" in NASA's press office "marginalized, or mischaracterized" studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, the space agency's inspector general said in a report released today. View Article

Climate change resulting in shift to ‘green’ economies, says UN agency. UN News Centre, 20 February 2008
More and more companies are embracing environmentally-friendly policies and investors are pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into cleaner and renewable energies, according to a new publication released today by the United Nations Environment Programme. "Increasingly, combating climate change is being perceived as an opportunity rather than a burden and a path to a new kind of prosperity as opposed to a brake on profits and employment,” according to the new report.
View article

Trillions turn green Investment dollars flow to climate change, clean tech. MarketWatch, Feb. 18, 2008
Institutional investors are committing billions of dollars to investments in climate change and are embarking on a bold new action plan to raise the profile of energy efficiency and clean technologies around the world.
View article

Winemakers mull climate change at Barcelona conference. AFP, 2/14/2008
Carbon dixoide storage -- rather than grapes and vintages -- was on the agenda at a wine-makers conference in Barcelona Saturday, as vintners mulled ways to reduce the industry's greenhouse gas emissions. Not everyone is aware that wine production emits large quantities of CO2, the main gas responsible for climate change.
View article

How Big Oil Could Help on Climate Change in Iraq. U.S. News & World Report, February 15, 2008
Flaring is the cheap and dirty way to get rid of combustible fuel when there are no pipelines, gas-fired power plants, or export terminals nearby. Flaring  releases of millions of tons of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. It is hoped that big oil can partner with the Iraq to stop the waste and help the environment.
View article

Lawmakers push for "green-collar" jobs as climate change looms. Seattle Post Intelligencer, February 9, 2008
Washington State lawmakers passed a bill setting goals for reducing emissions over the next four decades, and increasing clean-energy jobs to 25,000 by 2020.
View article

Investors Request Disclosure of Climate Emissions, Strategies. Environment News Service, February 6, 2008
The Carbon Disclosure Project, a collaboration of 385 institutional investors with assets under management of $57 trillion, has issued its 2008 information request to the world's largest corporations. Companies are requested to measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and report on their strategy for dealing with risks and opportunities associated with climate change.
View article

Climate change becomes a U.S. Republican issue too.
Wed Feb 6, 2008
This could be the year Republicans, the party of President George W. Bush, use climate change as a rallying cry at election time. It could also differentiate Republican presidential contenders from Bush administration policies that have left the United States isolated among the world's biggest developed countries.
View article

Global Climate Change Response Can Spur $7 Trillion in Clean Energy Investment by 2030: CERA Analysis. FOXBusiness, Feb 05, 2008
Public concerns about climate change -- and its potential economic and political security consequences -- are driving public policy and private investment to bring clean energy technologies from the fringes of the global energy industry to the center of activities as quickly as possible, a new analysis by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) has concluded.
View article

Former oil company exec takes on global warming.
Gazette News Service-Ann Arbor, February 01, 2008
For the first 10 years or so that Steve Percy traveled around the country talking about climate change issues, his message was simple: It's happening.
View article

Climate change threatens West's water, world's crops.
USA Today, 2/1/08
One of the studies published in the journal Science found that nearly 60% of the changes in river flow, snow pack and winter temperatures in the West over the past 50 years are due to warming caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.
View article

The Real Costs of Saving the Planet. Business Week Online, 12/5/07
The article focuses on the analysis from McKinsey & Co. regarding the cost of limiting carbon emissions.
View article [icon - Stanford]

California fighting global warming with technology, greenbacks. San Francisco Chronicle, 11/14/07
California is leading the way in the fight against global warming as its investors have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into green technology companies and its citizens have cut per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases by nearly 10 percent in recent years.
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A Strategic Approach to Climate. Harvard Business Review, Oct 2007
The article discusses strategic planning for operational effectiveness and the reduction of climate-related risks, in light of the expected impact of climate change and regulation of greenhouse gas emissions on corporations.
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Sen. Boxer in Silicon Valley to emphasize conservation. San Francisco Chronicle, 8/15/07
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer turned to Silicon Valley Tuesday to illustrate one of her favorite points - that fighting climate change won't kill the economy.
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Carbon crackdown. Houston Chronicle, 7/17/07
After years of talking about the threat of climate change while Congress did nothing about it, a bipartisan coalition of senators has finally produced a prototype piece of legislation that aims to reduce industrial emissions of greenhouse gases heating the globe.
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Report calls on Europe to move on global warming. International Herald Tribune, 6/25/07
Europe must start work now to protect power stations, transport systems and agriculture from flooding, droughts, forest fires and landslides likely to be caused by global warming, according to the draft of a report due out this week.
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In climate change debate, all eyes turn to California. Associated Press, 6/21/07
While sometimes ridiculed for its granola image and left-leaning tendencies, California also has set the agenda for clean air, clean water and other health standards that later become the norm in middle America.
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'Cap and trade' gaining favor. San Francisco Chronicle, 3/21/07
Congress taking up business-friendly proposals to reduce global warming.
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Push to Fix Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming. New York Times, 3/15/07
An unusual coalition of industrial and developing countries began pushing Wednesday for stringent limits on the world's most popular refrigerant for air-conditioners, as evidence mounts that the refrigerant harms the earth's ozone layer and contributes to global warming.
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Climate Change's Cold Economics. WSJ Online, 2/15/07
With mandatory curbs on U.S. global-warming emissions looking increasingly likely in the next several years, industries are starting to argue over who will pay for the cleanup. One thing is clear: Whatever the cost, it will get passed along to consumers.
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The Cost of an Overheated Planet. New York Times, 12/12/06
The iconic culprit in global warming is the coal-fired power plant. It burns the dirtiest, most carbon-laden of fuels, and its smokestacks belch millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas.
View article

Talks to Start on Climate Amid Split on Warming. New York Times, 11/5/06
Climate negotiators are gathering in Nairobi, Kenya, for their 12th conference since 1992, with the world divided into three seemingly inflexible blocs on what to do about global warming.
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Investors spotlight global warming. Fortune, 9/18/06
About 225 institutional investors, who together have $31 trillion in assets, have put their names behind an ambitious and growing effort to analyze the ways that the world's biggest companies are dealing with climate change.
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Businesses divided over warming bill's bottom line. San Francisco Chronicle, 8/17/06
A push to make California the first state in the country to cap greenhouse gas emissions has many businesses split over whether the new limits would hobble the state's economy or create jobs and big profits.
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Business On A Warmer Planet. BusinessWeek Online, 7/17/06
Rising temperatures and later winters are already costing millions. How some companies are adapting to the new reality.
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A Refinery Clears the Air to Grow Roses. New York Times, 6/30/06
A few miles north of Rotterdam, in a region the Dutch call "glass city" for its thousands of greenhouses, gardeners like Frank van Os are part of an unconventional experiment by Royal Dutch Shell to curb carbon emissions.
View article

You Have Been Warmed. San Francisco Chronicle, 6/2/06
The most important movie of the year has arrived and guess what, it's about global warming. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", while full of really bad news, is funny and exhilarating and a film that Mick LaSalle says "everyone should see."
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Nuclear backers' energy surges; they say alternative would ease concern over global warming. San Francisco Chronicle, 5/19/06
The nuclear power industry, benefiting from fears of global warming, now faces its best chance in years to overcome skeptics and build plants, proponents said Thursday at a San Francisco convention.
View article

The Next Green Revolution. Wired, May 2006
How technology is leading environmentalism out of the anti-business, anti-consumer wilderness.
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It's a Little Easier Being Green. BusinessWeek, 4/10/2006
The article reports on TerraPass Inc., a company which sells "green tags" to consumers who wish to help the environment. The green tags, which cost up to $80 a year, give TerraPass funds with which to invest in clean energy production, such as wind power.
View article [icon - Stanford]

Quest for clean energy Chevron, PG&E cited for positive steps to combat global warming. San Francisco Chronicle, 3/22/06
After years of denial or uncertainty, many of the world's largest corporations have started taking global warming seriously and are looking for ways to fight it.
View article

Winds of climate change are about to make their impact felt in many a boardroom. The Guardian, 2/6/06
Sir David King said concentrations of greenhouse gases were already at a level where the warning signs were flashing red: a comment that starkly illustrates the impending clash between economic orthodoxy and environmental sustainability.
View article

 

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Earth in the balance: ecology and the human spirit. A speech by Al Gore.
View Video ( 13:44 min.)

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