Who Feels Threatened by Climate Change?

Who's Afraid of Climate Change?Companies feel threatened by climate fight? That's what the U.N. Chief says. And that was a headline that drew me in at Reuters.

Again, Companies feel threatened? I would think so. If I were any kind of fossil fuel company I would feel like the whole world thought I was a dirty, rotten scoundrel. Kind of the way public opinion turned on cigarettes 50 years ago. Or on sugar a decade or two ago. Only the world is not addicted to fossil fuels, and the companies that provide them are powerful. Do they “feel threatened”? No. Companies feel nothing. They are legal creations, not humans or even animals. The headline itself gives away the false presumption that we have about companies, that they somehow have a life outside of the people that make them up. The people in charge of the fossil fuel industry most certainly feel threatened, at least I hope they do. And are they trying to fight back? I assume so. Look at how cigarettes and sugar have fought back for decades now.

But are fossil fuel industries attacking the U.N. attempt to cultivate a worldwide climate change deal?

“I wish I knew if there is a concerted attack on the scientific community and where it's coming from. I don't know if there is a campaign. I know that there are companies and countries that are very seriously concerned that ambitious action to address climate change will harm them economically," said Yvo de Boer, U.N. Climate Chief.

Part of what he is referring to is the calls for Rajendra Pachauri’s head, as he was the chief of the committee that published the 2007 IPCC report that has since been found to have erroneously predicted the possible melting of the Himalayan Glaciers by 2035.

“We can't depend only on IPCC. We've had goof ups on the glaciers, we've had goof ups on the Amazon, we've had goof ups on the snow peaks, some of the mountains, but the IPCC is a responsible body," said Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, who has set up an India-specific, homegrown IPCC to augment the UN’s IPCC findings.

All of this is a bit absurd. I can understand India being upset, as this would change the kind of policy they were looking to set dramatically. What I can’t understand is the idea that this one error is getting so much press and producing so much controversy. It wasn’t even a definite prediction. Now that it has been corrected, aren’t we going to deal with the real problems of environmental destruction? Or are we going to continue ignoring the Lorax until we have no more truffula trees to cut down? It certainly appears that we are going to do the latter.

There is probably no “anti-climate change deal” illuminati or anything- but there most certainly are powerful companies out there that are interested in making this kind of talk of climate change go away- it’s bad for business. Make no mistake that it is even happening in the White House right now. It is most certainly happening in the U.N. and in every little nook and cranny of America. Fossil Fuels will not go down without a fight.

 Photo Credit: Kraetzsche Photography (via Flickr under CCL)