Earth Will Survive; We May Not

At Davos 2020, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg told business and government leaders to make drastic and urgent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the climate disaster that scientists say we are rapidly heading towards.

The US president, Donald Trump, said the “perennial prophets of doom” should be ignored, in respect to climate change.

“We will be destroyed by climate change, not the planet,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the attendees. “Humankind has declared a war on nature and nature is striking back in a very violent way.”

Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, said investors have started to move their assets out of fossil fuels, as the climate-related risks have become more stark. He believes this trend will gain momentum as company’s accounting standards take into account climate-related risks.

“Fossil fuels, the fuel of the 20th century—its days are numbered,” said Andrew Liveris, former CEO of Dow Chemical who is now on the board of Saudi Aramco.

Scott Minerd, Global Chief Investment Officer of Guggenheim, said it was not enough to nudge business into action; there have to be financial reasons to divest from fossil fuels.“ While businesses may greenwash and talk about all the wonderful things they’re doing, there has to be a stronger sense of setting up incentives to get this addressed,” said Minerd. He suggested that a price be put on carbon.

One reason action to tackle climate change is so urgent, according to the scientists, is that we are close to several “tipping points” that could accelerate global warming even more.  One of these is the melting of the ice caps. Professor Gail Whiteman talked about the “albedo effect” and why an ice-free Arctic would spell disaster for the whole world. 

When sunlight hits snow or ice, the light is reflected back, not absorbed.  Conversely, dark blue oceans absorb more heat. Professor Whiteman pointed out that 50% of Arctic ice has melted in the last 50 years.  In addition, thawing permafrost releases methane, which is a concentrated form of CO2.    

One initiative that received thunderous applause at the conference was the 1t.org project, which plans to sequester carbon from the air and protect biodiversity by growing, restoring, and conserving one trillion trees around the world. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, who is providing financial support for 1t.org, said: “Trees are a bi-partisan issue—everyone’s pro-trees.”