More Procrastination

A couple of financial papers (Financial Times--U.K., La Tribune--France, but not the Wall Street Journal) note:

Adapt or bust warning from Lloyd's on climate change Requires subscription
Lloyds List, Jun 05, 2006
INSURERS must meet the challenge of climate change or they will go out of business, according to a stark warning from...

Now that business, financial business says so, maybe it is time to snap out of denial?

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Cheeky financial papers, charging for their articles on this report, when Lloyd's make it freely available!
The Lloyd's press release has a link to the report.

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I'm really intrigued by the panel discussion they announce:

Issues raised in the report will be debated at a session on the 5 July at Lloyd’s. The panel session, chaired by Sir Trevor McDonald will explore the key issues surrounding climate change and its impact on the insurance industry and the wider business world. Joining him will be business leaders and risk experts, including Thierry Desmarest, CEO of Total, Bob Hartwig, Chief Economist of the Insurance Information Institute, Wyn Jones OBE, Managing Director, Alcan UK; John Eliasch, Chairman, Head; and Lord Levene, Chairman of Lloyd's.

Will it be balanced? Will the points of view be amply divergent? Let's consider the panelists. With the Chairman of Lloyd's and the Chief Economist of the Insurance Information Institute, there will be three representatives of industry: petrolium, aluminium (very high energy consumption), and sporting goods?

Tuesday April 4, 2006
The Guardian
The man who bought a forest

It's not easy being the 145th richest man in Britain. Should you buy a chunk of rainforest to help save the planet, or loan a couple of million to the Tories? Johan Eliasch did both...

Johan Eliasch is finding himself in the news a lot these days... this Swedish-born tycoon, who owns the sports equipment company Head and is valued at £355m by the Sunday Times "rich list" (he's number 145), had bought 400,000 acres of the Amazonian rainforest, an area the size of Greater London. He bought it, he said, to save it, to preserve its plants and wildlife - and, by preserving old-growth forest, to do his bit towards counteracting rising CO2 levels.

I think I understand why the sporting goods guy was invited, and I'm glad he was. If I could suggest one more (will the table be big enough?), I'd add someone from a relief agency--UNESCO, Oxfam, Red Cross--to speak for the costs and challenges that are to be met for these catastrophes other than by insurance companies.

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Tags: climate | risk

Two reports published in the past few days consider spread of deserts, intensification of the harshness of their environments, and the consequences for the half-billion (currently) people in these regions. One is the "Global Deserts Outlook" report by the United Nations Environment Programme, and the second (first, chronologically) is an article in Science on the widening of the tropics by 140 miles since 1979 as observed in satellite measurements of jet-stream position (not solar angle). My rough survey of press coverage of these two reports in the online news I read routinely is as follows (as of 5 June, noon in Alsace).

While I take some comfort in knowing that, thanks to the Internet, if I browse enough I'll learn of these reports, I am disappointed that the news media of the "only superpower" haven't considered these reports important enough to mention.

• The Guardian
  1. Desert cities are living on borrowed time, UN warns

     · Climate change threatens conditions for 500 million
     · But report points to huge solar energy potential
     John Vidal, environment editor--Monday June 5, 2006

  2. a passing mention in an article on In our publish-or-perish climate of scientific research, what future is there for slow, painstaking study, asks Tim Radford (Friday May 26, 2006 )
• The Independent (UK)
  1. Desert life threatened by climate change and human exploitation. By Steve Connor, Science Editor--Published: 05 June 2006
  2. Widening tropics 'will drive deserts into Europe'

     Alarming new satellite evidence of the effects of global warming comes as forecasters predict more severe hurricanes
     By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor--Published: 04 June 2006

• LEMONDE.FR
  1. 
     L'ONU s'inquiète de la menace qui pèse sur les déserts | 05.06.06
  2. Les jet-streams tropicaux repoussés vers les pôles. Article paru dans l'édition du 27.05.06
     

, but nothing on "Global Deserts Outlook" or "satellite or tropics" that I could find in

• The New York Times
• the Los Angeles Times
• Liberation

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Tags: climate | deserts | tropics | journalism |