Even the Billionaires are Starting to Acknowledge the Reality of Climate Change

15/1/20 butcherbakertoiletrymaker 6

You’ll notice that I don’t use the expression “believe” in reference to climate change, because climate change is an actual, real thing that has been taking place for decades, at minimum. One doesn’t “believe” or “not believe” in it any more than one would believe or not believe in the reality of our blue sky. One only has to either acknowledge it’s reality, or refuse to do so and pretend that what’s real isn’t real. One can say “they sky is green” all they want, but it makes no difference to the sky.

Enter Larry Fink, the Chairman and CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock. He just put out a letter to all his CEO pals stating that they’d better get their shit together when it comes to their approach (or lack thereof) to the reality of climate change.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/796252481/worlds-largest-asset-manager-puts-climate-at-the-center-of-its-investment-strate

Now, for the sake of managing expectations, we should be clear that this will not be an overnight matter. Just putting this new requirement into action will probably take at least a couple of years. Also, BlackRock is primarily a passive investor. Only 25% of their assets are actively managed. However, this is a significant shot across the bow and corporations have to take this letter seriously, if for no other reason than there is money to be made, or lost, based on how they behave from this point forward.

I, for one, despise this idea that we need billionaires to save us (sit the fuck down, Tom and Mike), but if even these guys are willing to actually put their money on the line to force real changes, then you know changes will be made. I’ll take this over perpetual Republican obstruction, and perpetual Democratic chickenshitness, any day.

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When you can walk its length, and leave no trace, you will have learned.

6 Comments

  1. What’s the point of massive profits and money if the environment decides to kill you?

    The smart billionaires realize this. The ultra greedy fuckers (see Bezos) are still clinging to the notion that humanity will save itself from itself.

  2. Yeah I really hate that we need the billionaires to save us, but because billionaires are actually fucking us….we need them to save us. Ever since Citizens United, the system is flat out rigged and grassroots support will never be a substitute for big donation dollars.

  3. *a billionaire wakes up from a nightmare in a cold sweat*

    Billionaire Man: HONEY, HONEY, WAKE UP!

    Billionaire Woman: What is it, dear?

    Billionaire Man: IF THE PLANET DIES, WE WON’T BE ABLE TO MAKE MONEY ANYMORE!

    Billionaire Woman: OH NO!

    That’s basically the conversation I can imagine billionaires are having with each other. Also, it was a legit plotpoint of a mission in the last Hitman game; a cabal of billionaires have a secret meeting and one of the leaders spells out in plain detail that if they kill the planet, they can’t make money, but there’s tons of money to made in going green. It was the literal plotpoint of an evil billionaire murderer and the actual billionaires are just now starting to come around to it.

  4. The concept of risk is one of the central elements of investing. Investors weigh risks against rewards and make decisions based on that. Climate change is rapidly increasing the risk of many investments. To cite obvious examples, is anybody buying property in Australia? How about buying hotels on Miami Beach? In its own way, the worldwide investment market, a highly complex system, is just as inexorable as climate change.

    It’s not surprising to me that investors are factoring in climate change risks. What is surprising, to me, is that Fink is essentially putting corporations on notice that failure to address these risks is going to drive away capital. You’re going to see some squealing from fossil fuel companies and their paid shills that Fink is “pandering” or “mistaken” or other bullshit, but reality will eventually win because it always does. I just hope that there’s still time to stop some of this shit before it’s too late.

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