Antinuclear

Climate change action is essential for business: no more ‘business as usual’

Cyclone Ita: lessons after the media deluge, WA Today April 14, 2014 Crispin Hull  “…………The response to extreme weather events by climate-change sceptics and business-as-usual climate-change deniers is now down pat: ”Well, you cannot assert that the climate is changing on the basis of an isolated event (insert event: cyclone. storm, bushfire, flood, drought). We have had these things before, you know.” And scientists will generally agree.

But this mantra has to stop.

For a start, with cyclones you can confidently say that they will now be more severe because of global warming. The oceans have warmed in the past 50 years. Cyclones get their energy from the heat of the ocean.

A lot of these things have exponential effect. A little extra heat means cyclones will be a lot more powerful. A little extra wind velocity means a lot more destruction. The power of wind is a cube function of its speed. Doubling the speed results in eight times the force. Trebling the speed equals 27 times the force.

So the difference between a category three and category five cyclone 500 kilometres off the Australian coastline is enormous. Once a category five is tracked, as was the case with Ita, very costly preventive measures get set in train, as they must.

My guess is that most people in Port Douglas blew between two and four days of their lives on cyclone preparation and returning to normal. Most businesses blew at least a day’s trade.

So there can be no more business as usual. Climate change has to be a major concern of business, particularly small business. Big business has the power and resources to adapt. Small businesses suffer badly at best or go broke at worse……..

Climate change must be a matter of concern for small business. Yes, we know that Australia on its own cannot affect the global climate, but we can and should influence world opinion, as we did with the bans on fluorocarbons. Those bans stopped the depletion of the ozone layer and prevented much cancer-causing radiation hitting the Earth.

The world co-operated then and we should co-operate now. The voice of small business should rally on this. Much of big business likes a high carbon economy and it does not care about the consequences……..http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/cyclone-ita-lessons-after-the-media-deluge-20140414-zquiy.html

April 15, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming