Dear Concerned RESECON Colleagues,
I wanted to share with you a discussion that is going on in other parts of
my network. A group of business school faculty are thinking about a joint
statement that would address the broad issue of climate change and Trump's
pretense that is does not exist. This may make more sense than a quick
outcry about appointing climate denier Myron Ebell to guide the energy and
environment transition. We may also want to add a comment about the Clean
Power Plan into this. At this point it is just a first draft.
But it might be something that would attract broad support from
environmental and resource economists, too, if a few of the words were
changed. I suppose that raises the question of whether we might broaden
the language to include economists as well as business school faculty, and
present this all under one umbrella, or whether it is better to have two
separate statements.
The draft is below. Your thoughts are most welcome.
Best wishes,
Tom Lyon
*A Public Expression of Concern on Climate Change: A Call for Action in
Business and Business Schools*
As a general rule, academics in business schools do not take political
positions with respect to developments in national (or international or
local) politics. Our role is primarily to do research and to teach the
next generation of business leaders. However, the surprising election of
Donald Trump as the next President of the United States, along with his
promise to renege on the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which has just
entered into force on November 6, 2016 (with ratification to date by 110
countries including the U.S.), compels us to depart from this general rule
and to make a statement in opposition of President-elect Trump’s position.
We urge him to reconsider taking this course of action.
For many years, academics like us have been studying the challenges posed
by climate change from a business point of view, even as scientific studies
have shown, with increasing certainty and detail, that climate change poses
a significant threat to the very foundations of human civilization. If
effective measures are not taken to reverse rising levels of greenhouse gas
emissions, then, as scientists tell us, there will be extreme consequences
in terms of rising sea levels, increasingly heavy precipitation events,
higher temperatures (including heat waves and more frequent forest fires),
and more severe droughts and water shortages. Human consequences will
include mass starvation, exponentially increased refugee flows, increasing
range of formerly “tropical” diseases, and new wars over food and water.
In light of these predicted consequences to the very fabric of human
civilization, we cannot as academics stay silent in the face of a political
call to ignore science and to allow the United States to reverse course on
climate policy. We therefore call in the strongest possible terms for
President-elect Trump to stay his hand with respect to the Paris
Agreement. The United States should not become a rogue nation with respect
to climate change; instead it should remain at the forefront of
international policy and dialogue.
In any event, regardless of whether we can have an influence over decisions
of a new Trump Administration, we call on our fellow business academics
and, most importantly, business people themselves, to redouble their
efforts and commitments to adopt climate friendly policies and practices.
Over the last several decades, we have witnessed a strong increase in the
commitment of many business firms to take climate change seriously and to
become “part of the solution” rather than “part of the problem.” We
reaffirm efforts to advance the cause of climate resilience in the business
community. After all, as David Brower has famously said: “There is no
business to be done on a dead planet.”
We urge President-elect Trump to listen to the world’s leading scientists
and the great weight of international political opinion as expressed by the
197 parties to the Paris Agreement and to stay the course with respect to
this Agreement. In addition, in light of the political threat to progress
on climate change, we urge business schools and business firms to redouble
their efforts to confront this real and immediate threat to human
civilization. There is no time to wait.
The undersigned business faculty members of the Alliance for Research in
Corporate Sustainability and the Organizations and Natural Environment
section of the Academy of Management.
--
Thomas P. Lyon
Dow Chair of Sustainable Science, Technology and Policy
Ross School of Business
School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan
701 Tappan St., Room 6366
Ann Arbor, MI 48409
734-615-1639
