Hey folks, I work in the DC area for NOAA Fisheries. Personally, my work
really has little to nothing to do directly with climate, but I have
connections whose work does in both the federal and NGO community. I intend
to share this listserv and email chain with several of them.
I can attest the atmosphere in DC right now is pretty somber. We were all
blind sided by the results of the election. At this point, all
organizations are still trying to figure out what comes next, and how to
move forward. Hopefully this listserv can be a resource for collaboration
in the years to come.
Clifford Hutt
NOAA Fisheries Service
On Nov 15, 2016 9:44 PM, "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've been getting emails and fbook notifications from various NGOs that I
sometimes support - the Southern Poverty Law Center, on civil rights
issues, the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists - but they never
talk about what their strategy is. They just ask for money. It may be
that contributing to these organizations is actually the most useful thing
we can do, if we aren't going to actually take jobs working for them, but I
would still like to know how exactly they hope to go about influencing
things.
Joy
**************************************************************************
Joy E. Hecht, PhD
Consultant on Environmental Economics and Climate Change
Email: jhecht@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 1-202-494-1162
From within Canada: 709-725-2420
URL: http://www.joyhecht.net/professional/consulting.html
<http://www.joyhecht.net/>
Skype: joy.e.hecht
**************************************************************************
On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 9:44 PM, Sarah Jacobson <sarah.jacobson@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Dear friends,
I am happy to sign onto any statement or petition in this vein, but I
second Joy's call for insight about more concrete actions we can take. We
all have advanced degrees and relevant expertise; we should be able to help
stop climate policy from backsliding, even if the new federal
administration is not friendly to climate progress. But many of us simply
don't know where to start--we don't have contact with the policymakers or
NGOs that may be at the forefront of the fight over the coming years.
The environmental / resource economics organizations I belong to are
professional organizations. Would now be a time for a more engagement- /
advocacy-oriented organization to channel our energies? Should we reach out
to existing organizations, and if so which ones?
-Sarah
--Sarah Jacobson
Williams College
sarah.jacobson@xxxxxxxxx
On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 5:58 PM, Thomas Lyon <tplyon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is a good point, Joy. A statement from 500 Fortune 500 CEOs would
have a lot more impact. But I don't know how to get them on board.
Tom
On Tuesday, November 15, 2016, Joy Hecht <jhecht@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Circulating this letter and obtaining as many signatures as possible
certainly seems like a reasonable thing to do. If, as many others in this
discussion have suggested, you circulate it beyond business schools, then
of course you'll have to change the text to reflect who is actually signing
it.
But I can't quite imagine the new Trump administration could actually
care less what we think on this topic, as he has already happily rejected
the notion that preventing climate change is more important than any
short-term costs that might impose.
I'm wondering, therefore, whether people here are working on (or know
other networks working on) determining what exactly we can do to keep key
actors in our country on track even if the new president is working against
it and the new administration does not actually implement the terms of the
Paris accord. I've seen a few ideas around - that corporations will want
to reduce GHG emissions irrespective of the policies of the current
government either because they believe it is going to be required at some
point and it's better to begin sooner, or (perhaps?) because they may not
be able to export to key destinations if they are not reducing emissions,
or because at least in some cases there is a financial payoff to reducing
emissions. I've also seen it suggested that even if the federal government
is not dealing with the issues, we should be working to implement state and
municipal policies to reduce emissions, because much may be possible at
those levels.
I haven't done much reading (or googling) on this yet, but I'm wondering
what else people may have heard about specific actions that could reduce
harm. I'm also wondering what other websites, networks, or organizations
you all may be aware of where we can learn more.
Joy Hecht
************************************************************
**************
Joy E. Hecht, PhD
Consultant on Environmental Economics and Climate Change
Email: jhecht@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 1-202-494-1162
From within Canada: 709-725-2420
URL: http://www.joyhecht.net/professional/consulting.html
<http://www.joyhecht.net/>
Skype: joy.e.hecht
************************************************************
**************
On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 4:11 PM, Thomas Lyon <tplyon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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
--
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
