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The Welches Need to Face Facts About Global Warming

by Jim DiPeso, REP Policy Director
published in Business Week, edition of March 19, 2007

Given the partisanship that grips Washington and the media culture that feeds on such divisiveness, Jack and Suzy Welch’s uncertainty about global warming is understandable.

If they were to talk to actual climate scientists, however, and avoid the spin doctors trying to overlay their agendas onto media interpretations of the science, they would come away understanding that the case for a human fingerprint on climate change is close to airtight.

Regardless, it was heartening to read their message that business should plan as if global warming will have far-reaching impacts on human society. Many have likened reducing greenhouse gas emissions to paying an insurance premium in order to reduce unbearable risks. That analogy doesn’t quite hit the mark. Cutting emissions through energy efficiency and other process improvements will have lasting business benefits – even if, somehow, the Wall Street Journal’s diehard ideologues know something that thousands of scientists don’t.