Part of a series with basic information to inform your colleagues.

Don’t let climate change deniers have an equal say. It took several decades of intensive research but scientists now have a good understanding of Earth’s climate system and the impact people have on it. This is not just a few outlier researchers but scientists in diverse fields of study collaborating and showing the many impacts of GHGs and how impacts build on each other. Tens of thousands of scientists around the world have done work that strongly meet scientific criteria. Research that is rigorous, thorough, uses evidence, transparent, overseen by institutions that value accuracy, and withstand public scrutiny. The climate change deniers who have looked for any weakness from this list (although they lack evidence themselves) are now quietly backing away.

This research has led to 3 incontrovertible facts:

1. people are causing our climate to change, particularly due to GHG emissions,

2. human-caused climate change is dangerous with potential dire consequences,

3. there are still viable options for reducing the consequences of climate change.

Climate change will affect both our personal and professional lives. Some places or industries will get hit harder or sooner than others, but there will be a ripple effect. It is unlikely anybody – even the richest and most secure people – will go unscathed. Yet we have options to manage and potentially reduce climate change impacts:
1. mitigate: implement GHG emission reductions (renewable power, efficiency),
2. adaptation: improve a society’s capability to cope with changes in climate,
3. intervention: in planetary or regional system to counteract some GHG impacts,
4. study and research: to better understand our climate and our impacts on it.

What can we do? No one person can change everything. But people can use their voice and their vote. They should demand that political leaders make climate change a very high priority and pass legislation to encourage green energy and discourage or outlaw dirty sources. Leaders can also pass legislation that introduces incentives for making good energy choices and additional costs for sticking with dirty ones. One can also remain involved with one’s own company to understand and speak up on how climate change will hurt the bottom line and how it can do its part by being more green.

You can encourage your company or local community to seriously consider implementing adaptation, implementing strategies avoid, withstand, and/or recover from climate change impacts, such as passing or adhering to land-use planning and building codes, response planning and disaster recovery; impact assessment for critical systems (e.g., water, energy health, etc.

But whatever you do in your personal and professional lives, realize that climate change is real and it’s not something that will happen in the future. There is plenty of incontrovertible evidence that unwelcome impacts are happening to many people now.

CCES can help your firm develop a climate change action plan and put your firm forward as an effective advocate. Contact us today at 914-584-6720 or at karell@CCESworld.com.