At Deutsch Bank, one of the world’s largest banks, there are some very bright people who understand that climate change is problem. An Internet search on “Deutsche Bank Climate Change” brings up links to Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, which features a carbon counter, showing the tons of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, 3.6659 trillion metric tons. Before the start of the “Industrial Revolution” there were approximately 2.5 trillion metric tons. The question for the scientists is “What are the effects of shifting all this carbon from under the ground into the atmosphere?” For the citizens and policy makers, “Is this good or bad, and if bad, what should we do?”
What should Obama do? What is Celebrity Investor and Adviser to Presidents Warren Buffett doing?
The headline under the counter, is “Greenhouse Gases Cause Climate Change.”
Our climate is changing. The scientific evidence is clear: our planet is getting warmer. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) – including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons – are increasing rapidly in our atmosphere. Human activity such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation is a major source of these gases. But since we can’t see them, it’s easy to forget they are there. Out of sight, out of mind. And if we aren’t aware of these “carbon” gases, it’s easy to ignore the urgent need to reduce their emission. The Carbon Counter displays the running total amount of long-lived greenhouse gasses in the earth’s atmosphere, measured in metric tons.
Thru Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett recently purchased the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the nation’s top hauler of coal. In the middle of 20’09 he purchased $1.28 million shares of Exxon Mobil, altho he sold 70% of this a few months later. Buffett, according to Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone, is one of America’s top “Climate Killers.”
They include Rupert Murdoch, the man behind Fox News and now the Wall St. Journal, Marc Morano, Conservative Columnist George Will, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, Lobbyist-former-Congressman Dick Gephardt, and Senators McCain, Inhofe, and Landrieu. Unlike his colleagues Buffett appears to be above politics. However, as an advisor to President Obama, Buffett makes policy. He’s an exception to the rule, described by Deborah Stone, as the Policy Paradox, (ISBN-10: 0393976254) to whit, “In order to make policy, you have to be good at Politics. ” Stone teaches political science at Dartmouth.
What will Buffett, with his investments in fossil fuel and nuclear power, tell President Obama? Will he tell the President to a shift from a fossil fuel economy to a sustainable energy economy? Will he say “We really don’t have carbon sequestration technology, but we know it will be expensive, and it won’t solve all the other problems of mountaintop removal?