Global Climate Change:Corporate and Personal ActionMartin AbrahamDepartment of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606;martin.abraham@utoledo.edu (for correspondence)

Published online 7 March 2007 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ep.10196

It’s official. The Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange has reported that global climate change is realand that humans are responsible [1]. Some specific con-clusions include the following:

� Most of the observed increase in globally averagedtemperatures since the mid-20th century is verylikely due to the observed increase in anthropogenicgreenhouse gas concentrations.

� For the next two decades a warming of about 0.28C perdecade is projected for a range of emission scenarios.

� Continued greenhouse gas emissions at or abovecurrent rates would cause further warming andinduce many changes in the global climate systemduring the 21st century that would very likely belarger than those observed during the 20th century.

� Anthropogenic warming and sea level rise wouldcontinue for centuries due to the timescales associ-ated with climate processes and feedbacks, even ifgreenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized.

In summary, global climate change is real, much ofclimate change is due to human activity, global averagetemperatures will continue to rise, and actions that wetake now will only impact climate sometime in the nextcentury. For those trained to analyze scientific data(and for many of those not trained), the charts andtables that are presented within the report are quiteclear, and in many respects, quite chilling.

The scientific world has been aligning around thenotion that climate change is real and humans are re-sponsible for some time. On June 2, 2005, the NationalAcademy of Sciences, along with the national academ-ies of 10 other nations, issued their Joint science aca-demies’ statement: Global response to climate change[2], which starts off with the words, ‘‘Climate change isreal.’’ They go on to point out that ‘‘Action taken now

to reduce significantly the build-up of greenhousegases in the atmosphere will lessen the magnitude andrate of climate change,’’ and urge all nations to takeaction to begin to address climate change issues. InJune 2005, U.S. National Academy of Sciences PresidentRalph Cicerone followed up in his report to Congress‘‘The earth is warming’’ and that by 2100, ‘‘global sur-face temperatures will be from 2.5 to 10.4 8F above 1990levels.’’ The NAS 2006 summary report states unequivo-cally, ‘‘Humans have had an impact on climate’’ [3].

Individuals and corporations are beginning to takenotice that scientific advice is uniformly identifyinganthropogenic global climate change as a serious issuethat needs to be addressed now. For example, a largeand diverse group of US business leaders has formed theUS Climate Action Partnership. In their inaugural state-ment, USCAP announced, ‘‘We, the members of the U.S.Climate Action Partnership, pledge toworkwith the Pres-ident, the Congress, and all other stakeholders to enactan environmentally effective, economically sustainable,and fair climate change program consistent with our prin-ciples at the earliest practicable date.’’ Their principlesare outlined in their report, ‘‘A Call to Action’’ [4]:

1. Account for the global dimensions of climatechange;

2. Create incentives for technology innovation;3. Be environmentally effective;4. Create economic opportunity and advantage;5. Be fair to sectors disproportionately impacted; and6. Reward early action.

And their conclusion on an appropriate industrialresponse to climate change: ‘‘In our view, the climatechange challenge, like other challenges our countryhas confronted in the past, will create more economicopportunities than risks for the U.S. economy. Climatestabilization requires immediate action and sustainedeffort over several decades.’’

SUSTAINABLITYSUSTAINABILITY

� 2007 American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Environmental Progress (Vol.26, No.1) DOI 10.1002/ep April 2007 9

Even President Bush is starting to appreciate theissues of global climate change. In his 2007 State ofthe Union address, he promotes the use of alterna-tive fuels, improved automotive efficiency, and thedevelopment of new energy technologies. While Bushsees the issue as one largely based on the need to be-come less dependent on oil, he does agree that ‘‘thesetechnologies will help us be better stewards of the envi-ronment, and they will help us to confront the seriouschallenge of global climate change’’ [5]. The President’splan, dubbed 20 by 10, proposes the reduction of gaso-line consumption by 20% in 10 yr, thereby decreasingby 10% the carbon dioxide emissions from the automo-tive sector, equivalent to 176 million metric tons.

Despite the great body of evidence, the collection ofstatements from world-renowned scientists, and thealignment of corporate and government consensus,there are still many uninformed Americans who wishto believe that climate change is a farce thrust upon usby ‘‘the United Nations and other liberal organizations. . . to scare the peoples of the world in order to submitto more and bigger governments’’ [6]. This specificexample, taken from my hometown newspaper, is rep-resentative of those folks who remain uneducated aboutthe facts of climate change, refuse to accept humanity’srole in climate change, and do not wish to contribute tosolutions to the problem. Unfortunately, it is too easy touse the sub-zero temperatures and blizzard conditionsin the Midwest during the early part of February (whichhappens to be as I currently write this column) as evi-dence that climate change is really natural variationsin local temperatures and dismiss our role. Regardlessof whether we care to admit it or not, everyone on theplanet will be affected by climate change.

I am pleased to see the alignment of the scientificcommunity and the recognition by the political worldthat climate change is real and we need to do some-thing about it now. While it is not good news that wehave become certain that climate change is real, it isgood news that we are becoming prepared to addressthe problem. So what is it that we should consider?

For one thing, we can use our position as educatedscientists and engineers to teach the uninformed aboutthe issues of climate change. If we become better edu-cated ourselves, and then talk about the real challenges,we can better promote societal change. We can becomechange agents within our professional and social organi-zations. One place to start, as a member of a professio-nal society (think AIChE), is encourage them to adoptgreen meeting practices, and adopt them for your ownsector of the organization for which you have influence.

You can also encourage your workplace to adoptmore sustainable practices. Are you aware of the federalgovernments Environmentally Preferable Purchasing(EPP) policy? EPP is a response to Executive Order13101, and requires Executive agencies to purchase‘‘products or services that have a lesser or reduced effecton human health and the environment when comparedwith competing products or services that serve the samepurpose’’ [7]. EPP simply asks the purchaser to evaluatethe environmental impacts of the product or service,along with the price and performance, in making pur-chasing decisions. With its five guiding principles,

including an analysis of the life cycle impacts, this guid-ance can easily be applied to corporate purchases.

As scientists and engineers, we bear the responsibil-ity for becoming soldiers in the war on global climatechange (is it permitted to use this type of language forthis issue yet?). Clearly, energy use, and the carbonemissions from energy production, is one of the majorcauses of climate change. So as leaders we shouldbecome early adopters of alternate energy technolo-gies. In both our personal and corporate lives, weshould work to identify more environmentally appro-priate alternatives for achieving our goals. Select thehybrid vehicle or the clean diesel vehicle that you willfuel with biodiesel blends. Use compact fluorescentlights in place of incandescent, and remember to turnoff the lights when you leave the room. Improve theenergy efficiency of your appliances and your home.When you travel, choose to stay in a ‘‘green hotel,’’ orat the very least, make sure that the hotel observesselected green practices such as reusing towels and notchanging bed linens every day.

Global climate change is not the result of one badcorporation, nor one excessive nation. It is the result ofmore than a century of industrial development, and alarge percentage of the greater than six billion peopleliving on this planet who use large quantities of energyon a daily basis. We all make individual decisions everyday that collectively can have a great impact on carbonemissions, and thus ultimately, on climate change.How do we address the climate change dilemma: onecarbon molecule at a time!

LITERATURE CITED

1. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis,Summary for Policymakers, Contribution of WorkingGroup I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, available onthe web at http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf(2007).

2. Joint Science Academies’ Statement: Global Re-sponse to Climate Change. Statement issued on 7June 2005 by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences,available at http://nationalacademies.org/onpi/06072005.pdf (2005).

3. Understanding and Responding to Climate Change,Highlights of National Academies Reports, NationalAcademy of Sciences, available at http://dels.nas.edu/basc/Climate-HIGH.pdf (2006).

4. A Call to Action, Consensus Principles and Recom-mendations from the U.S. Climate Action Partner-ship: A Business and NGO Partnership, available onthe web at http://www.us-cap.org/ClimateRe-port.pdf (2007).

5. State of the Union Address, President George W.Bush, (2007). Text available at http://www.white-house.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html.

6. Jones, D. (2007). Questions about global warming,Oregon, OH:The Toledo Blade.

7. EPA’s Final Guidance on Environmentally Prefer-able Purchasing, available at http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/guidance/finaleppguidance.pdf(2006).

10 April 2007 Environmental Progress (Vol.26, No.1)