Green is the new black

I posted this on GAAPweb - it's tailored to the accountant in me but our planet's sustainability, or otherwise, is a huge deal .....

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Green is the new black

Earlier this month, global leaders extended their carbon footprints further by gathering en masse in Copenhagen to discuss climate change and how to build a greener planet. Hopefully, this is a small, necessary step backwards to drive progress forwards; progress that is desperately needed after a decade of deference from the world’s largest polluters.

In my opinion, the link between global warming and the unabated growth of the world’s population is clear and total. In 1909 there were less than 2 billion people on earth, most without electricity (let alone TVs, computers, consoles and all the other gadgets plugged into my living room sockets). Our fragile eco-system simply isn’t able to handle the sheer volume of C02 that is being extracted from the ground, recycled in the air and sitting in our cupboards. Fewer plants + more humans + releasing hidden carbon doesn’t equal a sustainable planet. Anyone who fails to compute this simple formula may as well still believe that the world is flat.

For those wondering why a blog on climate change is relevant to accountants, there are several, simple answers. Climate change impacts everything around us: our families, our homes, our finances and our careers. We all need to play our part – whether through direct action, votes or simply through raising awareness. If you are still sceptical, here is some food for thought:

Our climate is changing your family’s future

You probably are, or hope to be, a parent. This presumably means that you want future generations to have the quality of life that you’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy. Over the past hundred years, every generation has been afforded more opportunities than the last due to technological advances driven by electricity. It’s quite possible that without creative solutions and a change in attitude our grandchildren will face shortages of everything we take for granted today. Put very simply, wasting electricity by leaving lights on overnight means less energy for your children’s children in the future.

Our climate is changing your finances

Anyone who has been looking at their household bills recently will have noticed a continuing rise in the costs of shopping baskets. It’s easy for the media to blame Tesco for strangling suppliers or oil companies for profiteering, but the combination of drought and farmers shifting from food to industrial production are the real causes of higher prices. Even if official figures claim that the inflation rate is close to zero, the cost of living for households IS rising (these days the RPI basket is loaded with products that are more or less intangible – for example, CDs, whereby no-one is really buying a little plastic disc, thereby distorting the measure). This erosion of ‘disposable’ income means that the frugal have less to save or contribute to pensions and face shorter retirements than their hard work deserves. Consider this: choosing to cycle rather than drive this weekend will save some extra pennies and take a small step to reducing drought in far away lands.

Our climate is changing your career

Accountancy by its very definition is a function of commerce and economics. Our skills are needed by businesses, whether they are starting, growing or surviving. But, is our world economy (and, by association, our careers) sustainable? It’s unlikely to happen immediately, but current energy resources are finite and will one day run dry. The oils and gases that have taken centuries to form are being used to build major corporations. But what happens when these resources run out? You don’t need accountants if there are no beans to count. We need to be selfish; get our companies to cut costs by reducing energy consumptions which will help sustain the business and the need for accountants.

The choice to meet in Copenhagen is poignant. If the seas continue to rise unabated, the little boy with his fingers in the dyke could soon be floating down the streets of the Danish capital and our hopes and dreams could be following him.

By the time Barack Obama flies into Denmark tomorrow, hopefully a lot of big changes will have already been agreed upon. Global policy, guidelines and regulation will help slow down the warming and drive a greener planet. As one in seven billion, all each of us can do is our ‘little bit’. That’s a lot of little bits.