Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. So, our next
Speaker 1: guest is a climate atmospheric scientist. She's been studying climate change,
Speaker 1: analyzing the data, the models. You may have even seen
Speaker 1: her Ted talk. She is the chief scientist for the
Speaker 1: nonprofit and global environmental group it's the Nature Conservancy, and
Speaker 1: she notes that our future it's in our hands when
Speaker 1: where we can choose between mitigation, adaptation and suffering. She's
Speaker 1: Katherine Hayho. She's got a new book at it's entitled
Speaker 1: Saving Us a Climate Scientist Case for Hope and Healing
Speaker 1: in a Divided World. And she joins ed La Lowe
Speaker 1: and me on the phone in Texas. Katherine, great to
Speaker 1: have you here with Ed and myself. Um, tell us
Speaker 1: about your new book, Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: My new book is about how the most important thing
Speaker 1: that any of us can do about the huge she
Speaker 1: of climate change is to use their voices to talk
Speaker 1: about it, because we're not only fourteen percent of people
Speaker 1: ever talk about it. And if you don't talk about
Speaker 1: it in your company, your business, your organization, why would
Speaker 1: anybody understand how it's already affecting us today, including our
Speaker 1: bottom line, and how every single one of us can
Speaker 1: help to be part of the practical solutions that are
Speaker 1: already being implemented today. As well. As part of your book,
Speaker 1: you surveyed, you interviewed, you polled all people from all
Speaker 1: walks of life. What did you find out? I found
Speaker 1: that most people are already very worried about climate change,
Speaker 1: even where I live here in Texas, the home of
Speaker 1: the oil and gas industry. But people don't know what
Speaker 1: they can do, and so because of that, we're not
Speaker 1: even talking about it. So that's why it's so important
Speaker 1: to break that silence and to talk first of all
Speaker 1: about how it's already affecting our bottom line. We're seeing
Speaker 1: a fee change. A lot of businesses are recognizing the
Speaker 1: climate up action aligns with their goals, that the consumer
Speaker 1: wants to see what they're doing, and that the risks
Speaker 1: are already affecting us. Hey, you know there's already many
Speaker 1: businesses that are taking action too. Sorry, go ahead, no,
Speaker 1: you're noticing that, Katherine. It's interesting and coming off of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, we are reminded so much about taking a vaccine,
Speaker 1: isn't just about protecting ourselves, but about protecting our community.
Speaker 1: We've had to think, you know, beyond ourselves in a
Speaker 1: big way climate change. That is the case too. I
Speaker 1: understand that you stress not focusing on the facts, but
Speaker 1: on shared values in common ground. How do you expect
Speaker 1: we get there when there's so much in fighting, certainly
Speaker 1: politically in this country, politically in other countries. How do
Speaker 1: we find that common ground, which is you know, crucial
Speaker 1: to really our existence as human beings in the future.
Speaker 1: M hmm. That's exactly the question. Because climate change is
Speaker 1: and has been for the last ten years, the most
Speaker 1: politicized issue in the US. So if we can come
Speaker 1: together on this, what else might we be able to fix?
Speaker 1: How do we do that? Start from the heart, start
Speaker 1: from what really matters? So what matters to your business,
Speaker 1: what matters to you personally, what matters to your consumer base?
Speaker 1: What values do they have that are being affected by
Speaker 1: climate change today? Because it's already here and now, and
Speaker 1: that climate solutions would genuinely and immediately and practically addressed,
Speaker 1: often we can agree on climate solutions without even mention
Speaker 1: the words climate change in sequence, Catherine, Let's give a
Speaker 1: specific example on this, So we can help the audience understand.
Speaker 1: In California, I am the most visible debate that we
Speaker 1: have is the wildfires. You know, they seem to be
Speaker 1: hitting earlier every year with more severity, and there are
Speaker 1: many that say this is the most visible evidence of
Speaker 1: climate change we have in the state. How would you
Speaker 1: approach that issue? How should people discuss the wild fires
Speaker 1: here in California. You're absolutely right, that's what we're seeing
Speaker 1: in California. In other places we see hurricanes becoming more intense,
Speaker 1: flood risk increasing, and of course deadly heat wave. I
Speaker 1: would approach it as a mom by talking about how
Speaker 1: some of my friends who who live in California Nevada,
Speaker 1: they couldn't even let their kids outside to way for
Speaker 1: it's not just days, but weeks at a time because
Speaker 1: the smoke was so bad. My cousin's house burned, dance
Speaker 1: and that that really happened, and we all know people
Speaker 1: have been affected. So I would start with something that
Speaker 1: we share, and then I would say, hey, did you
Speaker 1: know that one of the most important things we can
Speaker 1: do is talk about it because here in California we
Speaker 1: are the number one producer of solar energy and all
Speaker 1: the new homes that are being built to require tup
Speaker 1: solar panels, which makes us energy and dependent as well
Speaker 1: as not contributing to all this carbon pollution that's causing
Speaker 1: the planet to heat up, making our wildfires worse. So
Speaker 1: tie the issue directly to our personal concerns and directly
Speaker 1: to solutions that are happening great in front of our eyes,
Speaker 1: not on the other side of the world. You know,
Speaker 1: it's interesting though, I we d as I do. We
Speaker 1: talk with a lot of companies, h and institutions as
Speaker 1: well as investors. A lot of companies and institutions, Catherine
Speaker 1: are putting out targets for being climate neutral and so on.
Speaker 1: A lot talk about sustainability, and yet the climate number
Speaker 1: show is we can You need to go in the
Speaker 1: wrong direction. As Ed mentions the fires out there on
Speaker 1: the West Coast, early hurricanes here on the East Coast,
Speaker 1: the flooding that we're seeing in so many different places
Speaker 1: also around the world. I mean, is it too late
Speaker 1: you tracked the data. I gotta go back to the
Speaker 1: data for a moment. Is it too late? I do
Speaker 1: track the data, and the way I look at it
Speaker 1: as if it is too late to avoid all of
Speaker 1: the impacts, because some of them are right here today,
Speaker 1: the ones you refer to, we're seeing them here and now.
Speaker 1: It's sort of as if we've already been smoking for
Speaker 1: years and even decades, and we have some impaired breathing,
Speaker 1: we have some spots on our lungs, but we don't
Speaker 1: have them phazema, we don't have lung cancer, and we're
Speaker 1: not debt. So when is the time to make it change?
Speaker 1: Right now? Because I can tell you without a shadow
Speaker 1: of a doubt, as a scientist who studies the future
Speaker 1: and who studies the impact our choices make today, that
Speaker 1: our future is still in our hands. And what is
Speaker 1: it today is not the planet itself was its stake
Speaker 1: is our civilization as we know it. We still have
Speaker 1: the chance to save ourselves. And so that's why I
Speaker 1: called my book Saving Us. But Catherine very quickly remind
Speaker 1: us why is this less confrontational approach better than the
Speaker 1: facts and the data. Well, facts are important, I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously they explained the way the world works. But we
Speaker 1: scientists have been sharing facts for decades, and today much
Speaker 1: of the debate in the public sphere centers over is
Speaker 1: it warming or not? How much is humans, how much
Speaker 1: is not. And we know the answers to these things.
Speaker 1: We've known that it is real, we've known that it's
Speaker 1: human cause, we've known the risks are serious, scientists warned
Speaker 1: the US President in nineteen sixty five. So rather than
Speaker 1: getting stuck on the facts, we need to understand the
Speaker 1: real problem. Nobody thinks it matters to them personally, and
Speaker 1: nobody knows what to do about it. Catherine, just got
Speaker 1: about seconds thirty seconds left? Here? Are you banking on
Speaker 1: a younger generation? Who? I know my eighteen year old
Speaker 1: keeps reminding us the bad stuff we've done for the
Speaker 1: environment and promises change. Is it the younger generation that
Speaker 1: really moves the needle on this? And just quickly y um,
Speaker 1: they would, But we don't have time to wait for them.
Speaker 1: We have to join them too. And again, it's not
Speaker 1: about the environment, it is literally about us existence. Listen,
Speaker 1: we gotta leave it there. And certainly another thing to
Speaker 1: think about. And what's been a gem pack newsday and
Speaker 1: thoughtful day. Catherine hajo her new book Saving Us, a
Speaker 1: climate scientist case for hope and healing in a divided world,
Speaker 1: joining us on the phone from Texas,