Business Capitulates and Goes Green

Holman Jenkins wrote a blunt, clear and scathing piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about American business' capitulation on the topic of global warming.

Nevermind that the evidence is still unclear as to whether or not humans are the major contributing factor, or even a significant contributing factor, to the current apparent rise in the Earth's temperature. Or that no less a figure than Bjorn Lomborg repeatedly counsels against ill-considered action on the still-misunderstood phenomenon and its consequences.

It seems that US CEOs have decided, especially with the recent change in 'leadership' on Capitol Hill, that some sort of legislation is heading their way. So, rather than gird for battle with court litigation and/or better-funded science, the corporate leaders are throwing in the towel, and attempting to cash in on whatever new constraints Congress will enact.

Jenkins recounts how each CEO is going about pushing for carbon emission restraints, taxes, etc., on other companies, but not their own. Or pushing for cap limits and tradeable emission rights, in order to make a profitable virtue out of what is now an apparent vice- free dumping of pollution into the atmosphere or water.

One of the things that most troubles me about the attitudes of these businessmen is that they wrongly seem to feel that any opportunity to sell something constitutes growth. In this case, nevermind that the actual activity of responding to 'global warming' will cost untold millions in terms of foregone growth.

Rather, it seems to me to be the same sort of logic that sees "growth" in cleaning up and rebuilding after a hurricane. That is, you'd really rather not have had the initial destruction occur in the first place. Any 'growth' really involves one person's loss becoming another's 'gain.' But the system loses value.

In their rush to grab the low-hanging fruit of the legislative 'response' to presumed global warming, these corporate titans seem to be missing the overall admission they are making that they are doing material environmental damage. And that much productive growth will now be foregone, as resources are directed to 'solving' a 'problem' we still are not sure is primarily caused by human activity.

I fear this knee-jerk reaction by corporate CEOs, and their surrender on the issue of whether there actually is a problem that mankind can solve, will come back to haunt the US economy.