Climate Change and Business Risk - Josh Prigge

Climatrends

Climatrends Podcast Episode 1 - Business Risk Interview with Josh Prigge

This podcast examines how a rapidly changing climate will impact business. In fact, climate volatility and weather disruption is already impacting businesses around the world. Patterns are shifting. Extremes becoming more extreme. Connect the dots and you’re left with one thought: this is either the Mother of All Coincidences, or it’s real. It’s happening. This isn’t some far-off-in-the-future thing. NOAA reports the United States have experienced the most weather and climate disasters on record in 2020. And it is, in fact, a trend. Climate theory has become our new extreme weather reality.

My name is Paul Douglas. I am a Minnesota meteorologist, climate analyst and entrepreneur on my 7th business. One of those companies is Climatrends, where we try to help businesses navigate this brave new world of rising seas, wetter storms, drier droughts and more intense hurricanes and wildfires – examining the trends, the latest science and climate model predictions - helping business decision-makers lower risk and reinvest wisely, no matter what Mother Nature throws at us in the future.

By the way, it was the weather that tipped me off to a rapidly changing climate more than 20 years ago. Weather and climate are flip sides of the same coin. And yes, since the dawn of time we’ve always had weather extremes, but by the turn of the century I couldn’t help but notice the weather – increasingly – was playing out of tune. I was seeing things I had never witnessed before on the weather maps. I certainly wasn’t the only meteorologist tracking the trends and shaking my head in wonder. More eye-opening swings in temperature and precipitation, new rainfall records, more flooding where companies didn’t even realize they were in the floodplain, more coastal inundation when there wasn’t a storm in sight, and yes, more super-sized hurricanes. Weather on steroids.

So what, who cares? Well, the story of America one of persistence and innovation - taking calculated risks to create the products and services that add value to people’s lives. Climate change introduces new risk into the equation: Is there a safer place to build our facilities? Will our buildings, operations and supply chains and personnel be able to tolerate more heat, more frequent flash floods and more icing during increasingly fickle warming winter months? How do we harden our infrastructure – how can we make everything we do more climate-resilient: stormproof, water-resistant, heat tolerant and impervious to drought? How do we keep the wheels on the bus and get the returns we need to keep the economy powered up, people employed, and business plans moving forward? With all the lingering uncertainty, where do we plant seeds to get the best return on investment, as weather disruptions increase over time?

Our plan: interview the world’s leading climate scientists - get their predictions. Is there consensus? What are the best climate models predicting for 2030, 2050 and beyond? How confident are these predictions? What, specifically, should businesses be doing today – to be fully prepared for what tomorrow brings?

Here’s what we will not do: wallow in gloom, doom and hype. It’s not helpful, and there’s no time. More disruption is inevitable, in fact it’s already here. What worked in the 1970s probably won’t work in the 2020s and beyond. We need new tools, new methods, materials and strategies to better prepare business for bigger swings in weather already in the pipeline. The companies that survive and thrive in the 21st century aren’t the ones with superpowers. The businesses that prosper will be the ones that acknowledge data and evidence, listen to leading scientists, and adapt their operations and investment strategies to this new climate reality. The situation isn’t hopeless – and we aren’t helpless. Companies can fine-tune, pivot and adjust to a warmer, more volatile world. Step one is listening to the best experts we can find.

Let’s get started.