Opinion | Climate change will turn the Earth into the next Titanic unless corporate captains wake up and act quickly

Heads of large corporations, not governments, need to recognise the urgency of the climate crisis and focus on the planet’s long-term survival instead of short-term profit, while economists must factor the cost to the Earth into GDP calculations

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Thousands of students assemble at Sydney’s town hall, joining the global “climate strike” to demand urgent action on climate change, on March 15. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 10:30pm, 7 Jun 2019Updated: 1:46am, 8 Jun 2019

World Environment Day on June 5 was a good time to reflect on the existential threat of climate change, after five of the hottest years on record.

A report compiled by 150 experts has warned that a million species are in danger of extinction, while climate scientists have said we have less than 15 years to correct our carbon emission trajectory.

While billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson finance space travel projects, hoping they can migrate to outer space when the Earth implodes, the poor living in the tropics are facing rising heat, worsening drought and the bleaching of their topsoil. The young fight each other or simply migrate northwards to cooler and richer places.

The Middle East and North African belt has 6 per cent of the world’s population and 1 per cent of the drinkable water resources, with an expanded desert area. It also has the highest rate of population growth.

By 2050, the region will have 3.4 billion people, more than the populations of China and India combined. No wonder populists in Europe and the US are terrified of being overwhelmed by migrants.

Sustainable investors – those who think they can make money out of investing in green projects – tell us “we are long on short and short on long”.

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