US-based recyclers may gain from China's 'Green Fence' - News - Plastics News

US-based recyclers may gain from China's 'Green Fence' - News - Plastics News: "For some U.S. recyclers, China's "Green Fence" is a gateway to more opportunities.
The policy, which went into effect in February, strictly enforces regulations on importing dirty scrap materials into the country. It has led to a significant drop in imports of plastic waste and put some recyclers out of business, at least temporarily.
The policy is bad news for some municipalities, which are having a tougher time with some low-grade plastics that they collect, since they can no longer ship it to China.
But Green Fence is opening up opportunities for some U.S. plastics recyclers."



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Think your plastic is being recycled? Think again.

Think your plastic is being recycled? Think again.: "Think those plastic items you carefully separate from the rest of your trash are being responsibly recycled? Think again. U.S. recycling companies have largely stayed away from recycling plastic and most of it has been shipped to China where it can be processed cheaper. Not anymore. This year China announced a Green Fence Policy, prohibiting much of the plastic recycling they once imported:
For many environmentally conscious Americans, there’s a deep satisfaction to chucking anything and everything plasticky into the recycling bin—from shampoo bottles to butter tubs—the types of plastics in the plastic categories #3 through #7. Little do they know that, even if their local trash collector says it recycles that waste, they might as well be chucking those plastics in the trash bin.
“[Plastics] 3-7 are absolutely going to a landfill—[China's] not taking that any more… because of Green Fence,” David Kaplan, CEO of Maine Plastics, a post-industrial recycler, tells Quartz. “This will continue until we can do it in the United States economically.”

U.S. recyclers are scrambling to come up with a solution now that China is drastically cutting back on their top import from the U.S.:
China's demand for low-cost recycled raw materials has meant waste shipments from Europe, the US, Japan and Hong Kong have arrived thick and fast, with scrap becoming the top US export to China by value ($11.3bn) in 2011.
China controls a large portion of the recycling market, importing about 70% of the world's 500m tonnes of electronic waste and 12m tonnes of plastic waste each year. Sudden Chinese policy changes therefore have a significant impact on the global recycling trade, which puts pressure on western countries to reconsider their reliance on the cost-effective practice of exporting waste, a habit that's reinforced by a lack of domestic recycling infrastructure and a lower demand for secondary raw materials.

China's Green Fence policy just might spur the U.S. government and recyclers into much-needed innovation:
Historically, higher labor costs and environmental safety standards made processing scrap into raw materials much more expensive in the US than in China. So the US never developed much capacity or technology to sort and process harder-to-break down plastics like #3 through #7.
Green Fence might be a chance to change that, says Mike Biddle, CEO of California-based recycling company MBA Polymers. “China’s Green Fence offers a real opportunity to the US government and recycling industry to step up its efforts on recycling and catalyze a strong domestic recycling market in the US,” Biddle said at a recent webinar on Green Fence."



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The Life of a Plastic Water Bottle - Bloomberg Business

The Life of a Plastic Water Bottle - Bloomberg Business: "Photographer: Thomas Kokta/Getty Images


The Life of a Plastic Water Bottle
The plastic containers water comes in accumulate each year in such volume that they litter beaches, foul seas and carpet landfills"



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Documents released by Greenpeace discredit one of climate change deniers' favorite 'scientists' : TreeHugger

Documents released by Greenpeace discredit one of climate change deniers' favorite 'scientists' : TreeHugger: "Major newspapers boasted front page headlines shaking up the climate change denial community yesterday after Greenpeace released documents linking corporate funding to Willie Wei-hock Soon, a major source of science supporting the viewpoints of people who question whether mankind is causing global warming. The papers, acquired by Greenpeace via a freedom of information act request, demonstrate that the scientific publications resulting from this funding do not comply with ethical practices for disclosing conflicts of interest.

The Washington Post calls Willie Wei-hock Soon the "high priest" of climate change denialists. The New York Times compares the denialists to Big Tobacco, using money to generate the appearance of scientific doubt."



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Modi Wants to Replace Crowded Slums in India With 20 Million Homes - Bloomberg Business

Modi Wants to Replace Crowded Slums in India With 20 Million Homes - Bloomberg Business: "“If the poor have a proper house to go back to then it adds to his sense of security, and that individual’s productivity goes up,” said Neeraj Bansal, India head of real estate and construction at accounting firm KPMG. “If you push this engine, the bogies will pull along.”
Modi’s “Housing for All” program, first announced days after he took power last May, seeks to build 20 million homes over the next seven years in the world’s largest housing program. That should be enough to cover a shortage that forces families to live in overcrowded structures and slums, according to 2012 government estimates.
$2 Trillion
While previous governments focused largely on public-funded programs, Modi is looking to push the private sector into action. It’ll take $2 trillion in financing to meet his targets, according to estimates from KPMG and the National Real Estate Development Council, an policy research group."



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Noise pollution is making us oblivious to the sound of nature, says researcher | Science | The Guardian

Noise pollution is making us oblivious to the sound of nature, says researcher | Science | The Guardian: "The tranquil chorus of the natural world is in danger of being lost to today’s generation as people screen out the noises that surround them, a senior US researcher warns.

Rising levels of background noise in some areas threaten to make people oblivious to the uplifting sounds of birdsong, trickling water, and trees rustling in the wind, which can often be heard even in urban centres, said Kurt Fristrup, a senior scientist at the US National Park Service.

The problem was exacerbated by people listening to iPods through their earphones instead of tuning in to the birds and other sounds of nature that can easily be drowned out by traffic, music and others noises, he said.


'A great silence is spreading over the natural world'
Read more
“This learned deafness is a real issue,” Fristrup told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Jose. “We are conditioning ourselves to ignore the information coming into our ears.”"



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Oklahoma Bill Banning AP US History Would Make Students Study Ten Commandments, 3 Speeches By Reagan | ThinkProgress

Oklahoma Bill Banning AP US History Would Make Students Study Ten Commandments, 3 Speeches By Reagan | ThinkProgress: "An Oklahoma bill banning Advanced Placement U.S. History would also require schools to instruct students in a long list of “foundational documents,” including the Ten Commandments, two sermons and three speeches by Ronald Reagan.
The bill, authored by Oklahoma Rep. Dan Fisher, designates a total of 58 documents that “shall form the base level of academic content for all United States History courses offered in the schools in the state.” Many of the texts are uncontroversial and undoubtedly covered by the Advanced Placement U.S. History course, such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg address. But the bill also has an ideological and religious bent. In addition to 3 speeches by Reagan, the curriculum as includes a speech by George W. Bush but nothing from any Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson.
Fisher’s bill was approved by the Education committee on an 11-4 vote."



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Mississippi House passes 'Jesus Take the Wheel Act'

Mississippi House passes 'Jesus Take the Wheel Act': "Mississippi lawmakers are once again tackling the big issues in the state. The highest poverty rate of any state in the country? Hahahaha ... no. The second-highest high school dropout rate in the country? No, no. The second-highest teen pregnancy rate in the country? Awww, hell no.
What is more pressing than extreme poverty? Well, the Mississippi House did pass a bill (HB 132), nicknamed the "Jesus Take the Wheel Act", that would exempt churches from commercial driver's license requirements:

"This just allows small churches, some don't have people with commercial licenses at all, and they can pick a person to drive the bus," said state Rep. Robert Johnson III, D-Natchez, who chairs the Transportation Committee which had passed the bill earlier in the session.
Current law requires CDL-certified drivers for any vehicle transporting more than 16 passengers, including the driver. The bill would amend that law to exempt church buses designed to carry 30 passengers or less.

To be clear, we aren't talking about extended passenger vans. Thirty-passenger buses, like the one pictured below, are much larger than vans and all other business and schools would still have to have a CDL license to operate such a vehicle."



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Same-Day Delivery Resurges, Adding Alcohol - NYTimes.com

Same-Day Delivery Resurges, Adding Alcohol - NYTimes.com: "There are many bodies in the delivery graveyard. Webvan, Kozmo and Urbanfetch were all seen as the next big thing before crashing spectacularly.

But same-day delivery is making a comeback, with large Internet players like Amazon and eBay entering the mix. And in that resurgence are small start-ups focused on a niche product: alcohol.

It has not hurt that millennials, who are used to ordering food for delivery on their smartphones, have come of legal drinking age. And at a moment of resurgence in craft beers and cocktails, no less."



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Harvard’s Star Alumni Urge Week of Protests on Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg Business

Harvard’s Star Alumni Urge Week of Protests on Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg Business: " Actress Natalie Portman, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other high-profile Harvard University alumni are calling for demonstrations to urge divestment from fossil fuels.
Organizers of “Harvard Heat Week” are planning events of “highly civil civil disobedience,” including daily sit-ins for the week of April 13, according to a letter released Friday asking alumni to come to the campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to join the effort.
Comparing their cause to 1980s campus protests against South Africa’s former apartheid policy, students at Divest Harvard have been calling for the school’s $36.4 billion endowment to end investment in oil, gas and coal because of their environmental impact.
President Drew Faust has declined to commit to divestment, saying the endowment isn’t an instrument of political change. Students occupied her office earlier this month for about 24 hours.
“We need to have action on climate change and climate justice immediately,” said Naima Drecker-Waxman, 18, a freshman helping to organize the event. “A lot of campuses across the country have decided this is a spring for escalation.”"



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Triathlon: the ideal sport for women who want to compete alongside men | Life and style | The Guardian

Triathlon: the ideal sport for women who want to compete alongside men | Life and style | The Guardian: "I take a strange kind of pride in the fact that in all the photos of myself I like the most, I look a right old mess. Usually I’m wearing something skin-tight made out of Lycra or neoprene. I’ve got marks round my eyes where my swimming goggles have sat and my hair’s more street urchin than pixie crop. What you’d notice before all that though – and the thing that’s most important – is the size of the grin on my face.

This is a theme explored recently in the This Girl Can campaign – and I’d recommend anyone who wants to focus on the sheer enjoyment and exhilaration of sport to take up triathlon. You’ll get fit fast – training for three sports will do that – and the variety keeps it interesting.

With our coverage of female triathletes in 220 Triathlon I’m very, very lucky as editor of the magazine. Triathlon is quite an unusual sport at the elite level, as women race on an equal billing with the men at the same events. On the ITU race circuit, men and women race the same courses and distances and receive the same prize money. In fact, my only gripe would be that the wider media could do more – why, for instance, do the men’s races get better TV slots?"



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An Irishman’s Diary: Patriot Games – cricket or rugby? a choice no longer

An Irishman’s Diary: Patriot Games – cricket or rugby? a choice no longer: "There’s a theory, or at least there used to be, to explain why certain former British colonies, specifically India and Pakistan, chose cricket as their main course from the imperial sports menu while others, including this one, preferred rugby. I can’t remember how it explained the likes of Australia and South Africa, which somehow embraced both: something to do with their multi-ethnic emigrant populations, perhaps.
As for the sub-continent, the suggestion was that cricket was more amenable to the caste system, allowing people of different social groups to play together without getting physically close. There was no such reserve in the Irish mentality which thrived on rugby’s bodily contact.
As usual, James Joyce expressed the dichotomy most succinctly, or had Leopold Bloom do it for him. Passing Trinity College park on a sunny afternoon in June 1904, Bloom observes: “Cricket weather. Sit around under sunshades. Over after over. Out. They can’t play it here. Duck for six wickets [...] Donnybrook fair more in their line. And the skulls we were a-cracking when McCarthy took the floor.”
All right, Joyce makes no overt reference to rugby (McCarthy was an Enniscorthy brawler, commemorated in song). But in mentioning both Donnybrook and assault, all he’s missing is the ball.
A later commentator, Eamon de Valera, was more explicit. He thought that, alongside hurling, rugby was the sport closest to the national spirit. And he was himself so handy at it that, around the time of Bloom’s critique, he was almost picked for Ireland, at full-back."



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Irish Water says half of water lost through leaks

Irish Water says half of water lost through leaks: "Almost half the water supply around the State is lost through leaks in the water network, Irish Water has said.
The semi-State today publishes its Water Services Strategic Plan, which sets out strategies for the utility in the short, medium and longer term.
The plan outlines the semi-State’s priorities in areas such as dealing with customers and upgrading the water network. It describes leakage of water from supply networks as “a serious problem on a national scale”.
Full coverage: Water charges
The Irish Times takes no responsibility for the content or availability of other websites.
The document addresses six key themes: customer service, clean safe drinking water, effective treatment of waste water, a sustainable environment, supporting economic growth and investing for the future.
Its priorities are identified as its customers; reducing problems with the quality of drinking water; making sure waste water treatment complies with European standards; reducing leaks in the water supply system; and gathering up-to-date information on the condition of its assets, such as treatment plants."



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Greece will not compromise, says prime minister Tsipras - video | World news | The Guardian

Greece will not compromise, says prime minister Tsipras - video | World news | The Guardian: "Greece's prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, says on Tuesday his government will not succumb to 'psychological blackmail' from its eurozone partners. Tsipras says Greece is working towards a pact but insists his government intends to keep its promises to end the austerity imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund under Greece's bailout deals. German finance minister Schaeuble says it is unclear if Greece knows what it wants"



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China’s rosewood craving cuts deep into Madagascar rainforests | Environment | The Guardian

China’s rosewood craving cuts deep into Madagascar rainforests | Environment | The Guardian: "Another day draws to its end in Antanandavehely, a peaceful village on the eastern slopes of the Masoala peninsula, the largest nature conservation area in Madagascar. The last rafts, loaded with rosewood, pull into the river bank. As the loggers return, the atmosphere grows festive, infused with the smell of beer and the sound of dice clicking.

Among the russet logs, exhausted by a hard day’s labour, Blandine checks the weight of the incoming cargo. Wearing a little black dress and sparkling jewels, she is a go-between for the big businessmen on the coast. Dipping into a bag full of banknotes she pays $135 for a two-metre-long log, generally weighing about 120kg, a fortune in this poverty-stricken country. In addition to its rich colour and fragrance, rosewood is prized for its even texture and high density. It finds a ready market in China, where reproduction furniture is highly sought after.


China's red furniture craze fuelling illegal logging in Guinea-Bissau
Read more
At this price there is no shortage of willing hands, in Madagascar and China, to plunder forests on the Unesco World Heritage list and pack containers full of rosewood logs, to be carried along routes well oiled by corruption. One of the main routes takes the wood from the streets of Antanandavehely to prosperous Xianyou, a new town of 1 million people in Fujian province. Its journey passes through Zanzibar in Tanzania, Mombasa in Kenya and Hong Kong. There are certainly others but this is probably the largest, its ramifications reaching up into the higher echelons of Madagascar’s government. Everyone here knows about the racket in bola bola, as the wood is known locally. Many of those involved belong to old Chinese families, who arrived in the early 20th century to build the railway."



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The case for renaming ‘global warming’

The case for renaming ‘global warming’: "What’s in a name? Well, in science, quite a lot: the honour of naming a discovery, or the fame and fortune that might follow from coining a successful new term; perhaps even the ability to influence the future of life on Earth – or at least, life as we in the West have come to enjoy it.
Twenty-five ago, when I was a rookie journalist in this newspaper, I reported on the new story that was “global warming”. Even then it seemed a poor term. Irish people thought “warming” was to be welcomed, not feared. Bring it on, they said, and the quicker the better, swayed by visions of sultry summers and vineyards in Ventry. Only now are we really becoming aware of the storm damage, heatwaves, and diseases that will also come with climate change (more of which anon).
An advantage of making a scientific discovery is that you might get to name it, or have it named after you. George Gabriel Stokes, from Co Sligo, was a great 19th-century scientist. The long list of things named after him is a measure of his many contributions, from Stokes’s conjecture and Stokes’s phenomenon to Stokes’s law of fluorescence (in fact, Stokes also coined the term “fluorescent”)."



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App set to help birdwatchers identify species based on song

App set to help birdwatchers identify species based on song: "For the most ardent of birdwatchers, the inability to discern the chirpings of a lesser redpoll from a corn bunting presents a deeply frustrating dilemma.
On the other hand, those of us less well versed in deciphering the multitudes of avian frequencies are content to tell the difference between a duck’s quack and an owl’s hoot.
Naturists with even a passing interest in the world of winged creatures will be intrigued to hear of an app that it is claimed identifies different types of birds singing in an area through the built-in audio equipment of the user’s phone.
Punctual, keen sense of direction, like lullabies: what we’ve learned about swallows
Roisin Ingle on . . . feeding the birds
Best Place to Go Wild in Ireland competition: what it's all about
Chirpomatic works along the same principle as music apps like Shazam by isolating individual birdsong and to what species it belongs.
Using a 20-second recording, the free iPhone instalment analyses and provides images of the bird, along with other identifying information."



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South Carolina Republican: Women are 'a lesser cut of meat'

South Carolina Republican: Women are 'a lesser cut of meat': "For Katrina Shealy, being South Carolina's only female state senator means facing some unique challenges. The main one seems to be fellow state senator Tom Corbin.
That’s when Corbin – no stranger to making bizarre statements –  is said to have begun needling his lone female colleague regarding her gender.
“I see it only took me two years to get you wearing shoes,” Corbin told [State Sen. Katrina Shealy], who was elected in 2012 as a petition candidate.

This was apparently an oblique barefoot and pregnant reference, and a staffer notes that "he makes comments like that all the time."
At one point in the conversation – which quickly escalated into a confrontation – Shealy is said to have angrily asked Corbin where he “got off” attacking women. [...]
“Well, you know God created man first,” Corbin said, reportedly smirking at Shealy.  “Then he took the rib out of man to make woman.  And you know, a rib is a lesser cut of meat.”

I suspect our South Carolina-based commenters will be able to offer up a laundry list of Tom Corbin's past insanities, because this fellow apparently hasn't been right in the head for a very long time. Imagine being State Senator Katrina Shealy and having to deal with this clown every day on the job. Whatever she's being paid, it's not enough."



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NFL- National Fictional League: rich with profits, but not-for-profit

 the NFL brings in over $9.5 billion in revenue a year—with Super Bowl ads selling for $150,000 per second—but is somehow considered a “non-profit organization" and hasn’t paid a penny in taxes since 1966.

But that could change soon if Congress does the right thing. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, recently suggested that he may call NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to testify before Congress about the NFL’s tax-exempt status.

The crack with ‘craic’ – An Irishman’s Diary about the nation’s favourite word

The crack with ‘craic’ – An Irishman’s Diary about the nation’s favourite word: "I used to lament the Gaelicisation of that fine old Anglo-Scottish word “crack”. Seeing it spelt as “craic” would set my teeth on edge, as it did the teeth of this paper’s late, great lexicographer Diarmaid Ó Muirithe. But, well, it must be the mellowing of age, or something. In any case, I find myself growing increasingly tolerant on the matter.
There’s no denying that, even if the word led a worthwhile existence during its many years in Britain, it has found this island a vastly more congenial place to live. The “craic” regularly reaches 90 in Ireland, as we know. Whereas the all-time high in England and Scotland is about 65, and mid-50s is closer to the weekday average.
So central is the phenomenon to Irish life that it’s only a matter of time before some defence barrister gets a client off by persuading a jury that the alleged crime was perpetrated “for the craic”. After that, it’ll be a small step to inserting a protective clause in the Constitution guaranteeing each citizen’s right to “have the craic”, alongside other fundamentals such as life and liberty."



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Motorcycle Signed by Pope Benedict Sells for 80 Percent Less Than One Signed by Pope Francis - Bloomberg Business

Motorcycle Signed by Pope Benedict Sells for 80 Percent Less Than One Signed by Pope Francis - Bloomberg Business: "In an unintentional test of present and past popes’ popularity, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with Pope Benedict XVI’s screen-printed signature went up for auction on Thursday at Bonhams Paris, a year after a similar motorcycle with Pope Francis’s signature sold for $275,551.
Today’s sale totaled less than a fifth of that amount, with the final price of $52,651. The buyer was identified only as a European collector, who bid by phone. In a twist, Bonhams confirmed it was the same collector who’d bought the Francis Harley last year. This time around, however, there was less interest.
“In 2014, Pope Francis was having something of a renaissance,” says Ben Walker, the international departmental director for the Bonhams motorcycle department. “We saw a huge increase in his popularity.” For the Benedict Harley, however, “we didn’t anticipate the same hype,” he says. The “huge amount” of interest from South American bidders during the 2014 auction was simply absent today."



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The Global Innovation Index - Bloomberg Business

The Global Innovation Index - Bloomberg Business: "Here are all the categories together. A country's overall rank is the average of the six measures. Faded bars indicate a country for which there isn't complete data. You can click the title of any column to re-sort the list by that measure."



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Scientists Seeking to Save World Find Best Technology Is Trees - Bloomberg Business

Scientists Seeking to Save World Find Best Technology Is Trees - Bloomberg Business: "- Oxford University scientists, after a year of research, have determined the best technology to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and try to reverse global warming.
It’s trees.
They considered methods ranging from capturing emissions from factories and power stations to extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air, and adding lime to oceans to increase their absorption of the gas, a study released on Tuesday showed.
None were more promising than planting trees, or baking waste wood to form a type of charcoal that can be added to soil. Relative to other so-called Negative Emissions Technologies, afforestation and biochar are low-cost, have fewer uncertainties and offer other benefits to the environment, the research shows."



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With Sweeping Plastics Ban, New York Village Joins Environmental Vanguard - NYTimes.com

With Sweeping Plastics Ban, New York Village Joins Environmental Vanguard - NYTimes.com: "The Westchester Board of Legislators is now considering following Hastings-on-Hudson’s lead and banning both types of plastic. Catherine Parker, a Democrat who is chairwoman of the legislators’ environment and energy committee, is promoting the bill. In 2011, as a member of Rye’s City Council, Ms. Parker voted for the ban on plastic bags there — the first in the county.

“One reason we want the county to take this on is so that each municipality does not get bullied by the grocers’ association,” she said. “We’re much better equipped to deal with that pressure.”

In New York City, rather than ban plastic bags, some members of the City Council have proposed a mandatory 10-cent fee on both paper and plastic bags. Councilman Brad Lander, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said that a ban on plastic alone would compel people to switch to more expensive paper bags, in turn hurting businesses.

“We want people to switch to reusable bags, not paper bags,” he said. “In those places where they have put a charge on both types of bags, you see a 60 to 90 percent reduction in single-use bags, period. People hate paying for something that used to be free.”"



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Not just a problem in Athens, a problem with most Indians

The urbanist's guide to Athens: 'a city of wonders, dangers and potential' | Cities | The Guardian: "It's not. This is caused by the inefficiency of central waste management – low recycling numbers and overflowing garbage containers, for example – and by the absence of an environmental mentality in the majority of its citizens (throwing cigarette butts and litter directly on to the street instead into a bin is still a common reflex for most of Athenians).

The quality of air, although much better than during the pre-metro era, is still a serious issue. Extreme increases in the price of heating fuel has forced people to turn to the much cheaper solution of burning wood, causing high concentrations of micro-particles in the air which translates into thick winter fogs.

If you take a walk in the centre of Athens, you may notice that tags, stickers and street posters cover every inch of available wall, you’ll probably step on dog poo and you will definitely realise how scarce waste bins are when you want to throw away that sandwich wrapping."



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Bonus for poor performance, the IBM way

IBM brings back bonuses for top execs even as profits slide - Yahoo Finance: "The bonuses returned as a feature of IBM's executive compensation for 2014, according to a document filed with securities regulators on Friday, despite the fact that IBM's net profit from continuing operations fell 7 percent last year and its stock shed about 14 percent.

IBM CEO Virginia Rometty will get a $3.6 million annual incentive payout for 2014, according to the filing. Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter and three other executives or advisers were also listed as getting smaller annual incentive payouts.

Rometty is slated to receive a base salary of $1.6 million for 2015, her first raise from the $1.5 million she got each of the last three years after taking up the post of CEO at the beginning of 2012.

Rometty is also slated to receive a target annual incentive award of $5 million for 2015 and a long-term stock grant worth $13.3 million, which would be payable in 2018, according to the filing."



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What are the minimum requirements to become a parent? Having a brain at least the size of that of a shriveled jellyfish?

Three-year-old shoots both of his parents in the US: "A three-year-old boy in the US got hold of a handgun from his mother’s bag and fired a shot that injured both his parents.
The toddler apparently reached for an iPod but found the loaded weapon, according to police in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The bullet first struck his father in the buttock and then hit the shoulder of his mother, who is eight months pregnant. His two-year-old sister was present but unhurt."



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Climate Change’s Bottom Line - NYTimes.com

Climate Change’s Bottom Line - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Page is a member of the Risky Business Project, an unusual collection of business and policy leaders determined to prepare American companies for climate change. It’s a prestigious club, counting a former senator, five former White House cabinet members, two former mayors and two billionaires in the group. The 10 men and women who serve on the governing committee don’t agree on much. Some are Democrats, some Republicans.

Even when it comes to dealing with climate change, they have very different perspectives. Some advocate a national carbon tax, some want to mandate companies to disclose their climate risks. Mr. Page suggests that the world may be able to get by without any mandatory rules at all. Some members want to push investors to divest from fossil fuel companies. Several favor construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, while one member has spent more than $1 million lobbying to stop it. But they all do agree on one issue: Shifts in weather over the next few decades will most likely cost American companies hundreds of billions of dollars, and they have no choice but to adapt."



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