Earth shift stock1/22/2024 This drier, hotter climate also creates conditions that fuel more vicious wildfire seasons-with fires that spread faster and burn longer-putting millions of additional lives and homes at risk. Drought can also create a positive feedback loop in which drier soil and less plant cover cause even faster evaporation. Already, climate change has pushed the American West into a severe “megadrought”-the driest 22-year stretch recorded in at least 1,200 years-shrinking drinking water supplies, withering crops, and making forests more susceptible to insect infestations. Hotter temperatures increase the rate at which water evaporates from the air, leading to more severe and pervasive droughts. And heat waves aren’t just uncomfortable-they’re the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States. Even local news meteorologists are starting to connect strings of record-breaking days to new long-term trends, which are especially problematic in regions where infrastructure and housing have not been built with intensifying heat in mind. This change in global average temperature-seemingly small but consequential and climbing-means that, each summer, we are likely to experience increasingly sweltering heat waves. Here’s what you need to know about what we’re up against. And because climate change and rising inequality are interconnected crises, decision makers must take action to combat both-and all of us must fight for climate justice. Similarly, in the United States, it is most often low-income communities and communities of color that are on the frontlines of climate impacts. They have the fewest financial resources to respond to crises or adapt, and they’re closely dependent on a healthy, thriving natural world for food and income. Even though everyone is or will be affected by climate change, those living in the world’s poorest countries-which have contributed least to the problem-are the most climate-vulnerable. Understanding these impacts can help us prepare for what’s here, what’s avoidable, and what’s yet to come, and to better prepare and protect all communities. From raging wildfires and supercharged storms, its compounding effects can be felt today, outside our own windows. While these outcomes may still be avoidable, climate change is already causing suffering and death. If we don’t limit greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the consequences of rising global temperatures include massive crop and fishery collapse, the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of species, and entire communities becoming uninhabitable. CEO Ryan Gellert was now faced with running a company whose mission was to save planet Earth.Climate change is our planet’s greatest existential threat. Patagonia would issue annual dividends to these two stockholders, which would then be distributed to environmental organizations. The result, which came into effect in September 2022, involved a perpetual purpose trust taking ownership of 100% of Patagonia's voting stock, and therefore decision-making control and a 501(c)4 nonprofit taking ownership of 100% of non-voting stock, and therefore owning the vast majority of the financial value of the company. Third, the new ownership model had to offer an option that like-minded businesspeople could leverage to potentially shift the narrative around capitalism and consumption. That meant avoiding a large tax bill that would have forced the family to sell stock. Second, it prevented outside owners from exerting an influence that could push Patagonia away from its environmentally-focused mission or hurt Patagonia's employees. First, it freed up as much of Patagonia's financial value as possible to solve the climate crisis. Beginning in the late 2010s, Chouinard had charged a group of board members and company executives with the responsibility to come up with a new ownership model that fulfilled several objectives. Chouinard and his family had held complete control of the company's voting and non-voting stock since its founding 50 years earlier. In September 2022, Yvon Chouinard, the iconoclastic founder of outdoor apparel company Patagonia, announced a new ownership model for his company.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |