Businessweek Cover

In the wake of the severe damage to the East Coast from Hurricane Sandy, Bloomberg Businesseek took the unprecedented step to state categorically the “Superstorm” and the destruction and loss of life from the storm, was directly related to Global Warming”. The magazine lists the toll from Sandy as follows:

“At least 40 U.S. deaths. Economic losses expected to climb as high as $50 billion. Eight million homes without power. Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated. More than 15,000 flights grounded. Factories, stores, and hospitals shut. Lower Manhattan dark, silent, and underwater.”

In the article Businessweek cited:

• Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota
• Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund
• Mark Fischetti of Scientific American
• Climate scientists Charles Greene and Bruce Monger of Cornell University

George Lakoff, professor of linguistics at UC Berkely states that Global Warming was the systemic cause of the storm.  Systemic causation is much more difficult to understand. He states:

A systemic cause may be one of a number of multiple causes. It may require some special conditions. It may be indirect, working through a network of more direct causes. It may be probabilistic, occurring with a significantly high probability. It may require a feedback mechanism. In general, causation in ecosystems, biological systems, economic systems, and social systems tends not to be direct, but is no less causal. And because it is not direct causation, it requires all the greater attention if it is to be understood and its negative effects controlled. Above all, it requires a name: systemic causation.

Many commentators and most Climate Change deniers seize upon the more commonly understood direct causation to say that there is no proof that Climate Change caused the recent droughts or that the warming of the ocean caused Hurricane Sandy to be more destructive than previous storms. Instead, if you look at the concept of systemic causation, there is little doubt that the warming of the oceans, and many other factors attributed to Global Climate Change, contributed to the increase in the strength of the storm, and to the loss of life and the billions of dollars in damage.

We need to take off our blinders and recognize that human activity has consequences. We believe in a sustainability model that reduces our carbon footprint while continuing to enjoy the benefits of our post-industrial, highly technological society. For example, I drive a hybrid SUV. It gives me all of the room and comfort of an SUV, but gets over 30 miles a gallon. Here at Maxi we recycle everything we can. Also, throughout the life cycle of our steel, plastic and fiber drums, and our IBC’s we preach reuse. It takes significantly less energy and carbon to clean a drum or IBC for reuse than to scrap the old and make a new one.

But there are many simple things that each of us can do to help reduce our contribution to Global Climate Change. There is a great list from Millie Jefferson, producer, Weekend America^®, here are just a few of them:

• Buy organic, local or fair trade goods. (Maxi buys fair trade coffee and tea)
• Pay attention to packaging (That’s what Maxi Container is all about. Packaging matters.)
• Ditch bottled water (see my numerous earlier posts about the evil of bottled water. Maxi uses filtered water for drinking, coffee and tea.)
• Energy proof your home. (this will save you money as well. Maxi switched its warehouse lighting from Metal Halide to induction, saving 50% on energy costs.)
• Use native plant species. (Maxi started MiRainBarrel to promote rain water harvesting and works with groups that promote native species for use in a rain garden.)
• Switch water heaters to vacation mode.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. (The three R’s of Maxi are Reuse, Recondition,then Recycle)

We all have a part to play, we can all be a part of the solution. In absence of a national will to do the right thing and reduce the Climate Effects of our lifestyle, it is up to us as responsible citizens to step up and do, at a minimum, the little things that together can make a difference.