Outside Voice: Tensie Whelan on Climate Change

Domtar’s new Outside Voice series highlights the perspectives of stakeholders and leaders on important sustainability topics. On the particulars, we may not always agree. But we believe in hearing and learning from others who offer valuable insights and a different point of view on issues that are important to us all.

Our first Outside Voice is Tensie Whelan, former president of Rainforest Alliance and current professor at New York University Stern School of Business. She leads NYU’s Center for Sustainable Business. Whelan believes climate change is among the greatest environmental challenges we face, with immediate and future consequences that we cannot ignore. She recently spoke with our Outside Voice team about the work of corporations, governments, activists and individuals that can help or harm efforts to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures.

Q. What aspects of climate change concern you most?

A. I think climate change creates the biggest threat to humanity to date. It creates the twin problems of reduced access to water and too much water. It brings more frequent extreme weather — flooding and drought — which affects our food sources, our industries and our homes.

The increasing temperatures have effects on people’s health and well being, not to mention the immediate risks to people living in low-lying areas, such as Bangladesh.

And the small things matter. Personally, I have a family home in Vermont. With climate change, the maple trees won’t generate as much syrup or, at some point, any syrup. These things seem small, but they are examples of changes in a local ecosystem. And these are happening or will happen en masse across many ecosystems.
more at source: https://newsroom.domtar.com/outside-voice-tensie-whelan/