* NEWS * The Rural World Has an End

It's kind of scary when the business community is finally waking up to the threats of global warming. The fact companies are finally taking notice is a sign that lifestyles as we know them may start changing soon.

Economics has traditionally considered the environment to be an externality. This means it's a constant variable (never ending) in an equation. What happens when economists realize that variable isn’t constant (the world is reaching it’s natural limits for human consumption)? Well, businesses start to get their panties in a bunch.

Listen to this article from marketplace and see how the Carbon Disclosure Project is a survey of some of the most powerful companies in the world. Four years ago many companies saw this project as another annoying environmental project. Less than half even responded to the survey then. Last year about 3/4 of the companies responded and even more will respond this year. This site is the largest registry of corporate greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

The disturbing thing about all of this is that companies are looking at global warming and trying to figure out how they can profit from it. This makes sense in an economic sense but remember the cost to the environment is ignored in all GDP numbers. This short sightedness must end as the environment has an end and we can't keep consuming it at current levels.

The concept of profiting from global warming may be one of the most disturbing concepts in the world today.