News media should begin reporting companies’ greenhouse gas emissions alongside their stock market results to help people understand the connection between economic activity and environmental impacts, a Royal Roads University professor told CBC last week.
“There’s a problem with CO2 in the atmosphere, and [media] should report this exactly as you do with the market,” said Rick Kool, an environmental educator now working at the Royal Roads School of Environment and Sustainability. “When the market is up, environment is down,” he added, and “those who are concerned about the performance of society and the future performance of the economy need to be reminded.”
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Kool stated that “if people are reminded daily that CO2 rises when stocks rise, investors might back away from industries ‘whose sole purpose is moving that CO2 level up in the atmosphere’ and put their money elsewhere,” CBC states. “Regularly reporting emission levels as often as the market numbers would also mean reaching those few people who might still be uninformed about the realities of global warming.”
“I mean, I don’t know what the [Toronto Stock Exchange] actually measures, but I know when it’s up I’m supposed to feel good,” Kool told CBC’s On The Island show in British Columbia. And those stock reports are ubiquitous enough that “you’d have to live under a rock not to hear.”
