While business leaders large and small clamor about climate change policies, as evidenced by the blistering number of corporate press releases and business news stories last week devoted to the issue during New York's Climate Week, they are doing little to protect themselves from the dangers of climate now -- extreme weather.
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| Businesses that don't have a plan for extreme weather should not have a business at all... |
Nearly two-thirds of small businesses do not have an emergency plan in place for their businesses, according to an Ad Council survey. Moreover, 40% of businesses affected by natural or man-made disasters never re-open, an Insurance Information Institutestudy found.
Disaster disruption to businesses has become so chronic that the U.S. Small Business Administration has even helped create a web site, preparemybusiness.org, to help businesses protect employees, lessen the financial impact of disasters, and re-open more quickly after a disaster.
Natural hazards pose a $1.2 trillion loss to the economy through 2050, according to a Department of Homeland Security official's testimony before congress earlier this year.
Last year there were 41 billion-dollar plus extreme weather events around the globe, nine of which occurred in the U.S. And this year both floods and droughts are adding even bigger sums to that tally.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/04/extreme-weather-business-impact/16701599/
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