Climate change was an unavoidable topic of discussion during BizTimes Media’s annual Economic Trends event, held on Friday. The speakers: economist and University of Wisconsin Foundation president and chief executive officer Michael Knetter, American Family Insurance chairman and CEO Jack Salzwedel, Husco International president and CEO Austin Ramirez and GRAEF-USA president and CEO John Kissinger, each addressed the issue as they shared thoughts on what the year has in store for their industry and for the overall economy. “I think the battle on climate change is over. I think we’ve lost,” said Ramirez. He said politically-led efforts to curb emissions as a way of preventing climate change are too late. “I think we need to focus our efforts on the adaptation and mitigation of climate change as opposed to faking that we’re actually going to solve it,” he said. Kissinger agreed that the world has reached the “mitigation phase” of climate change, and the next step is finding ways to deal with it. But he said it’s still beneficial to design environmentally sustainable structures, increase energy efficiency and reduce waste. Their outlooks on the future of the planet were not optimistic. To view the full article visit Biz Times.
