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SAM JOHNSON - A GLOBAL PLAYER FOR CLIMATE WARMING

Joan Yocco Veon

On Tuesday, the last day of the World Economic Forum, Sam Johnson, Chairman Emeritus of S.C. Johnson & Son, shared a panel on climate change with a number of other distinguished experts. Joining him were: Dr. Mario Molina, a professor at MIT, whose expertise in Atmospheric Chemistry and Stratospheric Ozone Depletion which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999, Jeffrey A. Frankel, Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard and Richard Sandor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Environmental Financial Products.

Climate warming, to put it in Mr. Johnson’s words, "is a very bad product to try and sell." First, it is very complex, expensive, and will require drastic change in the behavior and habits of every American. It is also controversial. In order to understand the philosophy behind climate change, let us consider the 1992 United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro. There business leaders came together the world leaders and environmental activists to present a philosophy by which the world should be guided in the future. Called "Agenda 21", it laid out a new way of living. It basically said that we need to care for the earth which is a living organism. Furthermore it pointed out that the living habits of man was responsible for environmental degradation. Its main components discussed new theories: sustainable development, biological diversity, and desertification, all of which have been controversial in themselves. When you add climate warming, it becomes increasing complex to sort out.

Mr. Johnson told the audience, "I have been an environmentalist for all of my life and a businessman for all of my adult life." Referring to Dr. Molina’s research in discovering the relationship between ozone depletion and CFCs, he said, "In the mid-70s when that information was released it was a shock to our company because we were the largest producer of aerosol cans in the world and the largest users of CFC’s in the world. I took this information to our laboratory and asked if ‘Is this possible?’ After one month the word came back that ‘Yes, it was possible.’" Johnson Wax was the first company to eliminate aerosol cans by coming up with a much simpler substitute for aerosol. In order to do so, it cost him business in six countries which had mandated the use of CFC’s because of its inflamability.

Since his company is global, operating in 50 countries and selling in 100 countries, Mr. Johnson has to see the world from "the top down." As a result, he was a founding member of The World Business Council for Sustainable Development which now is comprised of 150 of the world’s leading companies, he served on the President’s Commission on Sustainable Development, and has been associated with The Nature Conservancy for ten years and as Chairman of the National Board of Governors for the last two. With a twinkle in his eye, he described to me in a separate interview his Sustainable Racine efforts. In addition, The Johnson Foundation runs a conference center at Wingspread in which sustainable development is their main focus.

So what is climate warming? While a more simple description will be presented here, the learning curve is quite complex. According to Dr. Molina, one of the first scientists to discover the problem of climate warming, the temperature of the earth has to be protected from the "greenhouse gases" which come from the use of fossil fuels (driving a car, using electricity, manufacturing, deforrestation, and current agricultural practices, etc). A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel of Scientists on Climate Change revealed that they have changed their findings from "evidence suggests" to "virtually certain" that the temperature of the planet has increased on the surface of the planet. According to Dr. Molina, reports say that the temperature of the earth could rise between 1.5 to 6 degrees Celsius. This would have very adverse affects and it is for this reason that our behavior must change in order to reduce our consumption of the earth’s resources and to find new ways to reduce carbon dioxide being emitted into the earth’s atmosphere.

Interestingly enough Dr. Frankel pointed out that a market based system of trading carbon permits would be one way to bring the costs down. In an interview I did several years ago with a World Bank economist, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, who also recommended trading carbon permits, when I asked him if it was similar to bringing a new stock to the market in an initial public offering which is a way to create a market and make money, he smiled and said, "We will do very well." Frankel also pointed out that one of the reasons why people are adopting to the problem of climate change is because, "You need to get the price of energy up to encourage people to adopt these new [environmental] technologies."

In his opening remarks, Moderator Jose Fuentes, former president of Costa Rica and now a Managing Director of the World Economic Forum states, "Are there new ways that we can make the fixing of carbon a good business opportunity through the creation of a market that would sell environmental services and at the same time transfer much needed technology and resources from the north to the south?" Answering that question was Richard Sandor who provided a number of ways in which corporations could earn money from solving the climate warming problem.

In summary, the issue is complex, it may require a change in living, it may also require a "carbon tax", and it may cost the taxpayers money to pay third world countries like China not to build a coal fired plant in order to save the atmosphere. Lastly it should be noted that there are always two sides to every story. There are also many distinguished scientists who say there is no problem with climate warming. Is this another "squeeze the Charmin marketing tactic?" Time will tell. I, however, appreciated Mr. Johnson’s goal which was passed on to him by his grandfather and that is to "make a country [which we operate in] a better place because we are there."

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