Weathering the storm of climate change

When scientists first began describing evidence of global climate change in the late 1980s, it was easy for corporations and the investment establishment to dismiss it as a fringe idea.

But as extreme weather events have multiplied - from the destructive force of Hurricane Katrina to the wild temperature swings in Europe and the United States - many have begun to consider not only that climate change might be real, but that it might have significant economic consequences.