FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 20, 2016
CONTACT:
Dr. James Hansen, jimehansen@gmail.com
Mark Vasina, Nebraska Peace Foundation
402-890-6958, markvasina@gmail.com
Jane Kleeb, Bold Nebraska
402-705-3622, jane@boldnebraska.org
Climate Scientist James Hansen
to Speak at Berkshire Hathaway Meeting
Omaha — Internationally renowned climate expert Dr. James Hansen will be in Omaha Saturday, April 30 to speak at the 2016 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting. Described by the Washington Post as “the world’s most famous climate scientist,” Hansen is the former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is credited with having detected thirty-five years ago that the burning of fossil fuels was creating a greenhouse effect and warming the planet.
Hansen is attending the Berkshire Hathaway business meeting to speak in support of the shareholder resolution dealing with the risk climate change poses to the company’s profitability. The resolution, which was submitted by the Nebraska Peace Foundation, specifically addresses concerns over insurance liability and investment strategy. Hansen’s comments will focus on the need for urgent action to confront this climate peril and the need for bold leadership by the business community.
View full text of the Climate Shareholder Resolution:
https://boldnebraska.org/climateark
As Dr. Hansen states, “Threats posed by human-made climate change are coming into focus as early stages of climate impacts are already beginning, including practically irreversible effects of sea level rise and species extermination. Other impacts include increasing regional climate extremes, which involve stronger heat waves, droughts and fires, on one hand, and heavier rainfall, more extreme floods and stronger storms on the other hand. These climate changes can create grave injustices of today’s adults to young people and future generations, of developed countries to developing countries, and of humans to all other species, if climate change is not mitigated via rapid reductions of fossil fuel emissions.”
Dr. Hansen will also address a Saturday rally in front of the CenturyLink Center during the shareholder meeting lunch break organized by Bold Nebraska, the organization that spearheaded the opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline through the state. Referencing Warren Buffett’s invocation of “Noah’s Law” in his 2015 Shareholder Letter (“If an ark may be essential to survival, begin building it today, no matter how cloudless the skies appear.”), the rally participants will appeal to Mr. Buffett to lead the construction of a “Climate Ark.”
Bold Nebraska will also deliver a public petition urging Buffett and Berkshire shareholders to vote in favor of the Climate Change shareholder resolution.
View the petition online:
http://act.boldnebraska.org/sign/berkshire
- WHAT: Climate Rally at Berkshire Shareholder Meeting
- WHEN: Saturday, April 30, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
- WHERE: Outside the CenturyLink Center, 455 N 10th St, Omaha
- WHO: Dr. James Hansen (fmr. NASA climate scientist), Bold Nebraska, Nebraska Peace Foundation, members of the public holding creative “Climate Ark” rally signs
- MORE DETAILS: https://boldnebraska.org/climateark
The Nebraska Peace Foundation owns an A-class share of Berkshire Hathaway Common Stock and is the 501(c)(3) affiliate of Nebraskans for Peace, the U.S.’s oldest statewide Peace & Justice organization.
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Berkshire Shareholder Resol… by on Scribd
