Climate Change

[On climate change and divestment] Divesting from all fossil fuel companies turns the climate problem into something that seems like a simple problem, and in fact it’s the opposite.

[On political action on climate change] Well, the single most important thing they can do is send a clear signal that companies and individuals need to reduce their emissions. And right now that's signals not credible. And so frankly, most people are just doing what they, what they did before and continuing to emit. In fact, emissions are going up almost 3% of the year.

[On climate change and global action] Well, ultimately this is something that requires all of industry, all people everywhere in the world to take action. And that's one of the reasons why we haven't made more progress so far. So really hard problem of, of collective action building international agreements, getting countries to line up.

[On climate action] Well, individuals can take some action. There are roles for protests, a market actions and things like that, but it's very hard to see how this problem is going to get solved without governments acting. And it looks here in the United States. The lack of action by the federal government has led to states to do a lot more. And so I think you've see all around the world, all this kind of clutching and gearing and efforts to figure out how we would compensate for the fact that many national governments aren't doing enough.

[On the ability of those with greater economic resources to adapt to climate impacts] I think some people who live in that environment [coastal California] are willing to spend huge resources to protect themselves with bigger fire breaks, with different kinds of materials, with private fire services, which are now emerging including connected to the insurance industry. And so if you're willing to pay for it, I think people could actually last a long time out in that environment.

[On wildfires in California and climate impacts] The measures we take to protect structures in the middle of the forest in communities that have been burned. That might involve simple things like much bigger firebreaks. It might involve much more active identification of fires early on. And then the next thing you know you're in effect managing the entire wood ecosystem because of your concerns about fire.