Nonfinancial capital is a key to strategizing for an environmental future that may go beyond global. Leading climate scientists suggest that if society continues on the current track of global development, a temperature increase of four degrees Celsius could become a near-term reality that will result in an uninhabitable planet.

As the population continues to grow, the world requires more resources to sustain life. The continued draining of resources, including natural capital (e.g., healthy trees, potable water, clean air), coupled with the rise in the Earth’s temperatures, will lead to an end to life as we know it. Perhaps this won’t come about in our immediate lifetime—it’s more likely within our children’s lives.

Read the full article by T. David Colgren (president and CEO of Colcomgroup)