Now Investors Want Answers, Too

Recently, in Washington, the staff of U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) received a briefing on climate change. The gist: "Climate change is a risk that is unparalleled in at least the last 5,000 years of human existence. Uncertainties may remain about how quickly change will happen, but it is coming, and it will create winners and losers among countries–and companies."

What makes this message particularly interesting is not what was said so much as who was saying it. Winston Hickox is no enviro-activist. Nor is he a visiting official from one of the 148 countries that have so far ratified the greenhouse gas-limiting Kyoto Protocol. Hickox is a portfolio manager with the biggest pension fund in the U.S., the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), and his message to Lugar's staff is a stark illustration of the new dynamic that is making climate change a boardroom issue.