Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

Blue sky thinking
For Rio Tinto, climate change is more than an abstract concept; Hugh Leggatt discusses how it has a day to day relevance in operating the business.

In March this year, a severe category three tropical cyclone dubbed Monty swept across Western Australia and dumped 400mm of rain on the mines and pastoral stations of the Pilbara region, to the accompaniment of 200km an hour winds. In this normally arid area, it was equivalent to four years' rainfall.

"Pannawonica is copping a beating", Perth weather forecaster Andrew Burton reported laconically in an Australian Associated Press dispatch dated 2 March.

While no single severe weather event can be unambiguously tied to climate change, it is generally acknowledged in the scientific community that a warming climate is likely to increase the frequency and magnitude of these events. Freak storms like Monty also highlight the risk to a natural resources business like Rio Tinto, which operates in all weathers from arctic to desert, of ignoring the changes that may be taking place.

Earth's atmosphere has served life well for many millions of years. Now the world is dominated by one species, homo sapiens, which is so successful in the evolutionary sense that there are six billion of us and within the next half century this figure will increase to more than nine billion. Teeming populations and their activities are bound to pressure the planet's life support systems, particularly the atmosphere. Whether the systems are resilient enough to absorb and adjust, and what the outcomes will be, is a hot topic among scientists.



Blue sky thinking For Rio Tinto, climate change is more than an abstract concept; Hugh Leggatt discusses how it has a day to day relevance in operating the business. In March this year, a severe category three tropical cyclone dubbed Monty swept across Western Australia and dumped 400mm of rain on the mines and pastoral stations of the Pilbara region, to the accompaniment of 200km an hour winds. In this normally arid area, it was equivalent to four years' rainfall. "Pannawonica is copping a beating", Perth weather forecaster Andrew Burton reported laconically in an Australian Associated Press dispatch dated 2 March. While no single severe weather event can be unambiguously tied to climate change, it is generally acknowledged in the scientific community that a warming climate is likely to increase the frequency and magnitude of these events. Freak storms like Monty also highlight the risk to a natural resources business like Rio Tinto, which operates in all weathers from arctic to desert, of ignoring the changes that may be taking place. Earth's atmosphere has served life well for many millions of years. Now the world is dominated by one species, homo sapiens, which is so successful in the evolutionary sense that there are six billion of us and within the next half century this figure will increase to more than nine billion. Teeming populations and their activities are bound to pressure the planet's life support systems, particularly the atmosphere. Whether the systems are resilient enough to absorb and adjust, and what the outcomes will be, is a hot topic among scientists.
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer