Dow jones index for climate change

Ah! Another potential milestone in the journey. We now have a proposal/system for a single digit summary of state of the earth's environment. There would naturally be some differences between this and traditional Dow Jones Index for stock market. We may be care about first and second derivatives more than the actual number. Unlike Dow Jones Index in which "control loop" (Fed/Treasury response) is real time, the "control loop" for the climate change index will be long drawn out, may be even years. The new "control loop" may be in terms of new regulations, carbon pricing etc. Changes in the index may be help set medium and long term investment direction more than short term.

Its value may be primarily psychological in terms of making the climate concerns a norm and a dinner table conversation.

Dow Jones Index for Climate Change

Some people still question whether Earth's climate is changing as rapidly and profoundly as the majority of climate scientists suggest. But, what if the complexity of the Earth's climate were distilled down to one number, in the same way that the Dow Jones Index condenses volumes of data into a single figure? What, then, would be the general trend?

The IGBP Climate-Change Index is a first attempt to do just that. It brings together key indicators of global change: carbon dioxide, temperature, sea level and sea ice. The index gives an annual snapshot of how the planet's complex systems -- the ice, the oceans, the land surface and the atmosphere -- are responding to the changing climate. The index rises steadily from 1980 -- the earliest date the index has been calculated. The change is unequivocal, it is global, and, significantly, it is in one direction. The reason for concern becomes clear: in just 30 years we are witnessing major planetary-scale changes.
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The idea came about when several IGBP scientists including Steven Running, IGBP executive director Sybil Seitzinger, former IGBP director Kevin Noone, Kathy Hibbard, Mark Stafford Smith, Peter Cox, Suzi Kerr and Pierre Friedlingsten realised that the way various global datasets are reported throughout the year may be confusing. It is uncoordinated, there are a variety of unfamiliar units, and natural variability sometimes masks a trend.

Professor Seitzinger says, "We felt people outside global-change research are not clear about the scale of the changes scientists are witnessing. The index is a response to these concerns."