Toxic Living Rooms
Lead paint is fantastic. It dries quicker, resists moisture, is more durable and has a better quality finish than non-lead paint. We used to use it to paint our houses.
It’s also toxic, and can cause nervous system damage, stunted growth, kidney damage and delayed development. So even though it has many advantages, now that we understand the dangers, it’s banned from use in the UK.
You wouldn’t paint your living room with lead paint any more if you too follow the top tips for painting over darker interior surfaces in a home.
Why am I talking about toxic lead paint?
Coal and Oil firms have huge reserves of fossil fuels which we know are toxic to the planet. The majority of these reserves are unburnable if we want to limit global warming to below 2 °C (commonly accepted as the tipping point beyond which the consequences for the planet will be dire).
Just like lead paint, we should be legislating to ensure that we don’t burn those fuels.
But these firms are valued on the basis that they will burn those fossil fuels.
If they do, it’s equivalent to decorating your living room with lead paint. We’ll poison our environment.
Investment Risk
The thing is, it’s not just a green issue. Investors and analysts are seriously considering the possibility that these firms are currently overvalued, because the valuation is based on exploiting all their known reserves.
Check out these resources:
http://gofossilfree.org/files/2013/02/HSBCOilJan13.pdf
It’s a an investment risk advisers should be talking to their clients about.
What are the alternatives? Well, one would be investing in renewable energy and in abundancegeneration we’ve got a great product for advisers to talk to their clients about.
Dan
Many thanks to @karlharder for putting me onto the topic of toxic lead paint