Andrew Forrest warns of mass deaths from ‘lethal humidity’ amid executive tumult
Andrew Forrest did not directly address Monday’s unexpected exit of chief executive Fiona Hick, but said his address may provide clarity to his thousands of workers.
Under-fire Fortescue executive chairman Andrew Forrest has used his first public appearance since the sudden departure of the company’s chief executive to warn of the imminent danger to humanity from “lethal humidity”.
Speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia in Perth on Wednesday, Dr Forrest did not directly comment on Monday’s unexpected exit of chief executive Fiona Hick, but said his address may provide clarity to workers within Fortescue, his private investment company Tattarang, and his philanthropic arm Minderoo.
“The presentation you’re about to see may explain a lot, particularly to my Fortescue family. There’s been changes and there’s been a steely discipline about our future when our galloping herd of 20,000 and amongst Minderoo-Tattarang another several thousand,” he said.
“When we decide on a future, we stick to that future. Individual ambitions come second because what I‘m talking about is the course of humanity.”
He said global humidity was rising at a far greater rate than global temperatures, with humidity posing a real and immediate lethal threat to millions around the world.
High levels of humidity were particularly deadly because the human body struggled to regulate its internal temperature, he said.
“If you can’t exhaust that heat, you’re going to cook pretty quickly,” he said.
“You’re a thermo-regulated organism. It’s a survival advantage, until global warming … Lethal humidity is already here.”
He called for an immediate “green armistice” between China, the United States and India that would open up the flow of technologies, minerals, investment and collaboration needed to deliver green solutions.
Tensions between the countries, he said, were putting “a great big handbrake on everything the world needs to do to stop its most lethal threat”.
He said he would try to take a resolution to the upcoming G20 meeting in New Delhi next month calling for governments to compel business into action.
“It’s business which is causing global warming. It’s business which will kill your children, it’s business which is responsible for lethal humidity.
“But it’s policies which guide business. You must hold us to account. Don’t let us, with our clever advertising, blame you the consumer or you the public or you the individual, that’s rubbish. Business, guided by government, will either destroy or save this planet. Hold us to account.”
Fortescue, he said, would be at “real zero” emissions by 2030. The company would not use offset credits as part of those ambitions, with Dr Forrest describing them as a “sham”.
The Fortescue chairman’s address followed Monday’s announcement that Ms Hick would leave the company by “mutual agreement” after just six months in the role. She is the tenth senior executive to leave the company in recent years,
Ms Hick formally left the company just hours after a lavish party hosted by Fortescue at its remote Solomon mining hub in the Pilbara to mark the company’s 20th anniversary.
