In an annual letter to CEOs, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink said: “Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects,” CNBC reports.

He added: “But awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.”

Charles Blow: “I can’t quite remember the moment when I became radicalized about protecting the environment and the planet, but it happened last year. That’s late in life, I know. At 49 years old, it is very possible and even likely that I have more years behind me than in front of me, but that is when it happened.”

“Before that, I didn’t do more than was required by law.”

Also, read my wife’s blog, Green That Life. She had some really good insights from our recent vacation in Iceland.

“Honestly, I don’t think I would have said anything because obviously he’s not listening to scientists and experts, so why would he listen to me?”

— Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, quoted by NBC News, on what she would say to President Trump.

“Continued deforestation and other fast-moving changes in the Amazon threaten to turn parts of the rainforest into savanna, devastate wildlife and release billions of tons carbon into the atmosphere,” the Washington Post reports.

“Combined with recent news that the Arctic permafrost may be beginning to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and that Greenland’s ice sheet is melting at an accelerating pace, it’s the latest hint that important parts of the climate system may be moving toward irreversible changes at a pace that defies earlier predictions.”

Said scientists Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre: “The precious Amazon is teetering on the edge of functional destruction and, with it, so are we. Today, we stand exactly in a moment of destiny: The tipping point is here, it is now.”

Michelle Obama tweeted some encouraging words for Greta Thunberg:

“Don’t let anyone dim your light. Like the girls I’ve met in Vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all. Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.”

Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time magazine’s 2019 “Person of the Year,” the Today Show reports.

Time: “For decades, researchers and activists have struggled to get world leaders to take the climate threat seriously. But this year, an unlikely teenager somehow got the world’s attention.”

President Trump ordered a federal review of water efficiency standards in bathroom fixtures and complained that “people are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once” in homes with low-flow appliances that aim to conserve water, Bloomberg reports.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is attending the UN climate change conference in Madrid this week and told reporters she would not discuss the impeachment inquiry while she was abroad, NBC News reports.

Washington Post: “Global temperatures are on pace to rise as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, according to the United Nations’ annual ‘emissions gap’ report, which assesses the difference between the world’s current path and the changes needed to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord.”

“Should that pace continue, scientists say, the result could be widespread, catastrophic effects: Coral reefs, already dying in some places, would probably dissolve in increasingly acidic oceans. Some coastal cities, already wrestling with flooding, would be constantly inundated by rising seas. In much of the world, severe heat, already intense, could become unbearable.

“Veneto regional council, which is located on Venice’s Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night — just after it rejected measures to combat climate change,” CNN reports.

“The historic Italian city has been brought to its knees this week by the worst flooding there in more than 50 years.”

Bloomberg News: “In the absence of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the earth could warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, cutting global gross domestic product by 2.5% to 7.5%, Oxford estimates, with the worst affected countries being in Africa and Asia. Longer term, a rise in temperatures of 4 degrees by 2100 could cut output by as much as 30%.”

“Individuals are facing more societal pressure to take action on climate change as inaction on the matter persists among governments,” Axios reports.

“Rare, a nonprofit focused on conservation and behavioral change, recently sought to quantify the aggregate impact voluntary, individual steps to cut emissions could have. The group concluded that if approximately 10% of the U.S. population adopted seven behavioral changes — including reducing air travel and purchasing an electric car — it could cut total domestic emissions by 8% within the next six years.”

Green That Life: What are carbon offsets? How to tell which to buy.

Associated Press: “For more than two years President Trump has talked about pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement. Starting Monday he finally can do something about it.

“Even then, though, the withdrawal process takes a year and wouldn’t become official until at least the day after the 2020 presidential election.”

Los Angeles Times: “Autumn in California now comes not only with fierce, wind-driven wildfires but with routine claims from President Trump that the state’s leaders are to blame for the disasters, followed by assurances from experts that the president doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“The cycle renewed again Sunday, when Trump tweeted that Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff had failed to properly manage the state’s forests, causing a string of recent blazes.”

“It’s rare for a current or former leader of one of the world’s largest energy producers to testify under oath about climate change. That’s why a New York courtroom was packed on Wednesday to see ex-Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson take the witness stand and explain that the company knew for years how it was a significant threat to the world,” Bloomberg reports.

Said Tillerson: “We knew, we knew it was a real issue. We knew it was a serious issue and we knew it was one that’s going to be with us now, forevermore, and it’s not something that was just suddenly going to disappear off of our concern list because it is going to be with us for certainly well beyond my lifetime.”