As climate catastrophes have become the norm in the ‘Summer of 2020’, investors have turned their wrath on all manner of ‘dirty’ stocks and shares in a bold attempt to halt the spread of global warming – seen to be driven by continued and unbridled growth in Asia.

“We old world investors have reached the end of our tether!” said Warren Buffet on his way to his 90th birthday party.

“We are lobbying world leaders to prevent the export of any minerals or manufactured goods that will cause pollution anywhere in the world. At this stage in my life I actually don’t mind if stock markets crash. I don’t want to leave a legacy of destruction and denial.”

Coal, copper, gold, platinum, steel and cement shipments have been badly affected. Natural diamonds have fallen out of favor in line with the greater environmental profile of the manufactured variety.

Sir Richard Branson and family celebrated their success in getting their airline alliance to severely restrict the number of trans-Atlantic flights.

“If OPEC can control the supply of oil – then we can control the supply of air travel,” he said.

Since 2010, the number of available airline seats across the Atlantic has halved – but airline profits have doubled. Business behavior has changed accordingly and many can’t even remember the heady days of unlimited airline travel at the turn of the 21st Century.

China’s ‘No Fossil Fuel’ strategy, announced prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, is now almost fully implemented. Only 10% of new cars being sold in China now have internal combustion engines.

Middle East economies are in serious decline due to the lower demand for oil.

ANALYSIS >> SYNTHESIS: How this scenario came to be

Car makers have seen a dramatic market shift since the heyday of SUVs in 2004. SUV sales world-wide have slumped 75% since then. The only SUVs still sold are at the very top end of the market – those with high-tech, new-age propulsion systems.

With China’s ground-breaking announcements of a 20-year strategy to ban all fossil fuels, oil and coal have become the most reviled resources. Prices of these commodities have slumped. Coal and oil producers are turning to new technologies to produce esoteric new high-value derivatives from their basic product.

Biofuel and alternatives are attracting massive investments.

NanoTech and BioTech products are starting to have a massive commercial impact. Platinum is manufactured by Chinese NanoTech firms at less than US$300 an ounce. Diamonds ‘grown’ in labs have become the consumer preference, after massive publicity campaigns that have made mined ‘natural’ diamonds as politically incorrect as real fur.

Farmers around the world are booming on new healthier vitamin-enriched crops, and they see bio-plastic and bio-steel as the opportunities for future growth. Vegetarian foods have all become staple GM crops – GM is ‘cool’ now.

Contrary to all past behavior, consumers are behaving more responsibly.