Fidelity Monitor's Jack Bowers on being a climate realist, and optimist, too

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(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Is it possible to be both realistic about the threat posed by global warming and, nevertheless, also optimistic?

Jack Bowers thinks so. He is editor of the Fidelity Monitor and Insight advisory newsletter. According to my investment performance auditing firm, his equity-oriented model portfolios have on average beaten a broad stock market index fund by 1.2 annualized percentage points over the past 35 years. That’s better than the vast majority of investment advisers across Wall Street. (See full disclosure note at the end of this column about how my auditing firm is compensated.)

I was particularly drawn to Bowers’ analysis because optimism is a rare commodity among those who work on mitigating climate change. To many it seems that there’s little to no hope, in fact. Many are even deciding not to have children because the future is so doomed. You’re accused of burying your head in the sand to even entertain the possibility that not all hope is lost.