The Financial Risk & Climate Change Connection
Climatrends
How do we apply the principles of financial risk management to the challenge of climate change? In this episode, we connect the worlds of climate and finance with renowned economist Dr. Bob Litterman.
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The Need for Forward-looking Government & Corporate Policy - Dr. Andrew Dessler
Climatrends
How do we thread the needle with smart policy that avoids a worst-case warming scenario? What responsibilities do businesses have to go from talk to real climate action? In this episode, Dr. Andrew Dessler lends his expertise in climate impact and climate change policy as delve into what needs to get done.
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Episode 9 - Bridging the Gap Between Scientists and Decision Makers
Climatrends
In this Episode:
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Episode 8: Dr. Zeke Hausfather
Climatrends
In this Episode:
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An Inconvenient Truth: Dr. Michael Mann
Climatrends
More than two decades ago, Dr. Michael Mann and his colleagues published the iconic “hockey stick” graph--an estimate of how temperatures varied over the past thousand years. The truth, as it turns out, is quite inconvenient.
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Anticipating Climate Risks - Dr. Kevin Trenberth
Climatrends
In this Episode
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Arctic Warming & Winter Weirding - Dr. Jennifer Francis
Climatrends
In this Episode:
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Fires and Drought - Dr. Jonathan Overpeck
Climatrends
Meteorologists across much of the western United States are spending more time tracking drought, fires, smoke and dangerous air quality on their weather maps. All the predictions climate scientists made a generation ago are coming true: wet areas are trending wetter, dry areas are getting drier, setting the stage for a brave new world of super-sized wildfires.
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Climate Change and Hurricanes - Dr. Kerry Emanuel
Climatrends
A man-made chemical blanket of greenhouse gases, CO2 and methane, is warming the atmosphere; 93% of all the additional warming is going into the world’s oceans, jet fuel for hurricanes that get their energy from warm water – the warmer the water, the greater the potential for rapid intensification. The proportion of storms rapidly intensifying in the Atlantic has doubled since 1982.
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Physical Climate Change Risks - Dr. John Abraham
Climatrends
Maybe the media is focusing in on wild weather events that have always plagued our nation and the planet? The data suggest otherwise. The definition of normal weather is changing before our eyes. This is not, in fact, normal. A consistently warmer, wetter atmosphere is flavoring all weather now, making many naturally-occurring weather events more intense and long-lasting. The weather, increasingly, is news-worthy.
info_outlineClimatrends Podcast Episode 1 - Business Risk Interview with Josh Prigge
This podcast examines how a rapidly changing climate will impact business. In fact, climate volatility and weather disruption is already impacting businesses around the world. Patterns are shifting. Extremes becoming more extreme. Connect the dots and you’re left with one thought: this is either the Mother of All Coincidences, or it’s real. It’s happening. This isn’t some far-off-in-the-future thing. NOAA reports the United States have experienced the most weather and climate disasters on record in 2020. And it is, in fact, a trend. Climate theory has become our new extreme weather reality.
My name is Paul Douglas. I am a Minnesota meteorologist, climate analyst and entrepreneur on my 7th business. One of those companies is Climatrends, where we try to help businesses navigate this brave new world of rising seas, wetter storms, drier droughts and more intense hurricanes and wildfires – examining the trends, the latest science and climate model predictions - helping business decision-makers lower risk and reinvest wisely, no matter what Mother Nature throws at us in the future.
By the way, it was the weather that tipped me off to a rapidly changing climate more than 20 years ago. Weather and climate are flip sides of the same coin. And yes, since the dawn of time we’ve always had weather extremes, but by the turn of the century I couldn’t help but notice the weather – increasingly – was playing out of tune. I was seeing things I had never witnessed before on the weather maps. I certainly wasn’t the only meteorologist tracking the trends and shaking my head in wonder. More eye-opening swings in temperature and precipitation, new rainfall records, more flooding where companies didn’t even realize they were in the floodplain, more coastal inundation when there wasn’t a storm in sight, and yes, more super-sized hurricanes. Weather on steroids.
So what, who cares? Well, the story of America one of persistence and innovation - taking calculated risks to create the products and services that add value to people’s lives. Climate change introduces new risk into the equation: Is there a safer place to build our facilities? Will our buildings, operations and supply chains and personnel be able to tolerate more heat, more frequent flash floods and more icing during increasingly fickle warming winter months? How do we harden our infrastructure – how can we make everything we do more climate-resilient: stormproof, water-resistant, heat tolerant and impervious to drought? How do we keep the wheels on the bus and get the returns we need to keep the economy powered up, people employed, and business plans moving forward? With all the lingering uncertainty, where do we plant seeds to get the best return on investment, as weather disruptions increase over time?
Our plan: interview the world’s leading climate scientists - get their predictions. Is there consensus? What are the best climate models predicting for 2030, 2050 and beyond? How confident are these predictions? What, specifically, should businesses be doing today – to be fully prepared for what tomorrow brings?
Here’s what we will not do: wallow in gloom, doom and hype. It’s not helpful, and there’s no time. More disruption is inevitable, in fact it’s already here. What worked in the 1970s probably won’t work in the 2020s and beyond. We need new tools, new methods, materials and strategies to better prepare business for bigger swings in weather already in the pipeline. The companies that survive and thrive in the 21st century aren’t the ones with superpowers. The businesses that prosper will be the ones that acknowledge data and evidence, listen to leading scientists, and adapt their operations and investment strategies to this new climate reality. The situation isn’t hopeless – and we aren’t helpless. Companies can fine-tune, pivot and adjust to a warmer, more volatile world. Step one is listening to the best experts we can find.
Let’s get started.