Max Dugan-Knight
@maxduganknight.bsky.social
📈 Data and climate guy 💼 Solutions Architect at Databricks 🇨🇦 based in Toronto ✍️ maxdk.substack.com also Arsenal ⚽️ and hip hop 🎧
I'm as depressed as anyone about the US dropping all climate ambition but more important for global climate is which path countries like 🇮🇳 take en route to energy abundance. This @ember-energy.org analysis shows India is skipping the "fossil detour". ember-energy.org/latest-insig...
You’ve heard of shot / chaser but this Carney Trump speech combo is like a glass of red wine then a gallon of ammonia
Personal update time! I have a new job and a new Substack: maxdk.substack.com Job: I am moving to Databricks as a Solutions Architect. Substack: I want to keep thinking and writing about the data behind climate change and the tools we have to fight it. I'd love to have you follow along!
Max’s Substack | Substack
My personal Substack. Click to read Max’s Substack, a Substack publication. Launched 13 hours ago.
maxdk.substack.com
To be clear, this "High-warming" scenario is where we're headed under our current emissions trajectory. Climate action is often presented as too expensive. But what's actually expensive is huge stock market losses and people losing their retirements. www.ortecfinance.com/en/about-ort...
Pension funds face dual headwinds of shrinking growth and rising inflation amidst climate change
A failed low-carbon transition could cut global pension fund returns by 33% by 2050 if climate change follows its current trajectory.
ortecfinance.com
Max Dugan-Knight@maxduganknight.bsky.social · 12mo agoIt's always refreshing to read analysis of a real risk that few are talking about. A new report from Ortec is more clear-eyed than most about institutional investors' dangerous exposure to climate risk. "A failed low-carbon transition could wipe 33% off pension fund returns worldwide by 2050".
It's always refreshing to read analysis of a real risk that few are talking about. A new report from Ortec is more clear-eyed than most about institutional investors' dangerous exposure to climate risk. "A failed low-carbon transition could wipe 33% off pension fund returns worldwide by 2050".
It’s not often I strongly disagree with every other person quoted in an article in which I am also quoted. But I have to admit that’s true of this @businessinsider.com story that came out Sunday. www.businessinsider.com/malibu-ocean...
Empty lots in Malibu destroyed by the LA fires are now on the market for millions
Homes burned to the ground in Malibu during a wildfire seven months ago. The now empty lots are selling for millions.
businessinsider.com
This confusion is part of why the obsession with global average temperature bothers me. Climate change is operating at the extreme ends of the distribution (temperature, precipitation, etc.) If you just look at the average you’re missing the biggest impacts.
Daniel Swain@weatherwest.bsky.social · last yr.The discourse surrounding precipitation changes in a warming climate (both public discussion and even scientific one at times) is complicated by widespread conflation of changes in averages vs extremes (and also actual vs *potential* evaporation/evaporative demand). [Thread]
In our spring report about the upcoming wildfire season we projected abnormally high risk in several parts of Western Canada 🇨🇦 But the fires so far have surpassed my expectations. Here's our latest update on wildfire risk in Canada www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/wildfir...
Wildfire risk escalates across Canada as summer conditions intensify
Canada is facing an unusually severe and widespread wildfire season, with hot, dry conditions fueling fires across western, central, and now eastern provinces—aligning with Deep Sky Research’s forecas...
deepskyclimate.com
Pleased to see Deep Sky Research cited in this great article on an under-reported topic 🌽📉 “We’re losing 120 calories per person, per day, for every degree of global warming.” www.forbes.com/sites/felici...
The Crash No One Sees Coming: Food System Failure
Climate-driven food shocks pose a growing risk to global markets. As yields fall and insurance retreats, the next financial crash may start in the fields.
forbes.com
This may be very millennial of me. But a magazine feels like "real news" in a way that online articles still don't. So it was a bit shocking to see my research cited in TIME Magazine the other day.
I was quoted in this article on UK heatwaves 🥵 The one we felt in Toronto last week was not much fun, but those temps in the UK would feel even worse bc of the infrastructure. We're all going to need some investment in climate adaptation!
HuffPost UK@huffpost.co.uk · last yr.It's not just in your head.
Great article from @pilitaclark.bsky.social out today on the potential for climate financial shock. www.ft.com/content/9e5d...
We're all getting used to warmer temperatures 📈 In the UK you hear a lot about the heat wave of 1976 but those temps would not have been out of the ordinary today. I'm quoted in this article which takes a broader view: uk.news.yahoo.com/heatwave-197...
How the infamous heatwave of 1976 compares to temperatures these days
Nearly 50 years ago, Britons suffered in a stifling drought that lasted weeks - but how do those temperatures stand up to today's?
uk.news.yahoo.com
Thanks @climateeconomics.bsky.social! 🔥 Only saw this now.
Climate Risk Economics@climateeconomics.bsky.social · last yr.New analysis by Deep Sky shows insurance companies are abandoning US homeowners in the highest-risk areas, with over 150,000 households now uninsured in California’s most fire-prone regions alone... apnews.com/press-releas...
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/uninsurabl...
Uninsurable Futures
Adapting to a constrained American dream.
hamiltonnolan.com
Kate Aronoff@katearonoff.bsky.social · last yr.Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event
The Trout and Buck fires burning in New Mexico right now are precisely in the darkest red part of Western NM that our report identified. Evacuations have been ordered and a state of emergency declared. Thinking of all affected. www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/insurer...
Great summary here of our research on wildfire risk and home insurance in California. "No safety net: Insurance starts to go away" www.resilience.org/stories/2025...
No safety net: Insurance starts to go away
The increasing costs of climate-change linked disasters is pushing the insurance industry to the brink.
resilience.org
1. This chart is awesome. 2. This conclusion is terrifying: There is around half a degree of warming today that is [still] “hidden” by aerosols.
Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · last yr.Human-caused emissions of aerosols – tiny, light‑scattering particles produced mainly by burning fossil fuels – have long acted as an invisible brake on global warming. This is largely because they absorb or reflect incoming sunlight and influence the formation and brightness of clouds.
Update: bill signed! In the sea of horrifying news out there (to which I definitely contribute) it's nice to see an actual policy win for people and healthcare. Thanks @warren.senate.gov for supporting this. bsky.app/profile/warr...
Max Dugan-Knight@maxduganknight.bsky.social · last yr.This is off topic but my little brother is fighting to stop private equity companies from gutting healthcare in Oregon. He's Rep Ben Bowman's Legislative Director. And they're winning! @tinakotek.bsky.social just needs to do the right thing 👀 www.wsj.com/articles/ore...
The @betakit.com wildfire guide is excellent. And I don't just say that because they cite Deep Sky Research 😏 betakit.com/wildfire/
The BetaKit Guide: Wildfire | BetaKit
What's happening internationally Canada isn’t alone in facing wildfire risks. Around the world, researchers, startups, and governments are developing tools to detect, predict, and respond to this glob...
betakit.com
New Deep Sky Research report out today: "Insurers Retreat as 2025 Wildfire Risk Reaches Dangerous Levels" Insurance companies are abandoning homeowners in high risk wildfire areas 🏚️ And fire risk in 2025 poses serious threat 🔥 Some findings in thread 🧵 www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/insurer...
Insurers Retreat as 2025 Wildfire Risk Reaches Dangerous Levels
The home insurance market is in a perilous position as record fire risk comes into view for the 2025 season.
deepskyclimate.com
Holy moly! 2025 is now ranked 18th for total burn area in Canada's 43-year data record. There are still 3 more months in the fire season...
Working on a wildfire report right now and this smoke concentration data explains the haziness out my window 💨 Smoky conditions are going to be hanging around for a while. Wildfire report coming soon 👀
We need more of this. Well done @climatescibreak.bsky.social "If the difference between 1.5 and 3° doesn't sound like a lot it's because we need new numbers: f***ed, totally f***ed, dead?"
Climate Science Breakthrough@climatescibreak.bsky.social · last yr.US climate scientists need all the help they can get. Including from foul-mouthed comedians! 🤡😱😱 Watch Emmy Award-Winning David Cross team up with Prof Michael Oppenheimer in the US launch of the hit series "Climate Science Translated". #climate #arresteddevelopment #climatescience
Now there are over 200 active fires and over half are 0% contained or out of control. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have both declared states of emergency and people are being evacuated in BC now too. Very worrying.
Max Dugan-Knight@maxduganknight.bsky.social · last yr.There are almost 200 active fires burning across Canada right now and *93* of them are “0% contained” or “out of control” 😳 Thinking of folks in Manitoba and hoping this isn’t the start of another 2023-scale wildfire season. cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca
Pleased to see our hurricane research cited in this Time magazine article alongside @climatecentral.org I used it in my research, but the "hundred-year" storm concept is confusing when the goalposts move as quickly as they are. The article explains it well. time.com/7289719/hund...
Why 'Hundred-Year' Storms Are Happening More Often Than That
Climate change is making uncommon events more common. Here's what a 1-in-100 year storm means.
time.com
This is off topic but my little brother is fighting to stop private equity companies from gutting healthcare in Oregon. He's Rep Ben Bowman's Legislative Director. And they're winning! @tinakotek.bsky.social just needs to do the right thing 👀 www.wsj.com/articles/ore...
wsj.com
There are almost 200 active fires burning across Canada right now and *93* of them are “0% contained” or “out of control” 😳 Thinking of folks in Manitoba and hoping this isn’t the start of another 2023-scale wildfire season. cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System
cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca
The latest satellite data tracking global sea levels came online today from CNES/AVISO 🌊 144 mm may not sound like a lot but climate scientists have shown -- and you can see for yourself if you look closely -- the rise it's accelerating 📈 www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
