Climate squeamishness and the anthropomorphization of banks

I’m finishing up a treatise on financial climate risk for RiskBooks, due for publication in the new year.  It’s been a hard slog – I find it quite easy to dash off 1,000 word missives on risky subjects; writing an actual tome is a completely different challenge. 

This is especially so given my – let’s say – dismissive view of the current practice of climate-related financial risk management. I fear readers of the finished product will consider me some sort of nihilist or anarchist as a result.

Anyway, during the editing process, the old question of tone came up.  I won’t sugarcoat it – I deployed a number of thought exercises to demonstrate my views and, as you can imagine, many of them were quite dark.   If climate scientists’ projections are correct, the future of humanity includes a lot of deprivation, death, and destruction.  If you think that global GDP can decline by 80% – as some have predicted – and believe everyone will still be able to live happily ever after (if a little bit poorer) you need to have your head examined.

Let’s be real.  If such an outcome occurred, each of us would be forced to make life and death decisions, and no matter what, our families and friends would likely suffer extreme hardship – the likes of which haven’t been seen in the developed world for a century or more.