How climate risks imperil development projects

I’m on-the-record as believing the health of rich world banks to be a second order concern in the context of climate risk.  While I appreciate that bank safety is an important issue and that financial crises cause a lot of grief that would best be avoided, their consequences pale in comparison relative to the direct impact of climate change on the lives of the poor in developing nations.

Given the history of Global North development, where corporations and individuals grew rich in an era of unfettered growth, I find it rather duplicitous to pretend that untaxed planetary exploitation is not, on balance, a boon to these interests.  It’s nonsensical to believe that the benefits that continue to flow to rich countries will soon be overwhelmed by climate risks that – while they certainly exist – have caused seemingly little harm to banks over many decades of global warming.

Our most critical task certainly should not be to protect the banks from the monster they helped create, especially since this particular monster continues to serve its masters while doing little damage to them.

The following “quote” from Shelley’s Frankenstein – which is actually the result of a LLM hallucination – sums it up neatly: “Remember, I am thy creature; I, who owe my existence to thee. I am thy enemy; but still, I am thy creature.”