by Daniel Brouse Climate change is fundamentally destabilizing insurance markets by driving increasingly severe financial losses, pushing premiums sharply higher, and causing insurers to reduce or withdraw coverage in some high-risk regions. As extreme weather events become more frequent and, in many cases, more intense, traditional underwriting models are being challenged by rapidly changing risk. […]
Category Archives: Finance
Climate Change and the Global Insurance Crisis: Rising Losses, Retreating Insurers, and the Growing Protection Gap
The Two Sides of the Climate Crisis: Consumption and Production
by Daniel Brouse Climate change is often discussed as a problem of emissions, but emissions are the result of two interconnected forces: consumption and production. Q: What are the greatest drivers of climate change?A: Consumption and production. At present, I would rank our addiction to consumption and ecofascism as the two most significant drivers of […]
State Your Climate State
Estimated Consumption-Based Climate Footprint (tCO₂e per person per year) Rank State Estimated Footprint Primary Drivers 1 Wyoming 28–31 Large homes, long travel distances, fossil-fuel lifestyle 2 Alaska 27–30 Heating, aviation, imported goods 3 North Dakota 25–28 Energy-intensive lifestyle, heating 4 Texas 24–27 Large homes, automobiles, air conditioning 5 Louisiana 23–26 Cooling demand, transportation 6 Oklahoma […]
The Composite Climate Responsibility Index (CCRI): A Lifecycle, Population-Normalized Framework for Measuring State-Level Climate Responsibility
by Daniel Brouse The Composite Climate Responsibility Index (CCRI): A Lifecycle, Population-Normalized Framework for Measuring State-Level Climate Responsibility Abstract Greenhouse gas accounting has traditionally relied on territorial emissions—the greenhouse gases emitted within a political boundary. While this approach provides a standardized framework for national and subnational reporting, it systematically underestimates the climate responsibility of fossil […]
America’s New Tariff Landscape: Who Gets Taxed—and Who Really Pays?
Introduction The latest U.S. tariff framework is now in place, and while tariffs are collected at the border, it’s American families who ultimately pay most of the bill. 📊 Highlights:• Average household: +$2,000–$2,700 per year• Buying a new home and a new car? The added cost from tariffs on steel, aluminum, lumber, vehicles, appliances, and […]
Accounting for Climate Responsibility
by Daniel Brouse Comparing Two Approaches to Measuring Humanity’s Climate Footprint Climate responsibility depends on how emissions are assigned. Traditional territorial accounting attributes emissions to the country where they occur, but globalization has made that approach increasingly incomplete. Modern supply chains, international trade, and service-based economies often separate where emissions are produced from who ultimately […]
The Carbon We Own: Why Consumption Matters More
by Daniel Brouse For decades, climate responsibility has often been measured by where fossil fuels are extracted or where products are manufactured. While useful for tracking national emissions, this production-based approach can misrepresent who ultimately drives demand. A consumption-based accounting approach shifts the focus to the end user. Instead of assigning emissions to the country […]
What Are the Odds? An Estate Plan for the Next Seven Generations
by Daniel Brouse and Sidd Mukherjee When I began this journey more than three decades ago, I wasn’t a climate researcher. I was a financial planner specializing in business, economics, estate planning, and risk management. My academic background included economics, philosophy, and extensive study in physics, calculus, statistics, and systems analysis. My career focused on […]
The Evolution of the American Economy: Capitalism, State Capitalism, and Socialism
Introduction For much of its history, the United States has been portrayed as the world’s leading example of free-market capitalism, while socialism and communism have often been presented as fundamentally incompatible with American economic principles. In reality, no modern economy operates as a pure ideological model. Instead, governments continually adapt their economic policies in response […]
Climate Change as a Macroeconomic Threat Multiplier: Rising Healthcare Costs, Cost-of-Living Pressures, and Declining Human Longevity
by Daniel Brouse Introduction: Climate Change as an Economic and Human Security Crisis Climate change is no longer only an environmental challenge; it has become a powerful macroeconomic threat multiplier that amplifies existing social, economic, and public health vulnerabilities. Rising temperatures, increasingly extreme weather events, deteriorating air quality, and destabilized ecosystems are creating cascading financial […]