By Daniel Brouse Under a current-emissions trajectory, the future of the Winter Olympics is narrowing—literally and geographically. By 2050, only an estimated 45 to 55 of the 93 historically eligible mountain locations worldwide are projected to retain the snow depth and cold temperatures required to host the Games. That represents a dramatic contraction in viable […]
Category Archives: Society
Shrinking Snow: Climate Change and the Future of the Winter Olympics
AI, Data Centers, and Electricity Prices: Separating Grid Economics from Hype
By Daniel Brouse There is widespread confusion about artificial intelligence, data centers, and rising electricity prices. The relationship is more nuanced than many headlines suggest. In many states, large industrial electricity users — including data centers — actually help stabilize or lower residential rates by absorbing a significant share of fixed grid costs. In other […]
Climate Risk, Denial, and the Return of Negative Equity in U.S. Housing Markets
by Daniel Brouse Abstract As of late 2025 and early 2026, negative equity—homes worth less than the outstanding mortgage—has reached its highest level since early 2018. While national averages remain relatively modest, localized distress is accelerating in several rapidly expanded Sunbelt markets. The primary drivers are declining property values in high climate-risk regions, surging insurance costs, […]
Prediction Markets, Psychological Fallacies, and the Super Bowl Effect
by Daniel Brouse The rapid proliferation of prediction markets has been fascinating to watch. Recently, I listened to the owner of one such company describe how their platform generated substantial profits during the Super Bowl. What stood out was not simply the scale of betting activity, but the psychological patterns that drove it. The story […]
Systemic Infrastructure Risk in a Nonlinear Climate: Economic and Public Safety Implications for the United States
Daniel Brouse and Sidd MukherjeeFebruary 8, 2026 Abstract One of the largest and fastest-growing economic costs of climate change in the United States is infrastructure degradation and failure. Intensifying extreme weather events — including flooding, windstorms, heat waves, and heavy precipitation — are stressing systems that were designed for a more stable 20th-century climate. Because […]
Demographics, Automation, and the Fragility of Growth Capitalism
By Daniel Brouse Modern capitalism, particularly in its post–World War II form, has depended on growth — growth in productivity, growth in consumption, and critically, growth in population. Programs such as Social Security and Medicare are not pre-funded savings accounts; they are transfer systems that rely on a sufficiently large base of current workers paying […]
Judge Rules Trump’s Secret Climate Panel Unlawful: A Crucial Win for Science and Justice
The Trump administration’s covert effort to undermine climate science has been dealt a significant legal blow. A federal judge ruled that the secretive “Climate Working Group,” convened by the U.S. Department of Energy to produce a report minimizing global warming risks, violated federal law. This report was central to attempts by the Trump administration to […]
State Capitalism in America? Price Controls, Golden Shares, and the Reordering of U.S. Markets
Trump has repeatedly promised to dismantle the existing global economic order. Ironically, many of the policies advanced under that banner do not represent a return to free-market capitalism — they signal a shift toward a more state-directed economic model. Globally, the administration has escalated trade conflicts, withdrawn from negotiated trade frameworks, and imposed historically high […]
Black Zombie Fires and the Rise of Green Unicorn Algae
Daniel Brouse and Sidd MukherjeeFebruary 5, 2026 Introduction For decades, Sidd and I have studied applied systems analysis in nonlinear dynamic climate systems. We have co-authored papers on carbon cycles, jet stream dynamics, albedo shifts, brown carbon, AMOC instability, permafrost thaw, Amazon rainforest dieback, sea-level rise pulses, hydroclimate whiplash, Arctic sea ice loss, and interacting […]
Price Floors and Power: When Free Markets Give Way to State-Directed Capitalism
U.S. Vice President JD Vance told a meeting of more than 50 countries focused on expanding access to critical minerals that the United States plans to establish a system of price floors for those commodities — a significant intervention in markets traditionally governed by supply and demand. A government-imposed price floor for critical minerals is […]