The financial system is being rewritten from orbit. Nine chapters, one thesis.
COMPANION SITESPRINGER 2024ISBN 978-3-031-74417-4
BY 2024, FOUR NUMBERS
HAD MOVED FROM FORECAST INTO HISTORY.
THE BOOK IS SET IN 2024. BY THEN, FOUR DATAPOINTS HAD ARRIVED — TEMPERATURE, BOUNDARIES, POLICY DOLLARS, DISASTER LOSSES.
- 1.54°C
Pre-industrial threshold exceeded — 2023 was the first year above 1.5°C.
IPCC AR6 · NASA GISS
- 6 / 9
Planetary boundaries currently transgressed.
Richardson et al. (2023) · Stockholm Resilience Centre
- $369B
US Inflation Reduction Act commitment to climate over a decade.
Inflation Reduction Act, 2022
- $250B+
Worldwide losses from natural disasters in 2023 alone.
Munich Re · NOAA Disasters
BEFORE THE PITCH — A QUOTE.
Humans have only been around for a few million years. The earth is going to continue unconcerned even if the current dominant species snuffs itself out. We don't want to be dinosaurs.
FOUR DATAPOINTS THE BOOK CIRCLES.
THE NUMBERS THE ARGUMENT KEEPS RETURNING TO. EACH OPENS A DETAIL PAGE.
[01] 09CHAPTERS
From planetary boundaries to GenAI for sustainability.
[02] 12VOICES
Verbatim interviews — regulators, scientists, asset managers.
[03] 0609BOUNDARIES TRANSGRESSED
Six of nine planetary systems already past safe limits.
[04] -39.9%SUMATRA MANGROVES · 2015→2024
Loss measured from satellite. Each hectare a carbon ledger entry.
INDEX
9 ENTRIES
NINE WAYS IN.
EVERY SECTION OF THE COMPANION SITE LIVES ON ITS OWN PAGE. PICK YOUR ENTRY POINT.
§01 THE ARGUMENT
Three sentences. The financialization of climate, the substrate of geospatial data, and the field manual.
§02 THE NINE CHAPTERS
Nine chapters and an epilogue. From planetary boundaries to GenAI for sustainability.
§03 CASE STUDY · MANGROVES
Sumatra 2015–2024. 39.9% loss. Sentinel-2 imagery to carbon ledger.
§04 PLANETARY BOUNDARIES
Stockholm Resilience Centre's nine systems. Six transgressed.
§05 THE AUTHORS
Sucharita Gopal — Boston University. Josh Pitts — Floodlight.
§06 TWELVE VOICES
Practitioner interviews — regulators, scientists, asset managers, operators.
§07 THE LONG-FORM COMPANION
Everything the argument rests on — the manifesto, data, diagrams, expert voices.
§08 FIGURE INDEX
Selected diagrams from the book — frameworks, charts, satellite imagery.
§09 GLOSSARY
The working vocabulary of sustainable finance — definitions and chapter cross-refs.
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