Wow. That guy attracted serious railroading and pushback by people who didn’t like that his data didn’t align with their talking points. He’s not denying climate change, he’s presenting scientific data that contradicts the narrative thst climate change results in increased losses due to weather events/disasters.
He's one scientist pushing against the consensus scientific view, and the people most keen to promote him to the general public are those who want any excuse to deny climate-change. He himself may be honest, but it essentially doesn't matter, such is politics.
Correct me if I am wrong here, but as far as I understand, his argument is that climate change is happening, it is too late to stop the initial effects, and not all the tech to decarbonise the economy is available at the scale required yet. Added to this, his view is that pretty much all the current increase in financial costs of weather disasters can be put down to the massive increase in concentrations of populations and wealth from urbanisation, and this effect has been on a scale such that that even if there has been an increase in seriousness or frequency of the disasters themselves, that effect is currently minor in comparison, at least in terms of raw financial cost, when compared with the effects from societal changes. From here, he recommends that if our focus is just kept on preventing climate change, we will cause a lot more problems than if we widen the scope of our focus towards policies of adaptation, as that is what will be required in the short to medium term while we are waiting on decarbonised technology to scale globally.
Now whether you agree with it, much of this I think seems like a perfectly reasonable and nuanced position to take, however I will note that people who have decided to jump into bed with him for political expediency may be in for quite a shock, given that any policies of adaptation are almost certainly going to have to include policies of mass migration and the level of international cooperation required to manage this will all but do away with current notions of national sovereignty. I really hope for their sakes, that they aren't big fans of the Westphalian orthodoxy.
