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Max Dugan-Knight

@maxduganknight.bsky.social
5.4K followers 1.3K following 226 posts

📈 Data and climate guy 💼 Solutions Architect at Databricks 🇨🇦 based in Toronto ✍️ maxdk.substack.com also Arsenal ⚽️ and hip hop 🎧

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
I'm as depressed as anyone about the US dropping all climate ambition but more important for global climate is which path countries like 🇮🇳 take en route to energy abundance. This @ember-energy.org analysis shows India is skipping the "fossil detour". ember-energy.org/latest-insig...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
You’ve heard of shot / chaser but this Carney Trump speech combo is like a glass of red wine then a gallon of ammonia
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Personal update time! I have a new job and a new Substack: maxdk.substack.com Job: I am moving to Databricks as a Solutions Architect. Substack: I want to keep thinking and writing about the data behind climate change and the tools we have to fight it. I'd love to have you follow along!
maxdk.substack.com
Max’s Substack | Substack
My personal Substack. Click to read Max’s Substack, a Substack publication. Launched 13 hours ago.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
To be clear, this "High-warming" scenario is where we're headed under our current emissions trajectory. Climate action is often presented as too expensive. But what's actually expensive is huge stock market losses and people losing their retirements. www.ortecfinance.com/en/about-ort...
ortecfinance.com
Pension funds face dual headwinds of shrinking growth and rising inflation amidst climate change
A failed low-carbon transition could cut global pension fund returns by 33% by 2050 if climate change follows its current trajectory.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
It's always refreshing to read analysis of a real risk that few are talking about. A new report from Ortec is more clear-eyed than most about institutional investors' dangerous exposure to climate risk. "A failed low-carbon transition could wipe 33% off pension fund returns worldwide by 2050".
Chart showing 33% pension losses by 2050 under "high-warming" scenario
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
It’s not often I strongly disagree with every other person quoted in an article in which I am also quoted. But I have to admit that’s true of this @businessinsider.com story that came out Sunday. www.businessinsider.com/malibu-ocean...
businessinsider.com
Empty lots in Malibu destroyed by the LA fires are now on the market for millions
Homes burned to the ground in Malibu during a wildfire seven months ago. The now empty lots are selling for millions.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
This confusion is part of why the obsession with global average temperature bothers me. Climate change is operating at the extreme ends of the distribution (temperature, precipitation, etc.) If you just look at the average you’re missing the biggest impacts.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
In our spring report about the upcoming wildfire season we projected abnormally high risk in several parts of Western Canada 🇨🇦 But the fires so far have surpassed my expectations. Here's our latest update on wildfire risk in Canada www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/wildfir...
deepskyclimate.com
Wildfire risk escalates across Canada as summer conditions intensify
Canada is facing an unusually severe and widespread wildfire season, with hot, dry conditions fueling fires across western, central, and now eastern provinces—aligning with Deep Sky Research’s forecas...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Pleased to see Deep Sky Research cited in this great article on an under-reported topic 🌽📉 “We’re losing 120 calories per person, per day, for every degree of global warming.” www.forbes.com/sites/felici...
forbes.com
The Crash No One Sees Coming: Food System Failure
Climate-driven food shocks pose a growing risk to global markets. As yields fall and insurance retreats, the next financial crash may start in the fields.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
This may be very millennial of me. But a magazine feels like "real news" in a way that online articles still don't. So it was a bit shocking to see my research cited in TIME Magazine the other day.
TIME magazine article citing Deep Sky Research's hurricane reportFront cover of the TIME magazine edition
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
I was quoted in this article on UK heatwaves 🥵 The one we felt in Toronto last week was not much fun, but those temps in the UK would feel even worse bc of the infrastructure. We're all going to need some investment in climate adaptation!
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Great article from @pilitaclark.bsky.social out today on the potential for climate financial shock. www.ft.com/content/9e5d...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
We're all getting used to warmer temperatures 📈 In the UK you hear a lot about the heat wave of 1976 but those temps would not have been out of the ordinary today. I'm quoted in this article which takes a broader view: uk.news.yahoo.com/heatwave-197...
uk.news.yahoo.com
How the infamous heatwave of 1976 compares to temperatures these days
Nearly 50 years ago, Britons suffered in a stifling drought that lasted weeks - but how do those temperatures stand up to today's?
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Thanks @climateeconomics.bsky.social! 🔥 Only saw this now.
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Reposted by Max Dugan-Knight
Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/uninsurabl...
hamiltonnolan.com
Uninsurable Futures
Adapting to a constrained American dream.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
The Trout and Buck fires burning in New Mexico right now are precisely in the darkest red part of Western NM that our report identified. Evacuations have been ordered and a state of emergency declared. Thinking of all affected. www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/insurer...
Map showing spring fire risk across the US. Highest risk parts are US Southwest - especially southwestern NM - and parts of Midwest.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Great summary here of our research on wildfire risk and home insurance in California. "No safety net: Insurance starts to go away" www.resilience.org/stories/2025...
resilience.org
No safety net: Insurance starts to go away
The increasing costs of climate-change linked disasters is pushing the insurance industry to the brink.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
1. This chart is awesome. 2. This conclusion is terrifying: There is around half a degree of warming today that is [still] “hidden” by aerosols.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Update: bill signed! In the sea of horrifying news out there (to which I definitely contribute) it's nice to see an actual policy win for people and healthcare. Thanks @warren.senate.gov for supporting this. bsky.app/profile/warr...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
The @betakit.com wildfire guide is excellent. And I don't just say that because they cite Deep Sky Research 😏 betakit.com/wildfire/
betakit.com
The BetaKit Guide: Wildfire | BetaKit
What's happening internationally Canada isn’t alone in facing wildfire risks. Around the world, researchers, startups, and governments are developing tools to detect, predict, and respond to this glob...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
New Deep Sky Research report out today: "Insurers Retreat as 2025 Wildfire Risk Reaches Dangerous Levels" Insurance companies are abandoning homeowners in high risk wildfire areas 🏚️ And fire risk in 2025 poses serious threat 🔥 Some findings in thread 🧵 www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/insurer...
deepskyclimate.com
Insurers Retreat as 2025 Wildfire Risk Reaches Dangerous Levels
The home insurance market is in a perilous position as record fire risk comes into view for the 2025 season.
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Reposted by Max Dugan-Knight
Ryan Katz-Rosene, PhD @ryankatzrosene.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Holy moly! 2025 is now ranked 18th for total burn area in Canada's 43-year data record. There are still 3 more months in the fire season...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Working on a wildfire report right now and this smoke concentration data explains the haziness out my window 💨 Smoky conditions are going to be hanging around for a while. Wildfire report coming soon 👀
Map of smoke concentrations across North America. Wildfires in western Canada are spreading smoke across the US and Canada.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
We need more of this. Well done @climatescibreak.bsky.social "If the difference between 1.5 and 3° doesn't sound like a lot it's because we need new numbers: f***ed, totally f***ed, dead?"
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Now there are over 200 active fires and over half are 0% contained or out of control. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have both declared states of emergency and people are being evacuated in BC now too. Very worrying.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Pleased to see our hurricane research cited in this Time magazine article alongside @climatecentral.org I used it in my research, but the "hundred-year" storm concept is confusing when the goalposts move as quickly as they are. The article explains it well. time.com/7289719/hund...
time.com
Why 'Hundred-Year' Storms Are Happening More Often Than That
Climate change is making uncommon events more common. Here's what a 1-in-100 year storm means.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
This is off topic but my little brother is fighting to stop private equity companies from gutting healthcare in Oregon. He's Rep Ben Bowman's Legislative Director. And they're winning! @tinakotek.bsky.social just needs to do the right thing 👀 www.wsj.com/articles/ore...
wsj.com
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
There are almost 200 active fires burning across Canada right now and *93* of them are “0% contained” or “out of control” 😳 Thinking of folks in Manitoba and hoping this isn’t the start of another 2023-scale wildfire season. cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca
cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca
Canadian Wildland Fire Information System
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
The latest satellite data tracking global sea levels came online today from CNES/AVISO 🌊 144 mm may not sound like a lot but climate scientists have shown -- and you can see for yourself if you look closely -- the rise it's accelerating 📈 www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
Two charts side by side: one showing Arctic Sea Ice Extent decrease over time, the other showing Global Sea Level rise increase over time.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
This means no more updates to this chart. Devastating
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Thanks I hate it www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Smoke from climate-fueled fires in US contributed to 15,000 deaths in 15 years, study finds
Exposure to small particulate matter from fires contributes to thousands of annual deaths in US, according to study
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Another record daily temperature on Friday: 1.61 degrees above the pre-industrial average. 2025 global temps remain worryingly high.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
We’re back in record daily temperature territory. Thursday was the hottest April 24th in modern decades. It reached 1.56°C above the pre-industrial average. The previous record holder was 2020. www.deepskyclimate.com/research
Daily global temperature chart showing 2025 hit a new record for that date on April 24th
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Again: the first major financial impacts of climate change are showing up in the home insurance market. I was cited in this article - which is good despite my name being wrong - on wildfires and the developing home insurance crisis in California. www.insurance.com/home-insuran...
insurance.com
California home insurance crisis: How wildfires are driving rate increases
Wildfires are fueling a home insurance crisis in California, where rate increases are expected as insurers respond to billions in losses.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Fascinating paper that confirms what we should already know: Our financial system is not somehow bubble-wrapped to withstand the effects of climate change swirling around it. We will all lose money because of climate change. 🧵
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
We just hit a new global temperature record. Thursday was the hottest April 10th in modern decades. It was 1.67°C above the pre-industrial average. (The second highest was 2024 at 1.65°C.) www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
Daily global temperature anomaly chart showing new record reached on Thursday, April 10th at 1.67°C above the pre-industrial average.
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Reposted by Max Dugan-Knight
Leon Simons @leonsimons.com · 15/04/2025
🚨Very bad news! Annual global CO₂ increase of 3.75 ppm! @climate.noaa.gov had to extend its y-axis by 1 ppm for the first time. More and more of the CO₂ we emit stays in the atmosphere (Airborne fraction). Likely because the Land Sink (biosphere) is decreasing, increasing the Atmospheric Sink
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Always channeling his calmness in the face of climate crisis. Such resilience, bravery despite the terrifying data on the monitor next to him.
My dog sleeping
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Repeating to myself that climate does not equal weather watching snowflakes falling out my window on April 10. Climate change is a hard problem to communicate about.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
If you thought I was going to be left out of the posting scary line charts bonanza on here today... And hot take: this is scarier. www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
The @climate.noaa.gov data on billion dollar weather disasters is critical for understanding climate change. Really hope we don't lose this dataset. www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
Chart showing billion dollar weather disasters increasing over time. Data provided by NOAA/NCEI.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Global oceans continue to be very, very warm. So far 2025 is in second place only to last year. The direction of that little red line will tell us a lot about the health of our oceans and where we're headed. www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
Daily sea surface temperature anomaly data visualization.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
🚨 Tuesday hit a new temperature record for that date. 🚨 It was the hottest March 20th in modern decades. 2025 is off to a worryingly hot start. Have a look for yourself: www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...
Global daily temperature chart.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
These two side-by-side really tell the whole story. Check out our Climate Dashboard! It runs daily to track the data of climate change: deepskyclimate.com/research And please let me know what you think!
CO2 PPM chart next to an annual global temperature anomaly chart. Both increasing.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Our atmosphere has an ~18%~ higher CO2 concentration today than when I was born. It takes quite a leap of faith to think that would have no impact. And emissions are still increasing. www.deepskyclimate.com/research
Chart tracking CO2 atmospheric concentration using data from Scripps/ NOAA. Chart made and updated regularly by Deep Sky
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Check out this thing I've been working on the past few weeks. It's a dashboard tracking the data on climate change, updated daily. Closing your eyes doesn’t make a problem go away. www.deepskyclimate.com/research
Chart showing daily global temperature anomaly data. Saturday March 15 was 1.69°C above the preindustrial average.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Sadly this is panning out exactly as expected. Highest fire risk in years leading to devastating wildfires. Don't get distracted by questions on source of ignition. This was ~inevitable~ with these levels of fire risk. All fuelled by climate change. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/u...
nytimes.com
Wildfires Fueled by Dry Conditions Quickly Spread Across Texas and Oklahoma
Images on social media showed a dystopian view of areas near Lubbock and Amarillo, Texas.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
More climate weather disasters means more of my face on the news so it's a real double whammy. I talked to CBS News in Texas about growing wildfire threat. Climate change causes hydroclimate whiplash which fuels out of control wildfires. www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/c...
Max Dugan-Knight, climate data scientist at Deep Sky interviewed by CBS News Texas about wildfires.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Did you know there was water rationing in Bogotá last year? That's how bad drought has been. South America is being hit hard by the climate crisis but it rarely makes the news in US/Canada. I was quoted in this article about climate impacts in South America. nearshoreamericas.com/year-of-drou...
nearshoreamericas.com
Year of Droughts and Wildfires Hits South America Hard - Nearshore Americas
South America appears to be at the frontline of the climate crisis blamed on global warming, with wildfires wreaking havoc across the region.
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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Investors with long time horizons (like pension funds) should be ~way~ more worried about climate change than they are. One day their financial risk models will seriously consider climate risk but that day has not come.
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