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Susan Crawford

@scrawford.bsky.social
11K followers 1.4K following 116 posts

Writing about intersection between climate adaptation and finance. Substack susanpcrawford.substack.com Author of Charleston: Race, Water, and the Storms to Come. Learning all the time.

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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Curious about what it's like to be young and noticing all the climate/social issues that intersect along the Mississippi River? Join me tomorrow night to see Hollow Tree - Cafritz Hall, DC JCC, 1529 16th St. NW DC- filmmaker Kira Akerman will be there! Tickets: www.edcjcc.org/jxj/show/hol...
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Want functioning insurance markets and real climate forecasts? Then you want NCAR intact. Post today - for insurance sector forwarding. Banks, too - susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/trump-targ...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Trump Targets America's Weather Nerve Center
But the National Center for Atmospheric Research underpins insurance markets as well as disaster planning and climate forecasts.
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rachelruysch.bsky.social @rachelruysch.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
The insurance industry—essential to US economic activity, woven into the financial plans of every home and business in the nation—sees NCAR as absolutely, concretely, crucial. @scrawford.bsky.social susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/trump-targ...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Trump Targets America's Weather Nerve Center
But the National Center for Atmospheric Research underpins insurance markets as well as disaster planning and climate forecasts.
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
A September brookings.edu report, “Who Bears the Burden of Climate Inaction?”, found climate -driven changes in home insurance premiums, home energy costs, and smoke effects on mortality are $400-$900 per household per year, with much higher costs—upward of $1,300 a year—in the hardest-hit places.
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Smart: RI has a statewide document prioritizing 10,000 crucial assets—infrastructure, healthcare facilities, emergency service—for adaptation funding. Bond proceeds will finance a state revolving loan fund for multi-million-dollar resilience projects; grants will fund smaller design efforts.
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
What if every state had a plan--and a fund--for climate resilience? Rhode Island’s about to. Read all about it in my column today: susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/a-small-st...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
A small state with a big climate plan
Inside Rhode Island’s efforts to pair statewide risk ranking with a permanent resilience loan fund and bottom‑up municipal planning
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Nick Angarone @nickangarone.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
#ClimateResilience is an #affordability issue with a massive return on investment. There are plenty of shenanigans by the #NJ Legislature during lame duck; let’s do something worthwhile.
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Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
No clear path for industry on adaptation, stresses @scrawford.bsky.social: "If you’re in business and know the climate risks are real, you’re better off kicking the can down the road until your retirement—rather than changing your business model to reflect and help shoulder climate risks"
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rachelruysch.bsky.social @rachelruysch.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Failing to adapt to the physical ravages of climate change amounts to a national moral failure. These increased costs likely severely undercount what’s happening now to these households, and certainly don’t account for what is going to happen in the decades to come. @scrawford.bsky.social
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Obamacare and climate adaptation have a lot in common
But the deal that made health insurance possible is far less likely in the climate arena
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Christina Toms @christinatoms.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
I don’t know how it’s possible that @scrawford.bsky.social is an expert in my two favorite climate-risky places - Plumas County and the Jersey Shore - but she is, and I’m grateful.
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
New paper demonstrates climate inaction is already hitting U.S. households like a hidden, regressive “climate tax”--but unlike Obamacare, there’s no national coalition or business deal to turn that fact into real climate adaptation progress. Column today: open.substack.com/pub/susanpcr...
open.substack.com
Obamacare and climate adaptation have a lot in common
But the deal that made health insurance possible is far less likely in the climate arena
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John Schwartz @jswatz.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
He’s like, ‘I think I did see your house. It was the blue one, right? Yeah, it’s floating down Route 35. It’s on fire.’” A brilliant @scrawford.bsky.social story on New Jersey's endless cycle of rebuilding the shore. And yes, there is a climate angle. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
rollingstone.com
Floods and Storms Are Ravaging the Jersey Shore. Why Do We Keep Building It Back?
Floods, storms and rising seas at the Jersey Shore prompt continual beach replenishment and rebuilding. Experts say more dramatic change is needed.
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Steve Koller @stevekoller.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
This post gets to the heart of systemic questions raised by new Zillow + First Street climate risk score news. For years, floodplain management professionals (e.g., ASFPM) have highlighted a need for more funding and increased efficiencies in FEMA's FIRM...(1/6) www.floods.org/annual-legis...
floods.org
ASFPM Makes Case for FEMA Flood Map Funding in Letter to OMB
The state of our nation’s flood mapping is incomplete and fails to inform innumerable critical development decisions at essentially all levels.
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Jeff Goodell @jeffgoodell.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Masterclass from the great @elizkolbert.bsky.social in how to talk about climate change (and books about climate change). youtu.be/42e1qdYDw_Q?...
youtu.be
Elizabeth Kolbert - The Climate Crisis & “Life on a Little-Known Planet" | The Daily Show
YouTube video by The Daily Show
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Andrew Rumbach @andrewrumbach.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
This is the conclusion that I hope we will draw from the Zillow drama... that we need a gold-standard national data source for property-level risk to climate hazards that is transparent, accessible, and legally defensible. Private companies can help build it but the public needs to own it.
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Zillow’s climate risk reversal looks like a setback. It’s really a wake‑up call.
When private models sow confusion, it’s a flashing warning sign that Washington needs to fix federal flood maps,
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Jeff Goodell @jeffgoodell.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
“We’re going to have places where only wealthy people can live,” says Peter Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future. Richer residents will work around the inconvenience of coastal flooding and walk away from their houses when they feel like it — if they haven’t been able to sell.
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John Vaillant @johnvaillant.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
@scrawford.bsky.social
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Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 05/12/2025
Floods and Storms Are Ravaging the Jersey Shore. Why Do We Keep Building It Back? The government has spent billions on beach replenishment over the last four decades. But with worsening climate change, experts say more dramatic change is in order. 🔗 www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
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Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 05/12/2025
Seas are rising more than twice as quickly off the Jersey Shore than the average. Storms are growing in intensity and by 2100, severe flooding will "be the new normal." Still, some can't stay away. "There’s only one place for me to live. My soul is here" Story: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
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Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 05/12/2025
If money were no barrier and political crosswinds didn’t exist, wise public policy steps would include stopping development in risky places like the Jersey Shore, helping people gradually move out of harm’s way. That's not on the table. Story: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
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Shelby Edwards @sedwards.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
We humans have such a hard time letting go... and an equally hard time with abstract risk. There is no saving places like this, we will see bigger storms and higher seas, so it is either find a way to transition or suffer abrupt, too often cataclysmic shifts. Great article.
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Nick Angarone @nickangarone.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
I can check “Get quoted in Rolling Stone magazine” off my bucket list. Thanks to @scrawford.bsky.social for a sobering assessment of the challenges we face to address the accelerating impacts of climate change at the Jersey Shore. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
rollingstone.com
Floods and Storms Are Ravaging the Jersey Shore. Why Do We Keep Building It Back?
Floods, storms and rising seas at the Jersey Shore prompt continual beach replenishment and rebuilding. Experts say more dramatic change is needed.
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Story for Rolling Stone about climate threats to the Jersey Shore - signals what's ahead for the East Coast: rising risks, shortage of public money to adjust, and built-in incentives to keep the status quo in place. Plus: attachment to a place full of memories. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
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Eliza Barclay @elizabarclay.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
"When buyers can’t see the risks up front, they may take on more exposure than they can afford — homes that become too expensive to insure, with costs families didn’t anticipate, and, worst of all, natural disasters they hadn’t yet thought of in personal terms." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | What Zillow Won’t Tell You
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Eliza Barclay @elizabarclay.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
"But the whole [Jersey Shore], every square foot of which has fulfilled someone’s American dream of living right on the beach, is sailing toward disaster." Great work by @scrawford.bsky.social: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
rollingstone.com
Floods and Storms Are Ravaging the Jersey Shore. Why Do We Keep Building It Back?
Floods, storms and rising seas at the Jersey Shore prompt continual beach replenishment and rebuilding. Experts say more dramatic change is needed.
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rachelruysch.bsky.social @rachelruysch.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
We need probabilistic, future-conditions, multi-peril mapping data that is public and subject to norms of oversight and transparency. @scrawford.bsky.social susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/zillows-cl...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Zillow’s climate risk reversal looks like a setback. It’s really a wake‑up call.
When private models sow confusion, it’s a flashing warning sign that Washington needs to fix federal flood maps,
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Reposted by Susan Crawford
rachelruysch.bsky.social @rachelruysch.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
When private models sow confusion, it’s a flashing warning sign that Washington needs to fix federal flood maps @scrawford.bsky.social susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/zillows-cl...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Zillow’s climate risk reversal looks like a setback. It’s really a wake‑up call.
When private models sow confusion, it’s a flashing warning sign that Washington needs to fix federal flood maps,
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Tim Fernholz @timfernholz.com · 03/12/2025
good idea!
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Andy Miller @andymiller24.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Completely agree with @kellyhereid.bsky.social's take on @scrawford.bsky.social's excellent article. The potential for private sector firms to discontinue providing critical info has been long recognized in the climate services space (of course, now this Administration is doing the same thing).
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Andy Miller @andymiller24.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Spot on.
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Dr. Melissa Scruggs @volcanodoc.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Guess what is going to be our class discussion topic for the climate change segment in my Intro Earth Science course?
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Brian DiNunno @bdinunno.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Funding support for these analyses has been insufficient for more than 30 years. When I was a summer intern at NOAA in the 90's getting projects done for major update efforts like California, SW US, or Puerto Rico were budget limited and updates were decades behind. It's beyond time to fix this.
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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
This is the correct take on the whole Zillow fiasco (and fire maps, and hurricane maps) 2023 PCAST report essentially called for this as well - it's been a recognized gap in capacity for years bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/u...
bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov
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Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
The article therefore "urges state and federal governments to invest in their own climate services capacity at a scale not currently contemplated" scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcont...
scholarship.law.bu.edu
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Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
time to unearth this excellent paper by legal scholar @madisoncondon.bsky.social (see below), which "argues that actionable and transparent information about our climate-changed future is a public good that the private sector cannot be depended upon to provide equitably or reliably."
scholarship.law.bu.edu
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Zillow’s climate score rollback is a wake-up call: build open, future‑conditions federal flood maps -- gold‑standard, trustworthy data for building codes, mortgages, and our future. Column today: open.substack.com/pub/susanpcr...
open.substack.com
Zillow’s climate risk reversal looks like a setback. It’s really a wake‑up call.
When private models sow confusion, it’s a flashing warning sign that Washington needs to fix federal flood maps,
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Anderson Lee @andersonlee.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
"Because of increasing insurance costs, what a homeowner might have thought was a fixed 30-year mortgage on a house that increases in value is turning into an adjustable-rate obligation covering an asset that might not find a buyer at the price the homeowner believes is fair."
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Another great read from @scrawford.bsky.social: "We can’t rely on the insurance industry to be the only risk-signaler for homes. These companies may be tracking hurricanes and wildfires, and translating those risks into higher premiums, but they are likely to exclude saltwater intrusion coverage."
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rachelruysch.bsky.social @rachelruysch.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Policymakers, like these researchers, are in the dark when it comes to making plans for the future based on the signals being conveyed by insurance providers. The real story, the accelerated erosion of risky housing markets, is mostly hidden. @scrawford.bsky.social
susanpcrawford.substack.com
New data shows insurance costs rising and home values sinking as climate risks grow
Insurance markets are flashing warnings — even as some major climate risks remain unmeasured and unaccounted for
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Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
"Because of increasing insurance costs, what a homeowner might have thought was a fixed 30-year mortgage on a house that increases in value is turning into an adjustable-rate obligation covering an asset that might not find a buyer at the price the homeowner believes is fair" @scrawford.bsky.social
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
New research shows climate risk is already hitting insurance and home values. And that’s only part of the story. Some serious hazards, like saltwater intrusion, often aren’t covered at all -- and aren’t yet priced into housing markets. Column today: susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/new-data-s...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
New data shows insurance costs rising and home values sinking as climate risks grow
Insurance markets are flashing warnings — even as some major climate risks remain unmeasured and unaccounted for
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Legendary climate scientist James Hansen says climate risks for coastal cities--and young people’s futures--are far bigger and coming faster than most realize. Wall Street’s cyclic complacency can’t protect against rising seas. Column today: open.substack.com/pub/susanpcr...
open.substack.com
James Hansen is trying to get a message across
Young investors are advised to take risks and stay the course. They need some real talk about the risks of climate change — to coastal cities, to the economy, and to their futures
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Tom Metcalfe, a scholar from the year 2120 in Ian McEwan’s "What We Can Know," yearns for our long lifespans and wild landscapes. It's a literary, time-bending, and moving reminder of what we have to lose ... column today susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/ten-things...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Ten things Tom Metcalfe yearns for most
In Ian McEwan’s new novel “What We Can Know,” a scholar in 2120 looks back with longing at the climate we take for granted
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rachelruysch.bsky.social @rachelruysch.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
0.5 % annual risk ... is a key metric for running a large insurance business in the NE. Why isn’t that level of risk the planning lever for governments... driving building codes, land use decisions, and investment priorities? @scrawford.bsky.social susanpcrawford.substack.com/p/insurers-p...
susanpcrawford.substack.com
Insurers plan for extreme events that could crater their solvency. Shouldn’t all levels of government do the same?
What if a storm like Melissa hit the northeast US?
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wes(is no longer)injapan @wesinjapan.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
I can tell you this: Based on multiple tabletop exercises with local municipalities around Massachusetts- No, they are not prepared. No matter what you hear. Local EM capacity is not up for it.
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Dr. Jeff Masters @drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
“A 0.5% annual risk might sound pretty low. But it’s a key metric for running a large insurance business in the Northeast. Why isn’t at least that level of risk the planning lever for local governments in that region, driving building codes, land use decisions, and investment priorities?”
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Susan Crawford @scrawford.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Insurers plan for 1-in-200-year storms. Why don’t governments? If a Melissa-level hurricane hit the Northeast, would we be ready? New column looks at climate whiplash, risk, and what real preparedness means. open.substack.com/pub/susanpcr...
open.substack.com
Insurers plan for extreme events that could crater their solvency. Shouldn’t all levels of government do the same?
What if a storm like Melissa hit the northeast US?
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Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Fire risk: "Why would the federal government go into the business of subsidizing living in areas that insurers don’t want to insure and reinsurers don’t want to cover?", asks @scrawford.bsky.social
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