Balcony Solar Took Off in Germany. Why Not the US?
April 25th, 2025
Via Grist, commentary on how – from breaker-masking to voltage mismatches – America’s grid isn’t ready for balcony solar — yet: Raymond Ward wants to see solar panels draped over every balcony in the United States and doesn’t understand why that isn’t happening. The technology couldn’t be easier to use — simply hang one or […]
Read more »Reforesting the Elm City
April 21st, 2025
Via Yale Alumni Magazine, a report on the Urban Resources Initiative is planting thousands of trees to make New Haven a cooler city: At first, planting street trees in New Haven was nothing more than a job for William “The Muscle” Tisdale. “I never paid too much attention to trees,” he says. He appreciated steady work […]
Read more »This Muggy City Keeps Cool with Minimal AC. Here’s How.
March 26th, 2025
Via The Washington Post, an article on India’s Palava City, a 5,000-acre experimental community northeast of Mumbai, which hopes to provide a model for adapting to a climate-transformed world: The wind ruffled Aun Abdullah’s hair as he strolled along a path paved through lush grasses circled by apartments more than 20 stories high. Large gaps […]
Read more »Reforesting the Elm City
March 3rd, 2025
Via Yale Alumni Magazine, an article on an initiative planting thousands of trees to make New Haven a cooler city: At first, planting street trees in New Haven was nothing more than a job for William “The Muscle” Tisdale. “I never paid too much attention to trees,” he says. He appreciated steady work with Yale’s […]
Read more »Rehydrating the Los Angeles Heat Island
March 3rd, 2025
Via Californians for Energy and Water Abundance, commentary on the need to find ways to cool Los Angeles: Along with the fairly recent popularization of terms such as atmospheric river and bomb cyclone, we increasingly hear the term “vapor pressure deficit” (VPD). At any given temperature, the term refers to how much moisture is in […]
Read more »“Nature Is Helping Us”: Trees in LA Are Better Carbon Sinks Than Expected, Study Finds
March 1st, 2025
Trees are often called the “lungs of the Earth,” and a recent study backs that up. The research out of Los Angeles found that the city’s trees are even more generous when it comes to carbon dioxide storage than expected, absorbing 60% of daytime CO2 emissions in the spring and summer and about 30% annually […]
Read more »'Black Swans' are highly improbable events that come as a surprise, have major disruptive effects, and that are often rationalized after the fact as if they had been predictable to begin with. In our rapidly warming world, such events are occurring ever more frequently and include wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and drought.
'Green Shoots' is a term used to describe signs of economic recovery or positive data during a downturn. It references a period of growth and recovery, when plants start to show signs of health and life, and, therefore, has been employed as a metaphor for a recovering economy.
It is my hope that Black Swans / Green Shoots will help readers understand both climate-activated risk and opportunity so that you may invest in, advise, or lead organizations in the context of increasing pressures of global urbanization, resource scarcity, and perils relating to climate change. I believe that the tools of business and finance can help individuals, businesses, and global society make informed choices about who and what to protect, and I hope that this blog provides some insight into the policy and private sector tools used to assess investments in resilient reinforcement, response, or recovery.