Roots of Resilience: How Trees Can Help Fight Rising Heat In Arid Cities
September 14th, 2024
Via The Nature Conservancy, a report on new science that shows increasing greening programs in arid cities could reduce air temperatures near people’s homes by an average of 0.5 degrees C: As the world grapples with increasingly common and devastating heat waves, new science shows that nature-based solutions—like tree planting and water conservation—are important and […]
Read more »Why Schools Are Ripping Up Playgrounds Across The U.S.
September 14th, 2024
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a look at how projects to plant trees, build shade structures and reduce the amount of pavement around schools have become high-priority as schoolyards become dangerously hot: Aerial photos of the Bethune schoolyard in Philadelphia. The Trust for Public Land teamed up with local partners to revamp the schoolyard, transforming […]
Read more »Seeing The Forest Beyond The Trees: Extreme Heat Governance in Jakarta
September 14th, 2024
Via Illuminem, an article on extreme heat governance in Jakarta: Over the past 30 years, the world’s 20 largest cities have seen a 52% increase in days exceeding 35°C. This alarming trend highlights the urgent need to reform urban heat governance. In fact, at a global level, April 2024 was the hottest April ever recorded, with global temperatures […]
Read more »Chilling Out: How Africa Can Stay Cool As The Climate Warms
September 10th, 2024
Via The Economist, an article on strategies to mitigate Africa’s increasing cases of extreme heat: FEW PLACES on Earth are more familiar with the deadly consequences of extreme heat than countries in Africa. Heat kills crops, spoils food and medicines, and makes it impossible to work, study or sleep. As the planet warms, the number of […]
Read more »Why Cities Are Getting More Rainy
September 10th, 2024
Via Washington Post, a report on a new study has found most cities receive significantly more rain than nearby rural regions, an effect that has become more pronounced over the past two decades: Cities are hot. The fact that urban areas tend to be warmer than their surrounding region — a phenomenon called the heat island […]
Read more »When Cities Were Nature’s Haven
September 6th, 2024
Via Illuminem, a look at how cities and nature are not exclusive from one another: We tend to think that nature and cities are polar opposites. Yet this is not true. As my research on Bangalore or Bengaluru – India’s IT hub – shows, for centuries, the population of this region grew because of nature, not despite it. In my book Nature in the […]
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.