Oakland’s New School Buses Don’t Just Reduce Pollution — They Double as Giant Batteries
August 29th, 2024
Courtesy of Grist, an updated report on Oakland’s new fleet of buses that can send power back to the grid, stabilizing it instead of straining it: Matt Simon The wheels on this bus do indeed go round and round. Its wipers swish. And its horn beeps. Hidden in its innards, though, is something special — […]
Read more »New Solution for Flood-Prone Cities: Concrete Made From Shellfish Waste
August 29th, 2024
Via Grist, a report on a new type of concrete that uses discarded shells to trap water. It’s now combating floods and food waste in urban gardens and along cycling paths. This time of year, bushels of rhubarb, potatoes, and lettuce can be harvested in abundance at The People’s Pantry, a community garden that doubles […]
Read more »Resilient Urban Forests: How Tipuana Trees Could Revolutionize City Planning
August 29th, 2024
Via Energy & Environment Leader, a look at how cities could utilize a specific tree species to revolutionize urban planning in an era of climate change: As cities across the globe grapple with climate challenges, innovative approaches to urban planning are becoming increasingly crucial. With projections indicating that 68% of the world’s population will reside […]
Read more »Hot Stuff: Cool Technologies That Can Protect Cities From Dangerous Heat
August 28th, 2024
Via Nature, a report on new technologies – from supercool materials that send heat into space to shape-shifting materials that can selectively fend it off – that can help to reduce urban temperatures: Hundreds of air conditioning units adorn an apartment building in Nanjing, China. Credit: Feng Botao/Visual China Group/Getty It’s time to brace for […]
Read more »How To Make Climate Risk Good Business
August 28th, 2024
An interesting TEDx talk examining h0w – by leveraging massive data stores that can be parsed and used predictively in the same way investors rely on these insights for stocks and interest rates – climate risk can turn into financial opportunity: The risk profiles of many real estate markets are rapidly increasing globally. Insurers and […]
Read more »Coating Clothes With This Material Could Cool Your Body By Up To 8 Degrees
August 26th, 2024
Via CNN, an article on a new coating which can be added to fabric to help reduce temperatures underneath clothing: Spending time outside during a heat wave can be sweaty, uncomfortable, even health-endangering, but scientists have come up with an innovation they say could provide relief: clothes that physically cool down the body. Researchers at the University […]
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.