How Are Cities Responding To Extreme Heat?
June 24th, 2023
Via Al Jazeera, a video look at how cities around the world are responding to extreme heat: Scorching temperatures and record breaking heat have already grabbed headlines this year as increasingly severe heat waves continue to be a recurring feature of life in many parts of the world. School hours have been cut short in the […]
Read more »Cleveland’s Tree Canopy Is in Trouble
June 24th, 2023
Via Inside Climate News, an article on new efforts to bring more trees back to Forest City to address both climate resilience and environmental justice: Cleveland, Ohio has long been called the Forest City, although sources differ on whom to credit for the moniker. Back in 1831, French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville described Lake Erie’s […]
Read more »Can Carbon Removal Become a Trillion-Dollar Business?
June 24th, 2023
Courtesy of The Economist, a look at whether carbon removal become a trillion-dollar business: “Today we see the birth of a new species,” declared Julio Friedmann, gazing across the bleak landscape. Along with several hundred grandees, the energy technologist had travelled to Notrees, a remote corner of the Texas oil patch, in late April. He was […]
Read more »Young Engineers Lay The Foundation For A New Generation of Sustainable Cooling In India
June 24th, 2023
Via Energy Monitor, a report on how young engineers in India are designing a cool world resilient to deadly heatwaves: In the scorching heat in a town near Delhi, Jyoti Pandey rode her scooter packed with takeaway meals. Halfway through her day delivering food to customers, she collapsed from heat exhaustion in the 46°C (114°F) […]
Read more »The Plan to Save New York From the Next Sandy Will Ruin the Waterfront. It Doesn’t Have To.
June 20th, 2023
Via The New York Times, commentary on the plan to save New York from the next Sandy: Last September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unveiled its proposal to protect the greater New York and New Jersey metro area from the next catastrophic flood. It is an epic plan that includes dozens of miles of floodwalls, levees and […]
Read more »How Cities Are Trying To Stop Their Land From Sinking
June 20th, 2023
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a look at how some cities are putting water back into the ground, a process called managed aquifer recharge, to stabilize land subsidence: Groundwater has historically been a lifeline in California’s Coachella Valley. Water for farming, for your home and community? It came from under your feet, but the extractions […]
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.