RainReady: Helping Communities Find Solutions to The Problem of Urban Flooding
August 12th, 2023
The RainReady program in Chicago aims to enlist residents in creating green infrastructure like permeable pavement and rain gardens that can reduce flooding in hard-hit neighborhoods, including by revamping vacant lots. The RainReady program has two facets that are inadequate in many other local-level flood mitigation efforts: community leadership and serious funding.
Read more »Why Insurance Companies Are Fleeing Florida
July 12th, 2023
Via HeatMap, commentary on why insurance companies are fleeing Florida – it’s not just the hurricanes: The Florida insurance market took another hit this week when Farmers announced it would pull out of the state, leaving around 100,000 customers unable to renew their policies. While the news garnered headlines, it was exceptional not so much […]
Read more »Farmers Insurance Has Lost Its Appetite For Business in Extreme Weather Hotspots
July 12th, 2023
Via Quartz, an article on Farmers Insurance decision to restrict its offerings in Florida and California: Farmers Insurance is dropping home, auto, and umbrella coverage in Florida, it announced yesterday (July 11). The state, infamous for its hurricane seasons, has seen several insurers drop out just ahead of peak hurricane season, which tends to be […]
Read more »Powerful Hurricanes Have Reduced Coastal Cities to Wreckage. But This Community Stands Unscathed.
June 29th, 2023
Via Popular Mechanics, a look at Babcock Ranch, Florida which isn’t just storm-proof—it’s a blueprint for the future: When Hurricane Ian smashed onto Cuba’s southwest coast in the early morning hours of Tuesday, September 27, 2022, Syd Kitson exhaled. At that point the Category 3 storm was forecast to make landfall on the Florida panhandle, far from […]
Read more »Frigid US City Becomes Haven In Climate Change Era
June 24th, 2023
Via Terra Daily, a look at one U.S. city that may become a haven in the climate change era: Standing on the frigid coast of Lake Superior, thawing ice glistening in the northern Minnesota sun, Christina Welch recalls what made her trade the temperate vineyards of northern California for the notoriously chilly city of Duluth.In 2017, […]
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 »'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.