Where Climate Change Poses The Most and Least Risk To American Homeowners
October 15th, 2024
Via the Washington Post, a report on where climate change poses the most and least risk to American homeowners: In 2017, Angela and Donald Brudos moved to a modest, ranch-style house where the Caloosahatchee River empties into the vast calm of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite Florida’s reputation for extreme weather, it held out the promise […]
Read more »DARPA Thinks Walls of Oysters Could Protect Shores Against Hurricanes
October 11th, 2024
Via Wired, a report on how the US defense research agency is funding three universities to engineer reef structures that will be colonized by corals and bivalves and absorb the power of future storms: On October 10, 2018, Tyndall Air Force Base on the Gulf of Mexico, a pillar of American air superiority, found itself under […]
Read more »Urban Heat Stress Is Another Disparity in the World’s Most Unequal Nation
October 11th, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a look at how South African shantytowns are far hotter than wealthy city suburbs: Noluthando Geja isn’t looking forward to summer. The unemployed 44-year-old dreads the fast-approaching hottest months of the year, when the blistering sun beats down on the steel-sheet roof of the two-room house she shares with three children in Itireleng, […]
Read more »Sustainable Building Effort Reaches New Heights With Wooden Skyscrapers
October 10th, 2024
Via Knowable Magazine, a look at how wood engineered for strength and safety offers architects an alternative to carbon-intensive steel and concrete: At the University of Toronto, just across the street from the football stadium, workers are putting up a 14-story building with space for classrooms and faculty offices. What’s unusual is how they’re building […]
Read more »When Hurricane Helene Hit, This Disaster-Proof Florida Neighborhood Kept The Lights On
October 7th, 2024
Via Fast Company, a look at a new development on Florida’s coast was designed to be as hurricane-proof as possible. So far, it’s working: Last Thursday, when Hurricane Helene hit the small town of Cortez, Florida—about four hours south of the eye of the storm—a storm surge filled the streets with waist-deep water near a […]
Read more »Too Hot By Day, Dubai’s Floodlit Beaches Are Packed At Night
October 6th, 2024
Via Al Monitor, a report on one way in which Dubai is adapting to extreme heat: Roasted by summer temperatures too hot for the beach, Dubai has turned to an innovative solution: opening them at night, complete with floodlights and lifeguards carrying night-vision binoculars. The idea, in one of the world’s hottest regions, with temperatures […]
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.