Reforesting the Elm City
June 21st, 2025 Via Yale Alumni Magazine, a look at how the Urban Resources Initiative is planting thousands of trees to make New Haven a cooler city: At first, planting street trees in New Haven was nothing more [...]
Copenhagen: Adapting To Warmer World With Rain Tunnels and Sponge Parks
June 20th, 2025 Via NPR, a look at how Copenhagen is adapting to a warmer world with rain tunnels and ‘sponge parks’ Copenhagen, Denmark, is expected to receive 30% more rainfall by the end of the [...]
George Lucas’ Spaceship of a Museum Lands in L.A. with a Wonderful Green Design Elements
June 19th, 2025 Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, a report on an innovative new museum in Los Angeles that features a number of innovative elements of green design: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, under [...]
Two Suns, One City: Karachi’s Dueling Realities in a Warming World
June 18th, 2025 Via Inside Climate News, a look at how – as another punishing summer edges into Karachi – a Stanford researcher and a former climate minister confront the same crisis—extreme [...]
Cities Around The World Are Sinking At Worrying Speed
June 14th, 2025 Via BBC, a report on how cities around the world are sinking at ‘worrying speed’: Twenty-two years ago, when Erna stood outside her house, “the windows were as high as my chest”. Now [...]
Cracks Starting To Show: Homeowners Battle Insurers Over $2.9 Trillion Climate Risk
June 14th, 2025 Via Bloomberg, a report on how subsidence is a worsening risk and insurers don’t want to pick up the tab. When Bernard Weisse first noticed a tiny crack in the outer wall of his house on the [...]

ABOUT
BLACK SWANS GREEN SHOOTS
Black Swans / Green Shoots examines the collision between urbanization and resource scarcity in a world affected by climate change, identifying opportunities to build sustainable cities and resilient infrastructure through the use of revolutionary capital, increased awareness, innovative technologies, and smart design to make a difference in the face of global and local climate perils.

'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.