To Solve Climate Change, We Need To Restore Our Sponge Planet
January 3rd, 2025
An interesting comment in Nature Water on how to help stabilize the climate by moving towards a Sponge Planet. Humans have degraded 75 percent of Earth’s land, destabilizing the water cycle, amplifying effects of excess CO2. The water cycle is a key climate stabilizer but overlooked by policymakers. Restoring wetlands, floodplains, forests, recreating a Sponge […]
Read more »Thermal Energy Networks: The Next Big Thing
January 1st, 2025
Via Volts, commentary on the potential of thermal energy networks: In this episode, I revisit thermal energy networks with HEET’s Zeyneb Magavi and Eversource’s Eric Bosworth. What was once a novel concept — replacing gas networks with shared ground-source heat pumps — is now being piloted across the country. We explore the technology’s remarkable efficiency […]
Read more »Healthier Cities Will Require a Strong Dose of Nature
December 29th, 2024
Via Wired, a report on the growing importance of designing cities around green spaces: If current global trends are correct, in 2025, around 41 million people will die from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)—which include cancer, heart disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory illness, and severe mental illness—representing around 74 percent of all deaths globally. Despite major advances in medicine […]
Read more »‘If 1.5m Germans Have Them There Must Be Something In It’: How Balcony Solar Is Taking Off
December 19th, 2024
Via The Guardian, a report on balcony solar panels which can save 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill and, with vertical surface area in cities larger than roof space, the appeal is clear: They are easy to install, and knock chunks off electricity bills. It may not be Romeo and Juliet, but Spain’s balcony […]
Read more »Why These Doctors Started Writing Medical ‘Prescriptions’ for Solar Power
December 18th, 2024
Via NPR.org, a look at an innovative new program called the Clean Power Prescription program that aims to help those in need keep the lights on: Anna Goldman, a primary care physician at Boston Medical Center, got tired of hearing that her patients couldn’t afford the electricity needed to run breathing assistance machines, recharge wheelchairs, […]
Read more »Turning Windows Into Solar Panels
December 18th, 2024
Via China Water Risk, an interesting look at how windows can become transparent solar panels? Imagine skyscrapers as ‘vertical solar farms? See-through solar panels aren’t just a pipe dream: Transparent solar panels look like clear glass & let light through like regular windows but they absorb ultraviolet & infrared light and turn these into renewable […]
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.