Rain Could Soon Help Power Your Home
April 11th, 2026
Via The Cool Down, a report on a new breakthrough which integrates a thin film into panels that not only protects the fragile solar cells but also captures mechanical energy from falling rain: Scientists have developed a new coating to capture the energy of rain falling on solar panels. While the impact of rain may […]
Read more »How to Get Big Tech to Pay Your Energy Bills
March 24th, 2026
Via The Washington Post, a look at how the most overlooked U.S. power plant isn’t a gas turbine or solar farm. It’s your house (and thousands of others), and firms are paying to use them to power data centers: The tech industry needs massive amounts of electricity. The most overlooked power plant in the United […]
Read more »Urban Forestry: Climate Infrastructure Hiding In Plain Sight
March 5th, 2026
Via Harvard’s Salata Institute, a report on how Boston and Cambridge treat trees as a public system, not decoration. Three contributors to these cities’ urban forest plans explain how heat and historic disinvestment are guiding where canopy goes next – amid pressure to add housing and density. On a hot July afternoon, the most effective […]
Read more »Boston: Piloting a New Type of Heat Pump that is as Easy To Install as a Window AC
February 17th, 2026
Via WBUR, a report on how Boston is piloting a new type of heat pump that’s as easy to install as a window AC: Boston, like many cities in the Northeast, has a building problem. More specifically, its buildings have a problem: They emit tons of climate pollution every year. In Boston, buildings account for […]
Read more »Advancing Adaptation: Mapping Costs From Cooling To Coastal Defenses
January 7th, 2026
Via McKinsey, a new report on how the benefits of adaptation far outweigh its costs. Yet, the world today spends just one-third of the amount needed to protect everyone exposed to hazards to developed-economy standards. What would it cost to adapt as the Earth warms, and how much will get spent? At a glance Societies […]
Read more »Protecting Coasts Without Cooking The Planet
January 7th, 2026
Via the Salata Institute, an interesting look at how low-carbon, low-cost coastal resilience is possible if designers, builders, and policymakers work together: In the 2010s, when New York City decided to fortify the East River Promenade in the Lower East Side, it turned to a typical solution: emissions-intensive concrete and steel. Around the same time, […]
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.