Cities Use Data To Fight Climate Crisis
May 2nd, 2024
Via Fast Company, a report on how data will help cities fight the climate crisis: Earth Day is a good opportunity to see how data and technology can improve sustainability. Even with Earth Day in the rearview mirror, it’s still clear that the fight to counter the climate crisis will be won or lost in […]
Read more »A Technology In Road Markers Could Cool Cities By Up To 20°C
April 24th, 2024
Via Anthropocene Magazine, a look at how engineers are using retroreflector technology—based on prisms and reflective materials—to direct sunlight back into the sky and out of the urban canyon: Heat-related deaths around the world are climbing up as more frequent, longer-lasting extreme heatwaves become a harsh reality due to climate change. Heat deaths are projected to […]
Read more »One City’s Fight To Solve Its Sewage Problem With Sensors
September 7th, 2023
Via MIT Technology Review, an article on one city’s plans to make its aging sewers smarter: In the city of South Bend, Indiana, wastewater from people’s kitchens, sinks, washing machines, and toilets flows through 35 neighborhood sewer lines. On good days, just before each line ends, a vertical throttle pipe diverts the sewage into an […]
Read more »How Cities Can Prepare For Underground Climate Change
July 24th, 2023
Courtesy of Fast Company, an interesting report on a new study showing that soil is getting hotter, and our buildings are paying for it: The urban heat island effect has been thoroughly documented: Heat from the sun gets reflected and absorbed by buildings and roads, which heat up during the day and release heat at night, […]
Read more »Fighting Fire with 5G
July 17th, 2023
T-Mobile has decided to back Pano AI to detect wildfires using its 5G network. San Francisco-based Pano AI has built a wildfire detection device that uses cameras, satellite feeds and artificial intelligence to pinpoint where new wildfires are starting and alert firefighters and other first responders. T-Mobilepartnered with the climate tech startup last September to use […]
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.