Jakarta: Striving To Avoid Becoming Next Atlantis
January 26th, 2024
Via Onewater, an article on Jakarta’s efforts to adapt to increasing subsidence Jakarta — the fastest-sinking city in the world — has finally taken action on its core land subsidence problem when groundwater free zones for highrise buildings will start to be established in August this year. If the government accelerates the provision of piped- water to all residents […]
Read more »London: Underprepared For Extreme Weather
January 21st, 2024
Via BBC, a report on London’s lack of preparedness for extreme weather: London is “underprepared” for the impact of climate change such as severe flooding and extreme heat, a climate research group has found. The London Climate Resilience Review has also said this lack of planning will create a “lethal risk” to the most vulnerable […]
Read more »Opinion: World’s Cities Are Not Ready For Climate Change
January 18th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on the urgent need for urban areas to rapidly become more resilient to rising temperatures: Think of climate change, and the mind instantly tends to go to melting ice caps, arid plains, forest fires and sinking tropical islands. But the impact of rising temperatures will not only be felt […]
Read more »Critical Infrastructure Is Sinking Along the US East Coast
January 5th, 2024
Courtesy of Wired, a look at how – up and down the Atlantic Coast – the land is steadily sinking, or subsiding. That’s destabilizing levees, roads, and airports, just as sea levels are rising. Unless you’re sinking into quicksand, you might assume that the land beneath your feet is solid and unmoving. In actual fact, […]
Read more »The Architect Making Friends With Flooding
January 2nd, 2024
Via MIT’s Technology Review, a report on one Chinese landscape designer who has pioneered a new approach—working with water instead of trying to bend it to our will: For years, Beijing landscape architect Yu Kongjian was ridiculed by his fellow citizens as a backward thinker. Some even called him an American spy—a nod to his […]
Read more »Embracing a Wetter Future, the Dutch Turn to Floating Homes
December 29th, 2023
Via Yale e360, an article on how – faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing – the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes: When a heavy storm hit in October, residents of the floating community of Schoonschip in Amsterdam had little doubt they could ride it out. They tied up their […]
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.