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 they’re knee-height. As their home has sunk, she and her family have had to cope with frequent flooding. In the most extreme […]
Read more »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 outskirts of Paris, he dismissed it as little more than a nuisance. But in the four years since, […]
Read more »America’s Sinking Cities
June 14th, 2025
Via Visual Capitalist, a look at subsidence in the U.S.: Across the U.S., major urban centers are experiencing significant land subsidence, a.k.a the sinking of land. This map visualizes the average vertical land movement within 28 of the largest U.S. cities from 2015 to 2021, measured in milimeters per year. Data comes from a 2025 […]
Read more »The Wealthy California Town That Can’t Get Rid of Water Fast Enough
May 15th, 2025
Via SFGate, a report on a city slipping into the ocean: Every day, Rancho Palos Verdes inches closer to destruction. The beleaguered Southern California city, which is southwest of downtown Los Angeles and hugs the waterline between Redondo Beach and San Pedro, is quite literally sliding into the ocean, sometimes at a rate of 4 inches per week. […]
Read more »Why Are All of America’s Biggest Cities Sinking?
May 8th, 2025
Via Grist, a report on a new study finds that the country’s 28 most populous metros are losing elevation, from New York City to Seattle. Cities sit unmoving on the landscape — a sprawling collection of roads, sidewalks, and buildings designed to last for generations. But across the United States, urban areas are silently shifting: […]
Read more »How Do You Stop A Megacity From Going Under Water?
April 1st, 2025
Via BBC, a report on Bangkok, a megacity going under water: Bangkok is a mega city of more than 10 million people, the economic powerhouse of Southeast Asia and one of the world’s most visited cities. Billions of dollars worth of new luxury real estate is planned as huge skyscrapers pierce the sky and become […]
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.