Milwaukee’s Green Infrastructure 2035 Vision
June 20th, 2023
Via Medium, an article on Milwaukee’s 2035 Vision aims to scale up green infrastructure using natural processes to improve water quality and manage water quantity by restoring the hydrologic function of the urban landscape: Urban development typically retains little or none of the original vegetation and landscape, with impervious surfaces, including buildings, roads, gardens and parks, […]
Read more »Slowing Water for Greener Neighborhoods
June 20th, 2023
Via Illuminem, a report on the potential benefits of resilient and absorptive infrastructure: Climate Change has brought fiercer storms with devastating floods and long-lasting droughts that stressed and killed plants and animals. Once we controlled water. These days, water is in control and is harming us. What if we changed our relationship with water to […]
Read more »Rising Sea Levels Will Isolate People Long Before They’re Underwater
June 20th, 2023
Via Hakai Magazine, a look at how rising sea levels will isolate people long before they’re underwater: The Chignecto Isthmus—the low marshy strip connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia—may be one of the most vulnerable places in Canada to sea level rise. At just 21 kilometers wide, the interprovincial land bridge is battered on its […]
Read more »Can Cities Eliminate Heat-Related Deaths? Phoenix Is Trying.
June 20th, 2023
Via NextCity, a look at how Phoenix hopes a new Office of Heat Response can move fast enough to counter the impacts of deadly heat: Regional Carrillo could walk to his last job in five minutes. In most places, it would be a pleasant commute. But in Phoenix, where summer days routinely top 110 degrees Fahrenheit […]
Read more »Heat Insurance Offers Climate Change Lifeline To Poor Workers
June 20th, 2023
Via Reuters, an article on some innovative insurance schemes launched for heat, cyclones, and drought: A bright sun beat down on the sprawling Indian market where Kamlaben Ashokbhai Patni sat worrying about the brass jewellery on display in her wooden stall. When the heat rises, the metal blackens. Plastic pearls become unglued. “The colour of […]
Read more »New Storm-Resistant Street With ‘Porous Pavement’ In New York
June 20th, 2023
Via the Gothamist, a look at a new storm-resistant street with ‘porous pavement’ in Rockaway, just in time for hurricane season: The city unveiled a new storm-resistant street last week along an area of Rockaway that was flooded and destroyed in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy. A short strip of Beach 108th Street has now been […]
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.