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 »Hot Sun, Cool Paths
January 26th, 2024
Via Australia’s The Age, a look at Australian efforts to tackle extreme heat: If you look closely when you hop off the tram at the Australian Open, you’ll notice the platform is painted light grey. It’s a surface coating called CoolSeal, a product designed to reduce ambient temperatures by reflecting the sun to produce cooler […]
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 »Recycling Heat Waste From Data Centers
January 19th, 2024
Via Impact Alpha, a look at the potential to recycle heat waste from data centers: Amazon is doing it. So are Meta, Microsoft and Google. The tech giants have begun capturing excess heat generated from their vast network of data centers to power everything from homes to community pools. Recycled heat is emerging as a key […]
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 »Making Cities More Like Forests
January 16th, 2024
Via The New Yorker, commentary from a leading proponent of vertical farming discusses how urban areas should adapt to a perilous environmental future: In 2000, Dickson D. Despommier, then a professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, was teaching a class on medical ecology in which he asked his students, “What will the […]
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.