How Auto Industry Could Steer The World Toward Green Steel
August 13th, 2024
Via MIT Technology Review, an article on green steel and potential for automakers to drive global uptake of this new material: Steel scaffolds our world, undergirding buildings and machines. It also presents a major challenge for climate change, since steel production largely relies on polluting fossil fuels. The automotive industry could be a key player […]
Read more »Extreme Weather Poses a Challenge for Heat Pumps
August 13th, 2024
Via Wired, a look at how stronger winds, bouts of extreme low temperature, and higher humidity pose difficult but surmountable challenges for heat pumps: Andreas Bangheri knows how to read the wind. He’s been hang gliding and piloting small aircraft around the mountains of his native Austria for years. And he can tell that things […]
Read more »Solar Panels Over Highways Could Significantly Cut Emissions and Boost Road Safety
August 12th, 2024
Via Energy Daily, a report on how solar panels over highways could significantly cut emissions and boost road safety Covering highways worldwide with solar panel roofs could greatly reduce carbon emissions and improve road safety, according to new research. This study, which assessed the costs and benefits of installing solar roofs over global highways, suggests […]
Read more »How The 2024 Paris Olympics Handled The Heat — And Didn’t
August 12th, 2024
Via Grist, a look at how the summer games can’t compete with rising temperatures. Here’s what that means for the future of the Olympics: Curled up on a small, white rectangle of fabric on the grass by a park bench in Paris, Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon inadvertently took the internet by storm simply by sleeping outside. The […]
Read more »The Promise Of Paint-On Solar Cells
August 12th, 2024
Via Clean Technica, an article on the promise of paint-on solar cells: Fossil energy stakeholders have been ginning up opposition to large-scale solar farms, but they should have been watching their backs. The latest development in photovoltaic technology involves low-cost perovskite solar cells created in the form of a solution which can be applied to […]
Read more »These Cities Will Be Too Hot For the Olympics By 2050
August 12th, 2024
Via CNN, an article on cities that will be too hot for the Olympics by 2050: The Paris Olympics opened with rain on its parade, then blistering heat and, finally, a week of pleasant sunshine. As it comes to a close on Sunday, temperatures are expected to again soar up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, or […]
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.