What Will It Take to Save Our Cities from a Scorching Future?
March 1st, 2024
Via Yale e360, an interview with Eleni Myrivili, the UN’s first-ever global chief heat officer based on her record as a city official in Athens, discussing why extreme heat is a health crisis and what cities must do to protect the most vulnerable from rising temperatures: In 2022, a year in which 70,000 Europeans died […]
Read more »South African City Copes With Climate Change by Chopping Down Trees
March 1st, 2024
Courtesy of The Washington Post, an interesting look at one city’s controversial approach to urban greenery as it responds to climate change: Climate change is already taking a severe toll on Cape Town, contributing to worsening droughts that threaten to leave the city’s taps dry. In response, conservationists here are frantically chopping down trees — […]
Read more »Singapore’s System To Collect Rainwater, Treat Sewage, and Desalinate Seawater
March 1st, 2024
Via Fast Company, a look at Singapore’s cutting-edge system that collects rainwater, treats sewage, and desalinates seawater: A crack of thunder booms as dozens of screens in a locked office flash between live video of cars splashing through wet roads, drains sapping the streets dry, and reservoirs collecting the precious rainwater across the tropical island […]
Read more »The Cities Stripping Out Concrete For Earth and Plants
February 28th, 2024
Courtesy of BBC, a report on how cities are replacing built infrastructure with natural solutions: From Australia to Ontario, cities are taking up unnecessary stretches of concrete and asphalt, allowing nature to take hold in their place. On a hot July day, Katherine Rose picked up a sturdy metal pole and jammed it under the […]
Read more »The Colorado Community Already Living In An All-Electric Future
February 28th, 2024
Via Canary Media, a report on Colorado’s Geos net-zero community, offering a glimpse into what a decarbonized neighborhood can look like: (Alison F. Takemura/Canary Media) On a gray Saturday, I pull up to the curb of the Geos neighborhood during a snowstorm. Through the fat falling flakes, I can just make out the multicolored buildings that look modern, attractive […]
Read more »Cities Using Nature To Cut Urban Temperatures
February 27th, 2024
Via World Economic Forum, a look at how cities are using nature to cut urban temperatures – by 2°C in one case: Cities around the world are turning to natural solutions to try and reduce temperatures. This includes Medellín in Colombia, which has cut temperatures by 2°C by developing a network of green corridors. 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.