The Hidden Threat From Rising Coastal Groundwater
February 11th, 2024
Via Maven’s Notebook, a report on the threat that sea level rise won’t hit just homes on shorefronts, but also the infrastructure beneath our feet: When people think about sea level rise, many picture scenarios like flooded coastlines in Florida or Bangladesh, and beachfront homes succumbing to erosion on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. […]
Read more »Is This The Most Energy-Efficient Way To Build Homes?
February 11th, 2024
Via MIT Technology Review, a report on how passive homes – airtight and super-insulated – use around 90% less energy: When the Canadian engineer Harold Orr and his colleagues began designing an ultra-efficient home in Saskatchewan in the late ’70s, responding to a provincial conservation mandate during the oil embargo, they knew that the trick […]
Read more »Boston’s First Networked Geothermal Project Will Electrify 7 Public Buildings
February 10th, 2024
Via Smart Cities Dive, a report on how geothermal systems are a promising approach to transitioning communities off fossil fuels for heating and cooling: Dive Brief: Boston will electrify seven federal public housing buildings with the city’s first networked geothermal pilot project, Mayor Michelle Wu announced on Jan. 25. Networked geothermal uses underground pipes to heat and cool buildings in […]
Read more »Investing at the Intersection of Affordable Housing and Climate Resilience
February 9th, 2024
Courtesy of Impact Alpha, an article on the potential of investing at the intersection of affordable housing and climate resilience: The cost of addressing the challenges facing humanity today dwarfs the amount of money the world is putting into them. Climate change, accelerating global wealth gaps, and the threats of more frequent global health crises […]
Read more »Los Angeles Is Probably Too Good at Preventing Big Floods
February 9th, 2024
Via HeatMap, a look at how recent torrential rains in California may not do a lot for the state’s water security given existing flood control infrastructure built years ago: For the past few days, Southern Californians have found themselves living with a kind of weather one doesn’t typically associate with the region: rain. Days of […]
Read more »California’s Uninsurable Future?
February 9th, 2024
Courtesy of Impact Alpha, an interview with California’s climate-risk pioneer Dave Jones on the state’s march ‘toward an uninsurable future’: Dave Jones was California’s state insurance commissioner eight years ago when the then-novel idea of fossil fuel “stranded assets” caught his attention. The research from a group called Carbon Tracker made Jones concerned that the insurers […]
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.