How to Cool Buildings with Paint
September 9th, 2026
Courtesy of The Economist, a report on new paints which promise to get rid of heat without using energy London buses have a cool secret. Viewed from above, they are often white, not red. This heat-reduction measure, which began in 2004 with the intention of making journeys more comfortable for passengers—particularly on the top deck—was […]
Read more »Three Bets in a 1.5°C+ World
September 5th, 2026
Via Todd Cort’s Real Price of Risk, an interesting forecast of which parts of the global economy will bear the cost of rising temperatures and which parts will capture value from managing it: On September 2, 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme published a report titled “Limiting Overshoot: Navigating Exceedance of 1.5°C and Pathways Towards […]
Read more »Comeback Cities: Part of Future Proofing
September 5th, 2026
Via Chris Taylor’s Futureproofing Us, an interesting look at how a a dead river comes back, how a highway can be unbuilt without exiling the neighborhood beneath it, and how an old city can become new without ceasing to be itself: By the 1960s, the lower river was an open sewer: no oxygen, no fish, […]
Read more »Urban Heat’s Overlooked Fix: Greening the Land Upwind of Cities
September 1st, 2026
Via Anthropocene Magazine, a look at a recent study published in Nature Cities which suggests that forests placed strategically outside urban cores can lower temperatures across much of a city: Strategically placed greenbelts in the suburbs could cool some of the world’s biggest cities by almost half a degree across at least half their area, […]
Read more »Excessive Air Conditioning Use May Cause Cities to Heat Up — and Passive Cooling Techniques Could Be the Future
August 20th, 2026
Via Discover, a report on new research that reveals how passive cooling techniques are going to be increasingly important to reduce energy use and cool urban areas. Learn more about them. In a burning hot city in the middle of the summer, when you can practically see the heat rising off the asphalt roads, an […]
Read more »The Anti-Flood City Is Finally Taking Shape
August 14th, 2026
Via Curbed, a look at how – from concrete walls to hilly landscapes – New York can see its early defenses against future catastrophe: One evening a few months ago, during the kind of brief but explosive rainstorm that has become almost routine, a woman in a fuchsia yoga outfit stepped off a bus on […]
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.