Climate Change Can Cause Bridges to ‘Fall Apart Like Tinkertoys,’ Experts Say
September 5th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at how extreme heat and flooding are accelerating the deterioration of bridges, engineers say, posing a quiet but growing threat: On a 95-degree day this summer, New York City’s Third Avenue Bridge, connecting the Bronx and Manhattan, got stuck in the open position for hours. As heat […]
Read more »Cold Reality: New Technology Can Make Air Conditioning Less Harmful To The Planet
September 5th, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at innovations in cooling technology that can help reduce the negative impact A/C has on the environment: In many parts of the world, the cool blast of an air-conditioner on a hot day is nowadays seen as a luxury rather than a necessity. Climate change is tipping the balance. Average global […]
Read more »The World’s Fastest Sinking Coastal Cities
September 4th, 2024
Via Planet Anomaly, a graphical look at the world’s coastal cities facing a silent crisis—land subsidence that outpaces sea-level rise. A staggering 44 out of the 48 largest coastal cities are sinking at a rate faster than the oceans are rising. The cities that are sinking the quickest: 1?? Tianjin, China: Peak sinking at 43 mm/year 2?? Ho […]
Read more »Lagos Turns To Waterways For Green Transport Solution
September 2nd, 2024
Via Terra Daily, a look at Lagos’s use of waterways as a green transport solution: Nigerian saleswoman Ivy Junaid says her daily half-an-hour commute from mainland Lagos to the city’s island business district has changed her life.What was once often a three-hour nightmare drive to work with a pre-dawn start and gnarly traffic has become […]
Read more »Rising Waters, Floating Hot Dog Stands: How Urban Climate-Adaptation May Unfold
September 2nd, 2024
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a graphical look at how cities of the future can withstand a warming planet: How can cities of the future withstand a warming planet? Kristina Hill, an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the head of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, works with California […]
Read more »Silicon Valley Wants to Fight Fires With Fire
August 31st, 2024
Via the New York Times, a look at how some high-tech entrepreneurs are trying to use new forms of technology to solve the problem of mega-wildfires in the age of climate change: This is the tinder box of the Sierra Nevada. It’s early June, the temperature is 97 degrees Fahrenheit and the air shimmers over […]
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.