Paris Wanted an AC-Free Olympics. Visiting Nations Had Other Plans.
June 6th, 2024
Via The Washington Post, an article on Paris’s sustainable geothermal cooling system: For all the steps Paris organizers have taken to put on the greenest Olympics ever, their boldest measure — the one they’ve touted again and again — pertains to the dorms in the Athletes’ Village. The rooms don’t have air-conditioning. Because of other cooling measures, […]
Read more »No City Is an Island: Urban Water Security, Infrastructure, and Resilience
June 5th, 2024
Cities are thirsty places: by their very nature, ctheyconcentrate the water needs of large populations into small areas. Yet increasing water needs and escalating environmental pressures are imposing mounting strains on urban water systems and infrastructure. Since the start of the 21st century, more than 80 large metropolitan areas around the globe have already experienced […]
Read more »Chief Heat Officers Are Developing a Global Playbook for Deadly Temperatures
June 5th, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a report on how Chief Heat Officers in five (5) cities worldwide are developing solutions to keep people cool: Cities are on the frontlines of unrelenting high temperatures that are shattering records in 2024. In recent months, heat waves have forced school closures from Delhi to Manila. In Thailand, more people have already died from heat this year than […]
Read more »How a Heat Wave Could Become a Catastrophe
June 3rd, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, commentary on how a heat wave could become a catastrophe: On a recent Thursday evening, a freakish windstorm called a derecho (Spanish for “straight ahead”) hit Houston, a city of more than two million people that also happens to be the epicenter of the fossil fuel industry in America. […]
Read more »The Electric Vehicle of Cement Making
June 3rd, 2024
Via The Cool Down, an article on one company’s major strides with game-changing low-carbon cement: ‘the electric vehicle of cement making’ Construction is a dirty business, but some companies are working to help clean up its act. One such company is Sublime Systems, which recently announced, along with WS Development, the first commercial application of low-carbon Sublime Cement in One Boston Wharf […]
Read more »Your Building’s HVAC Is Slowly Killing Us
June 2nd, 2024
Via Medium, a look at how urban buildings could be polluting our cities just as much as traffic: Oh, summertime! Longer days, dining in patios, weekends by the pool, and… wait! A sore throat?! Again? Damnit, I have to work from the office today, and I missed my jacket at home. My knuckles are freezing, […]
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.