Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?
April 8th, 2024
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at one of the most widely explored technologies to help mitigate climate change – carbon capture: On a windswept Icelandic plateau, an international team of engineers and executives is powering up an innovative machine designed to alter the very composition of Earth’s atmosphere. If all goes as […]
Read more »The $2 Billion Plan to Electrify American Homes
April 5th, 2024
Via Heatmap, an article on the $2B plan to electrify U.S. homes: Getting fossil fuels out of your home is really hard. You have to find a contractor, ideally one who supports electrification and doesn’t ask why you won’t just stick with natural gas. You have to coordinate between multiple trades — electricians, plumbers, HVAC […]
Read more »Schools Close and Crops Wither as ‘Historic’ Heatwave Hits Southeast Asia
April 5th, 2024
Via The Guardian, a report on the southeast Asia’s historic heatwave what has left governments across region grappling for response as temperatures soar to unseasonable highs: Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so […]
Read more »One California City Trading An Old Gas Plant For Giant Grid Battery
April 4th, 2024
Via Canary Media, a report on one California city’s efforts to trade an old gas plant for a giant grid battery: For a decade, twin smokestacks loomed against the bright blue skies of Menifee, in Southern California’s Inland Empire. But the old gas combustion plant came down, and on the flat industrial site it left behind […]
Read more »Wall-Mounted Solar: A Rising Trend or Barely Hanging On?
April 3rd, 2024
Via Solar Power World Online, an interesting look at wall-mounted solar: Urban Health Plan’s Simpson Pavilion. Photo courtesy of Quixotic Systems. Installing solar on the side of a building is rarely the first choice for solar developers, but sometimes the customer prefers a wall-mounted array. In one instance that caught our eyes, New York installer […]
Read more »Emission Impossible: One Couple’s Quest To Ditch Natural Gas
March 31st, 2024
Via Grist, a look at what happened when two journalists decided to decarbonize their home: My wife and I live in a green, two-story colonial at the end of a cul-de-sac in Burlington, Vermont. Each spring, the front of our home is lined with lilacs, crocuses, and peonies. The backyard is thick with towering black […]
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.