The Climate Solution Beneath Your Feet
March 21st, 2024
Via MIT Technology Review, a look at how building materials can have outsize climate impacts, and cleaning them up will require major innovation: I’ve come across some pretty wild technologies aimed at fighting climate change. Hydrogen-powered planes, underwater mining robots, and nuclear fusion reactors—each could play a role in cutting down on greenhouse-gas emissions. But there are […]
Read more »Concrete That Can Sequester Carbon
March 21st, 2024
Concrete is responsible for more than four percent of all global CO2 emissions. Via Wired, a look at the race to find alternatives, including some companies which are using it to sequester CO2 instead: CONCRETE: UPON THIS rock-like composite we have built our church – and our houses, roads, bridges, skyscrapers, and factories. As a species […]
Read more »Heat Pumps That Fit In Apartment Windows Promise Big Emissions Cuts
March 19th, 2024
Via AP News, a look at how heat pumps that fit in apartment windows promise big emissions cuts: For 27 years, the heat in Regina Fred’s Queens apartment building came from a noisy steam radiator that she couldn’t control and sometimes didn’t come on at all, leaving her shivering. Sometimes, the radiators ran so hot that […]
Read more »How One New Jersey Beach City Went From ‘Worst to First’ In Reducing Flood Risk
March 17th, 2024
Via Smart Cities Dive, a look at Sea Isle City’s success in reducing flood risk and building resilience: Sea Isle City, New Jersey, had a dismal flood management reputation for a long time — one so bad that the beach community almost got booted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Flood Insurance Program in the […]
Read more »The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Cities Into Sponges
March 15th, 2024
Via Wired, an article on Kongjian Yu who pioneered China’s “sponge city” concept—less concrete and more green spaces to exploit stormwater instead of fighting it. Metropolises all over the world are following suit: Your city isn’t prepared for what’s coming. The classical method for dealing with stormwater is to get it out of town as […]
Read more »Treebates: Planting A Tree Just Got $100 Cheaper for Some California Property Owners
March 13th, 2024
Via Smart Cities Dive, a look at a unique Southern California program that encourages planting trees in the place of turf lawns: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is encouraging residents and businesses to plant “California-Friendly” and native trees on their property through a rebate announced March 5. The cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies […]
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.