Jakarta: Striving To Avoid Becoming Next Atlantis
January 26th, 2024
Via Onewater, an article on Jakarta’s efforts to adapt to increasing subsidence Jakarta — the fastest-sinking city in the world — has finally taken action on its core land subsidence problem when groundwater free zones for highrise buildings will start to be established in August this year. If the government accelerates the provision of piped- water to all residents […]
Read more »Hot Sun, Cool Paths
January 26th, 2024
Via Australia’s The Age, a look at Australian efforts to tackle extreme heat: If you look closely when you hop off the tram at the Australian Open, you’ll notice the platform is painted light grey. It’s a surface coating called CoolSeal, a product designed to reduce ambient temperatures by reflecting the sun to produce cooler […]
Read more »Making Cities More Like Forests
January 16th, 2024
Via The New Yorker, commentary from a leading proponent of vertical farming discusses how urban areas should adapt to a perilous environmental future: In 2000, Dickson D. Despommier, then a professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University, was teaching a class on medical ecology in which he asked his students, “What will the […]
Read more »Energy Impact of Urban Heat Mitigation Technologies
January 16th, 2024
Courtesy of Nature, a new journal article on the energy impact of urban heat mitigation technologies: Abstract Advanced urban heat mitigation technologies that involve the use of super-cool materials combined with properly designed green infrastructure lower urban ambient and land surface temperatures and reduce cooling consumption at the city scale. Here we present the results […]
Read more »The Neglected Clean Heat We Flush Down the Drains
January 16th, 2024
Courtesy of BBC, a look at how the heat trapped in the sewerage system could be easily contained and harnessed for heating buildings cleanly – and it needn’t smell: In this part of Vancouver, innovative technology is harnessing heat from wastewater and using it as a renewable energy source to heat homes. When the occasional snowfall dusts […]
Read more »The White House Just Announced a $623 Million EV-Charging Bonanza
January 11th, 2024
Via Wired, an article on the White House announcement of grants totaling $623 million to build electric vehicle charging stations across the U.S.: As the number of electric vehicles on American roads grows, so too does the affliction of range anxiety. Drivers of conventional cars enjoy the support of a massive, well-established network of fuel […]
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.