‘Green Roads’ Are Plowing Ahead, Buffering Drought and Floods
December 20th, 2023
Via Yale e360, a look at the ‘green road’ movement, in which – using embankments, channels, and dikes – road infrastructure can help control floods, harvest excess water for use in irrigation, and slash maintenance costs: Makueni County, a corner of southern Kenya that’s home to nearly a million people, is a land of extremes. […]
Read more »Burning Up: Is Your City Heatproof?
December 19th, 2023
Via The Economist, a report on the extreme heat risk facing America’s cities: The monsoon is late again. Without the almost biblical rains, there is nothing to break the heat during a long stretch of days above 43°C (109°F). The pavement is scalding. Hospital wards are filling with burn victims. Even the cacti seem crispy. Many […]
Read more »From Dhaka to Melbourne, Asia-Pacific Eyes local Climate Solutions
December 16th, 2023
Via Nikkei Asia, a look at how mayors of Asian cities are looking towards local climate solutions to deal with rising temperatures and climate change: Climate change is always close to the mind of Mohammad Atiqul Islam, a local mayor in Bangladesh’s chaotic capital Dhaka. The politician sees thousands flock daily to his city to […]
Read more »Phoenix, Southern California Bet on Purified Sewage to Meet Drinking Water Needs
December 15th, 2023
Via the Water Education Foundation, an article on how Colorado River shortages are driving major advances in recycled sewage water use in the western U.S.: After more than two decades of drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking water long considered a supply […]
Read more »Cities Look To Small-Scale Treatment and Wastewater Recycling To Provide Water In A Warming World
December 15th, 2023
Via The Conversation, a look at how some cities are working to provide reliable water in a warming world via small-scale treatment systems and wastewater recycling: A lot can go wrong in a large urban water system. Pumps malfunction. Valves break. Pipes leak. Even when the system is functioning properly, water can sit in pipes […]
Read more »Rain Gardens On The Rise In Cities…For Good Reason
December 11th, 2023
Via The Washington Post, a report on cities’ growing use of green infrastructure: When a heavy rainstorm hits D.C., it’s bad news for the city’s rivers. The city’s sewer system, which combines storm runoff and raw sewage in some areas, has a history of overflowing. Instead of flowing into a treatment plant, that toxic mix, along […]
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.