How An 8-Acre Green Roof Is Boosting New York City’s Biodiversity and Resilience
November 6th, 2023
Via GreenRoofs.com, a look at how an 8-acre Green Roof Atop the Javits Center is Boosting NYC’s biodiversity and resilience: Photo: Jacob Javits Convention Center. Rosemary Misdary of Gothamist writes: It’s migratory bird season, and ecologists are cataloging the large number of birds that stop and refuel in New York during journeys that can reach up […]
Read more »A Climate Change Success Story? Look at Hoboken.
November 5th, 2023
Via The New York Times, a look at how this flood-prone city on the Hudson River has bundled water-absorbing infrastructure into benefits residents asked for, like parks and safer streets: The city of Hoboken, N.J., once a marshy outcropping that the Lenape inhabited only seasonally, hugs the Hudson River. Three-quarters of it occupies a flood […]
Read more »How Heat Pumps of the 1800s are Becoming the Technology of the Future
November 4th, 2023
Via Knowable Magazine, a look at how heat pumps of the 1800s are becoming the technology of the future: It was an engineering problem that had bugged Zhibin Yu for years — but now he had the perfect chance to fix it. Stuck at home during the first UK lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, the thermal […]
Read more »Green Construction Practices Could Unlock $1.5T Opportunity
November 3rd, 2023
Via Business Green, a look at how major emissions cuts and investment opportunities could arise from shifting to greener materials and processes in construction and buildings, according to the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation: Switching to greener technologies in the construction and operation of buildings, combined with more climate-friendly capital markets, could reduce emissions from […]
Read more »The Key to a Net-Zero Future is Lower Carbon Buildings Today
November 3rd, 2023
Via Green Money, a report on need to create greener buildings: You might be surprised to learn that the buildings where we live, work, and play are some of the biggest sources of carbon emissions. Worldwide, the built environment generates roughly 42 percent of annual C02 emissions, with building operations accounting for 27 percent of […]
Read more »Can ACs Cool the World Without Warming it?
November 1st, 2023
Courtesy of Grist, a look at if/how ACs can cool the world without warming it: A warm breeze brushes your arms as you sit lazily on the balcony. You wave to your elderly neighbor, Roy, across the way. He’s always yelling at you to “close the door; you’re wasting energy” — no matter your patient […]
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.