Climate Migration Is Already Reshaping American Cities
April 13th, 2026
Via Harvard’s Salata Institute, a look at how climate migration is already reshaping American cities: The concept of the climate haven – a place seen as safer from extreme weather – has increasingly gotten a bad rap. After a supercharged Hurricane Helene devastated large swathes of Asheville, North Carolina, in 2024, the term became an easy […]
Read more »Weather Prediction Markets Are Booming. Can They Improve Forecasts?
April 11th, 2026
Via Bloomberg, a look at how – from Kalshi and Polymarket to niche scientific platforms – traders are predicting the weather — and climate experts are debating the results: A few days before Christmas, Howard Qin was scrutinizing weather forecasts on two laptops at home in Shanghai when he noticed prices of contracts for New […]
Read more »Rain Could Soon Help Power Your Home
April 11th, 2026
Via The Cool Down, a report on a new breakthrough which integrates a thin film into panels that not only protects the fragile solar cells but also captures mechanical energy from falling rain: Scientists have developed a new coating to capture the energy of rain falling on solar panels. While the impact of rain may […]
Read more »Tennis Courts Serve Up An Unexpected Climate Solution
April 1st, 2026
Via Anthropocene Magazine, a look at how researchers have found that green clay tennis courts are able to absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide via enhanced rock weathering: It’s probably not what most tennis players are thinking about as they focus on the ball whizzing over the net towards them, but the court they are […]
Read more »How to Get Big Tech to Pay Your Energy Bills
March 24th, 2026
Via The Washington Post, a look at how the most overlooked U.S. power plant isn’t a gas turbine or solar farm. It’s your house (and thousands of others), and firms are paying to use them to power data centers: The tech industry needs massive amounts of electricity. The most overlooked power plant in the United […]
Read more »Urban Forestry: Climate Infrastructure Hiding In Plain Sight
March 5th, 2026
Via Harvard’s Salata Institute, a report on how Boston and Cambridge treat trees as a public system, not decoration. Three contributors to these cities’ urban forest plans explain how heat and historic disinvestment are guiding where canopy goes next – amid pressure to add housing and density. On a hot July afternoon, the most effective […]
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.