Where Will All the Electric Cars Be Charged?
January 9th, 2024
Via BBC, a look at where all the electric cars will be charged: If electric cars are ever to become mainstream, then we are going to need a lot more places to charge them. The key is to find space for chargers where people would actually use them. Curbside is the obvious spot, but there […]
Read more »Extreme Heat is Pushing India To The Brink of ‘Survivability’
January 8th, 2024
Via CNN, a look at how extreme heat is pushing India to the brink of ‘survivability’, but one obvious solution is also a big part of the problem: When blistering extreme heat gripped India’s capital this summer, Ramesh says he felt faint but had no option other than to keep on toiling under the burning […]
Read more »Critical Infrastructure Is Sinking Along the US East Coast
January 5th, 2024
Courtesy of Wired, a look at how – up and down the Atlantic Coast – the land is steadily sinking, or subsiding. That’s destabilizing levees, roads, and airports, just as sea levels are rising. Unless you’re sinking into quicksand, you might assume that the land beneath your feet is solid and unmoving. In actual fact, […]
Read more »How Electricity Could Help Tackle a Surprising Climate Villain: Cement
January 5th, 2024
Via MIT Technology Review, a look at how Sublime Systems is trying to drive down the carbon footprint of cement production: Cement hides in plain sight—it’s used to build everything from roads and buildings to dams and basement floors. But there’s a climate threat lurking in those ubiquitous gray slabs. Cement production accounts for more than […]
Read more »The Architect Making Friends With Flooding
January 2nd, 2024
Via MIT’s Technology Review, a report on one Chinese landscape designer who has pioneered a new approach—working with water instead of trying to bend it to our will: For years, Beijing landscape architect Yu Kongjian was ridiculed by his fellow citizens as a backward thinker. Some even called him an American spy—a nod to his […]
Read more »Embracing a Wetter Future, the Dutch Turn to Floating Homes
December 29th, 2023
Via Yale e360, an article on how – faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing – the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes: When a heavy storm hit in October, residents of the floating community of Schoonschip in Amsterdam had little doubt they could ride it out. They tied up their […]
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.