Cool It On City Playgrounds: Swings and Slides Get Hot Enough to Burn
August 14th, 2023
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a report on the impact of urban heat on playgrounds and some green solutions to help cool things down: In a child’s imagination, a climbing frame can become a pirate ship or a princess’s castle. But during this summer’s heat waves, the Sahara desert and the surface of Venus might […]
Read more »We’re Building Harder, Hotter Cities: It’s Vital To Protect and Grow Urban Green Spaces
August 14th, 2023
Via The Conversation, commentary on the urgent need to protect and expand urban green spaces: Recent extreme weather events have provided a foretaste of how supercharged storms might threaten our future. So the release today of a new report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) is very good timing. Titled “Are we building harder, hotter […]
Read more »What Cities Can Teach Countries About Tackling Climate Change
August 14th, 2023
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a look at how urban areas have made more progress than national governments on climate change—and offer a compelling political roadmap: Unprecedented heatwaves, storms, and torrential rains have afflicted the southern United States, much of Europe, and parts of Asia—from the Himalayas to South Korea—in recent months, threatening human health and […]
Read more »Creating ‘Sponge Cities’ Needn’t Cost Billions
August 14th, 2023
Via The Conversation, an article on the urgent need for sponge cities in New Zealand: Tune into news from about any part of the planet, and there will likely be a headline about extreme weather. While these stories will be specific to the location, they all tend to include the amplifying effects of climate change. […]
Read more »America’s Hottest City Is Nearly Unlivable in Summer. Can Cooling Technologies Save It?
August 13th, 2023
Via The Guardian, a look at how Phoenix’s new ‘heat tsar’ is betting on less asphalt, more green canopy and reflective surfaces to cool the sprawling heat island: A surge in heat-related deaths amid record-breaking summer temperatures offers a “glimpse into the future” and a stark warning that one of America’s largest cities is already […]
Read more »RainReady: Helping Communities Find Solutions to The Problem of Urban Flooding
August 12th, 2023
The RainReady program in Chicago aims to enlist residents in creating green infrastructure like permeable pavement and rain gardens that can reduce flooding in hard-hit neighborhoods, including by revamping vacant lots. The RainReady program has two facets that are inadequate in many other local-level flood mitigation efforts: community leadership and serious funding.
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.