The Choice Between A Poorer Today and A Hotter Tomorrow
July 2nd, 2023
Via The Economist, a look at the huge amount of investment needed to help developing countries go green: Suppose for a minute, that you are a finance minister in the developing world. At the end of a year in which your tax take has disappointed, you are just about out of money. You could plough […]
Read more »Burning Question: Will Texas Become Too Hot For Humans?
July 1st, 2023
Via BBC Future, commentary on how much hotter Texas – currently in the grip of a relentless heatwave – could get in years to come: It’s 9.15 pm in San Antonio on 17 June. At this time, young children would usually be asleep and their parents enjoying a balmy summer’s evening. But not this year, […]
Read more »Powerful Hurricanes Have Reduced Coastal Cities to Wreckage. But This Community Stands Unscathed.
June 29th, 2023
Via Popular Mechanics, a look at Babcock Ranch, Florida which isn’t just storm-proof—it’s a blueprint for the future: When Hurricane Ian smashed onto Cuba’s southwest coast in the early morning hours of Tuesday, September 27, 2022, Syd Kitson exhaled. At that point the Category 3 storm was forecast to make landfall on the Florida panhandle, far from […]
Read more »The Race to Tesla-ify Heat Pumps
June 28th, 2023
Via Heat Map Daily, a look at growing importance of heat pumps: Gleaming solar panels, soaring wind turbines, sleek electric cars. These are the Avengers of the climate technoverse, the most widely recognized symbols of the fight to kick fossil fuels and halt global warming. But the lineup is incomplete. Clean electricity and transportation are […]
Read more »Boston’s Summer Heat Is An Issue of Racial Equity. ‘Greening’ The City is One Solution
June 28th, 2023
Via WBUR, a look at the negative impacts of urban heat and importance of city “greening”: Summer has officially arrived, and so has the heat. The numbers are alarming: New England has already warmed 1.83 degrees Celsius, far more than the rest of the country. And a report by the city of Boston found that Boston could have more […]
Read more »World’s Largest ‘Wood City’ To Be Built In Stockholm
June 28th, 2023
Via CNN, a report on a plan to build the world’s largest ‘wood city’ in Sweden: A rendering of Wood City shows what life in a timber-made community might look like. Courtesy Atrium Ljungberg In recent years, wooden buildings have reached new heights, with soaring timber skyscrapers completed or underway in countries like Norway, Switzerland and Australia. Singapore, meanwhile, […]
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.