No City Is an Island: Urban Water Security, Infrastructure, and Resilience
June 5th, 2024
Cities are thirsty places: by their very nature, ctheyconcentrate the water needs of large populations into small areas. Yet increasing water needs and escalating environmental pressures are imposing mounting strains on urban water systems and infrastructure. Since the start of the 21st century, more than 80 large metropolitan areas around the globe have already experienced […]
Read more »Your Building’s HVAC Is Slowly Killing Us
June 2nd, 2024
Via Medium, a look at how urban buildings could be polluting our cities just as much as traffic: Oh, summertime! Longer days, dining in patios, weekends by the pool, and… wait! A sore throat?! Again? Damnit, I have to work from the office today, and I missed my jacket at home. My knuckles are freezing, […]
Read more »Hot Idea: Meet The Swedish Firm Trying To Shake Up Heat Pumps
May 27th, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at one company’s view on a big opportunity with an old technology: Heat pumps, a type of reverse-refrigerator used for warming homes, are not the type of tech that gets most investors hot and bothered. They were, after all, invented in 1856. Harald Mix and Carl-Erik Lagercrantz, two Swedish financiers, […]
Read more »Are Floating Cities the Solution to Rising Seas?
May 18th, 2024
Via The New York Times, a look at whether living on the water our future? Floating developments, including a project in progress in South Korea, suggest that it’s more than a pipe dream. Worldwide, rising sea levels and increasing urbanization represent a formula for disaster, with more and more people seeking to live on land […]
Read more »Tokyo: Leader In Urban Sustainability
May 18th, 2024
Courtesy of Illuminem, a look at Tokyo’s leadership in urban sustainability initiatives: Cities are increasingly expected to bear the onus of global sustainable development objectives. After all, 75% of global emissions and about 50% of global waste derive from cities. 56% of the world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 almost 70% of the world will live in cities. In this context, […]
Read more »These Electric School Buses Are on Their Way to Save the Grid
May 17th, 2024
Via Wired, a report on a new kind of magic school bus—one that can both charge and give power back: The big yellow school bus is a US icon, but perhaps not one that future Americans will remember fondly. Chugging through neighborhoods, idling in front of kids’ houses, the vehicles spew both noise and fossil-fuel […]
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.