Will Global Warming Turn L.A. Into San Bernardino? Map Models Climate Change In 60 Years
August 13th, 2024
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, a look at how climate change may impact California cities in the next 60 years: Imagine it’s a Saturday morning in Santa Monica in the year 2080. You brew your coffee, open your front door and breathe in the hot, dry air of … San Bernardino? That’s the potential […]
Read more »How The 2024 Paris Olympics Handled The Heat — And Didn’t
August 12th, 2024
Via Grist, a look at how the summer games can’t compete with rising temperatures. Here’s what that means for the future of the Olympics: Curled up on a small, white rectangle of fabric on the grass by a park bench in Paris, Italian swimmer Thomas Ceccon inadvertently took the internet by storm simply by sleeping outside. The […]
Read more »These Cities Will Be Too Hot For the Olympics By 2050
August 12th, 2024
Via CNN, an article on cities that will be too hot for the Olympics by 2050: The Paris Olympics opened with rain on its parade, then blistering heat and, finally, a week of pleasant sunshine. As it comes to a close on Sunday, temperatures are expected to again soar up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, or […]
Read more »Trees Are Not Enough: Shade Will Make or Break American Cities
August 7th, 2024
Via The Atlantic, a look at innovative solutions for urban shade: On a 92-degree Saturday afternoon in Portland, Oregon, I went looking for shade in Cully Park, which was built on top of an old landfill and opened in 2018. The city included plenty of trees in the design—I mean, this is Oregon. But those […]
Read more »Your Future Air Conditioner Might Act Like A Battery
August 6th, 2024
Courtesy of MIT Technology Review, a report on new technologies that store cooling power for when it’s needed most: As temperatures climb on hot days, many of us are quick to crank up our fans or air conditioners. These cooling systems can be a major stress on electrical grids, which has inspired some inventors to […]
Read more »Can Chief Heat Officers Protect U.S. Cities From Extreme Heat?
August 6th, 2024
Courtesy of Grist, a report on chief heat officers: appointed officials who have the life-saving solutions the public needs to stay safe from rising temperatures. But they don’t have political power. Summertime heat in the United States has always put human health at risk. But the past few years have marked a departure from the […]
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.