Opinion: World’s Cities Are Not Ready For Climate Change
January 18th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on the urgent need for urban areas to rapidly become more resilient to rising temperatures: Think of climate change, and the mind instantly tends to go to melting ice caps, arid plains, forest fires and sinking tropical islands. But the impact of rising temperatures will not only be felt […]
Read more »Energy Impact of Urban Heat Mitigation Technologies
January 16th, 2024
Courtesy of Nature, a new journal article on the energy impact of urban heat mitigation technologies: Abstract Advanced urban heat mitigation technologies that involve the use of super-cool materials combined with properly designed green infrastructure lower urban ambient and land surface temperatures and reduce cooling consumption at the city scale. Here we present the results […]
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 »Air Conditioning Could Contribute To Making 2024 The Hottest On Recor
January 5th, 2024
Via 360Info, a report on how – as the world reels from the hottest year on record – the weather outlook for the future looks grim, with extreme heat set to be unavoidable unless we act now: This year, 2023, has been the hottest on record, marked by heatwaves across North America, China and Europe. It is likely […]
Read more »Historic Cooling Techniques
December 29th, 2023
Via The Washington Post, a report on historic cooling techniques used around the world: From the mosque in this dusty desert village, you can see the wide terraces and austere columns of one of Egypt’s premier tourist destinations, the Temple of Hatshepsut, baking far in the distance. It’s late August, and by noon the temperature […]
Read more »Ultra-white Ceramic Tiles Can Cool Buildings Without Electricity
December 29th, 2023
Via Croucher, a look at how ultra-white ceramic tiles can cool buildings without electricity: By combining high reflectivity with radiative cooling, a new ceramic material can reduce the need for air conditioning in buildings. With increasing global temperatures, more and more energy is being used to cool buildings with air conditioning (AC). This has led […]
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.