In Miami, It’s No Coincidence Marginalized Neighborhoods Are Hotter
September 18th, 2023
Via Inside Climate News, a report on new research that suggests the problem traces to a historical federal program that was turned against those who needed it most, through a practice known as redlining. On another hot September day here, Bereatha Howard sat sipping water in the dappled shade of a leafy tree. The high […]
Read more »Outfitting School Buildings For Extreme Heat ‘Not That Hard,’ Says Expert
September 14th, 2023
Via Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, commentary on the need to retrofit schools for extreme heat: Near-triple-digit temperatures during the first week of the new school year led some districts in the U.S. to ether close or dismiss students early. According to healthy buildings expert Joseph Allen, the extreme heat was “entirely predictable”—and fixing the […]
Read more »Paris Aims To Expand Urban Cooling System That Uses Seine River Water
September 6th, 2023
Via Reuters, a report on Paris’ growing use of river water for urban cooling: The city of Paris plans to expand an urban cooling system that draws on water from the Seine river as it seeks to meet rising demand for air conditioning while curbing carbon emissions, its secretary general Raphaelle Nayral said. Europe’s largest […]
Read more »Cooling the Heat: Can India Lead the World in Green Cooling Innovation
September 5th, 2023
Via the World Bank, commentary on India’s potential to help develop innovations to adapt to extreme heat: In recent months, India has broken several temperature records, recording its hottest February in 120 years. Heatwaves have devastating impacts on the health, economy, and environment of the nation, causing deaths, illnesses, crop failures, power outages, and water […]
Read more »New Air-Conditioning Technology Could Be the Future of Cool
September 4th, 2023
Via Scientific American, an article on new air conditioning technology that aims to reduce cooling’s impact to global warming: This past July was the hottest recorded month in human history. Heat waves smashed temperature records worldwide and even brought summer temperatures to Chile and Argentina during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. It’s more than just a matter of sweaty […]
Read more »One of the World’s First Insurance Schemes for Extreme Heat
August 25th, 2023
Via The Print, a report on one of the world’s first insurance schemes for extreme heat in which poor workers in Gujarat can receive payouts when temperatures add up to between 134C and 138C over three days, assessed using satellite data. The policy can pay out multiple times, to a maximum of $85. A bright […]
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.