US Cities Could Be Capturing Billions of Gallons of Rain a Day
March 2nd, 2024
Via Wired, a report on how – with better infrastructure and “spongy” green spaces – U.S. urban areas have made progress but should be soaking up way more free stormwater: YOUR CITY IS a scab on the landscape: sidewalks, roads, parking lots, rooftops—the built environment repels water into sewers and then into the environment. Urban planners have been […]
Read more »What Will It Take to Save Our Cities from a Scorching Future?
March 1st, 2024
Via Yale e360, an interview with Eleni Myrivili, the UN’s first-ever global chief heat officer based on her record as a city official in Athens, discussing why extreme heat is a health crisis and what cities must do to protect the most vulnerable from rising temperatures: In 2022, a year in which 70,000 Europeans died […]
Read more »South African City Copes With Climate Change by Chopping Down Trees
March 1st, 2024
Courtesy of The Washington Post, an interesting look at one city’s controversial approach to urban greenery as it responds to climate change: Climate change is already taking a severe toll on Cape Town, contributing to worsening droughts that threaten to leave the city’s taps dry. In response, conservationists here are frantically chopping down trees — […]
Read more »Cities Using Nature To Cut Urban Temperatures
February 27th, 2024
Via World Economic Forum, a look at how cities are using nature to cut urban temperatures – by 2°C in one case: Cities around the world are turning to natural solutions to try and reduce temperatures. This includes Medellín in Colombia, which has cut temperatures by 2°C by developing a network of green corridors. The […]
Read more »We Can’t Air-Condition Our Way Out of Global Heating Problem
February 26th, 2024
Via The Hindustan Times, a look at extreme heat response and urban resilience: In 2022, the two organisations announced a collaboration and created this position to mainstream heat response and resilience-building actions in cities worldwide In 2023, atmospheric heat crossed some of its critical thresholds even as countries continued to grapple with fundamental questions about […]
Read more »Collective Adaptation: When Homes Hit 40°C Inside, It’s Better to Draw on Residents’ Local Know-How
February 26th, 2024
Via The Conversation, a look at the role of collective adaptation in taking on urban heat: Weather extremes driven by climate change hit low-income communities harder. The reasons include poor housing and lack of access to safe and comfortable public spaces. This makes “climate readiness” a pressing issue for governments, city planners and emergency services in fast-growing areas such as Western […]
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.