After a Decade of Planning, New York City Is Raising Its Shoreline
December 29th, 2023
Courtesy of Yale e360, a look at how – inspired by the Dutch model of living with water – New York’s coastal defenses are on the rise via a combination of infrastructure like floodwalls with nature-based features, as it moves ahead with the largest resiliency project in the US: On a recent morning in Asser […]
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 »‘Green Roads’ Are Plowing Ahead, Buffering Drought and Floods
December 20th, 2023
Via Yale e360, a look at the ‘green road’ movement, in which – using embankments, channels, and dikes – road infrastructure can help control floods, harvest excess water for use in irrigation, and slash maintenance costs: Makueni County, a corner of southern Kenya that’s home to nearly a million people, is a land of extremes. […]
Read more »Burning Up: Is Your City Heatproof?
December 19th, 2023
Via The Economist, a report on the extreme heat risk facing America’s cities: The monsoon is late again. Without the almost biblical rains, there is nothing to break the heat during a long stretch of days above 43°C (109°F). The pavement is scalding. Hospital wards are filling with burn victims. Even the cacti seem crispy. Many […]
Read more »UN Chief Heat Officer on Living Amid Fires and How To Cool Cities
December 18th, 2023
Via The Guardian, commentary by Eleni Myrivili, whose job is to help cities prepare for extreme heat, says many people do not understand how deadly it can be: It is “shocking” how little people know about the danger of hot weather, the United Nations global chief heat officer has said, as high temperatures bake cities across 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.