Cities Look To Small-Scale Treatment and Wastewater Recycling To Provide Water In A Warming World
December 15th, 2023
Via The Conversation, a look at how some cities are working to provide reliable water in a warming world via small-scale treatment systems and wastewater recycling: A lot can go wrong in a large urban water system. Pumps malfunction. Valves break. Pipes leak. Even when the system is functioning properly, water can sit in pipes […]
Read more »The World’s Fastest-Sinking Megacity Has One Last Chance to Save Itself
December 11th, 2023
Courtesy of Bloomberg, a look at how parts of Jakarta are subsiding at unprecedented speed. The longshot fix rests with noodle billionaire Anthoni Salim: Venice is sinking. So are Rotterdam, Bangkok and New York. But no place compares to Jakarta, the fastest-sinking megacity on the planet. Over the past 25 years, the hardest-hit areas of […]
Read more »Rain Gardens On The Rise In Cities…For Good Reason
December 11th, 2023
Via The Washington Post, a report on cities’ growing use of green infrastructure: When a heavy rainstorm hits D.C., it’s bad news for the city’s rivers. The city’s sewer system, which combines storm runoff and raw sewage in some areas, has a history of overflowing. Instead of flowing into a treatment plant, that toxic mix, along […]
Read more »3 Cities: To Build or Not To Build In Risky Places
December 10th, 2023
Via NPR, an article on 3 cities facing a climate dilemma: to build or not to build homes in risky places. With climate-fueled disasters killing hundreds of Americans annually and costing communities billions of dollars, a growing number of local governments are asking a basic question: Are there some places where people shouldn’t build homes? […]
Read more »How Can Buildings Beat the Heat in a Desert City? Blend Ancient and Modern.
December 10th, 2023
Via the New York Times, a report on how more architects in the United Arab Emirates, the host of this year’s U.N. climate summit, are moving past glass skyscrapers and focusing on sustainability: Dubai is full of futuristic, glazed skyscrapers. That’s problematic, from a sustainability perspective, in a city where temperatures regularly climb past 100 […]
Read more »‘A Matter of Survival’: India’s Unstoppable Need for Air Conditioners
December 10th, 2023
Courtesy of The Guardian, an article on India’s growing need for air conditioners: For Muskan, the arrival of summer in Delhi is the “beginning of hell”. As temperatures in her cramped, densely populated east Delhi neighbourhood often soar above 45C (113F), she dreams of only one thing: air conditioning. During the day, in the tiny, […]
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.