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 »Cooling the Capital: How Athens is Designing a Cooler Future
December 5th, 2023
Via Arsht-Rockefeller Center, a look at how Athens is designing a cooler future: Amid rising temperatures, Athens, Greece has taken bold steps to combat extreme heat. The city’s Chief Heat Officers have worked to raise awareness, increase preparedness, and redesign the city for a cooler, safer future. Even before the summer of 2023—when Greece faced […]
Read more »Fighting Extreme Heat With Parametric Insurance
December 5th, 2023
Via the Arsht-Rockefeller Center, a look at how the Extreme Heat Income Micro-Insurance, Arsht-Rock’s new parametric insurance product, will help 21,000 women in India cover wages they would otherwise lose due to climate-driven extreme heat: Manju was just 10 when she and her siblings began working as waste recyclers to sustain their family’s income after […]
Read more »An Architect Has Found a Way to Build Flood-Proof Homes
December 3rd, 2023
Via The Washington Post, a report on one architect’s efforts to build swaths of flood-resistant homes out of bamboo: Yasmeen Lari spent a four-decade career designing award-winning structures out of concrete, glass and steel before stumbling into her ideal material. It was at a camp for refugees from military conflict in Pakistan’s northwestern Swat Valley. […]
Read more »Rising Tides, Rising Solutions: Tuvalu’s Innovative Climate Adaptation Strategies
December 1st, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a look at what the world can learn from Tuvalu’s unique approach to the existential threat of climate change: Climate change is destroying our world as we know it. The Pacific Island countries have been hit hardest by its effects, forcing them to take drastic measures to adapt. Tuvalu, in particular, is […]
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.