After its Hottest Summer On Record, Phoenix’s Mayor Outlines the City’s Future
October 21st, 2023
Courtesy of Inside Climate News, an interview with Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego how how the city is looking to address extreme heat and drought to build a more sustainable city: The Phoenix summer of 2023 was one for the record books. For 54 days straight—36 more than the previous record—the hottest city in the country […]
Read more »Designing For Disaster: Tsunami House
October 19th, 2023
Via HeatMap, a look at how an architect built a house to withstand mudslides: Dan Nelson has inadvertently become an expert in resilient design because of where he lives and builds houses: Washington state. His architecture firm, Designs Northwest Architects, specializes in complex residential projects in and around the Puget Sound where earthquake risk runs […]
Read more »Rising Seas Will Tighten Vise on Miami Even for People Who Are Not Flooded
October 18th, 2023
Via Terra Daily, an article on how rising seas will tighten a vise on Miami even for people who are not flooded:Current potential flood exposure (blue areas) in downtown Miami (left panel) and with one meter of sea-level rise. Deeper blues represent greater depth. A new study that examines both the physical and socioeconomic effects […]
Read more »US Government Purchases Houses at Risk of Falling Into the Sea
October 18th, 2023
Via The Washington Post, a look at the National Park Service’s decision to – in certain instances – purchase homes at risk of falling into the sea to avoid debris and enlarge protected beachfront: The two houses at the end of East Beacon Road in Rodanthe, N.C., sit precariously at the edge of the pounding […]
Read more »The Scorching Divide: How Extreme Heat Inflames Gender Inequalities in Health and Income
October 11th, 2023
Courtesy of the Arsht-Rockefeller Resilience Center, a new report that examines the impact of climate-driven extreme heat on women’s unpaid domestic labor, paid employment, and health in India, Nigeria, and the United States—paving the way for gender-informed interventions, investments, policies, and research: Extreme heat exposes stark gender inequalities Extreme heat affects us all, but it does […]
Read more »Systemic Cooling Poverty: A New Facet of Deprivation Emerging In A Warming World
October 11th, 2023
Via Phys.org, a new study underscoring the rising “cooling gap” and an increase in cooling poverty, highlighting growing equity issues arising as the climate warms. The study showed that “The poorest and most disadvantaged people, who contributed the least to global warming, are the ones bearing the most severe consequences of extreme heat because of […]
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.