The Wealthy California Town That Can’t Get Rid of Water Fast Enough
May 15th, 2025
Via SFGate, a report on a city slipping into the ocean: Every day, Rancho Palos Verdes inches closer to destruction. The beleaguered Southern California city, which is southwest of downtown Los Angeles and hugs the waterline between Redondo Beach and San Pedro, is quite literally sliding into the ocean, sometimes at a rate of 4 inches per week. […]
Read more »Why Are All of America’s Biggest Cities Sinking?
May 8th, 2025
Via Grist, a report on a new study finds that the country’s 28 most populous metros are losing elevation, from New York City to Seattle. Cities sit unmoving on the landscape — a sprawling collection of roads, sidewalks, and buildings designed to last for generations. But across the United States, urban areas are silently shifting: […]
Read more »Larry Fink, Did You Know that 84% of CK Hutchison Ports are Vulnerable to Just 1m of Sea Level Rise?
April 24th, 2025
Via China Water Risk, analysis of which CK Hutchison ports are vulnerable to sea level rise riks, and if ports in the Americas are more vulnerable than in Europe: 84% of the 43 CK Hutchison ports are vulnerable to just 1m of sea level rise which given current high emissions could happen in the next […]
Read more »Managed Retreat: Preparing Coastal Cities For Sea Level Rise
April 24th, 2025
Via China Water Risk, a look at how – given the rapid rate of sea level rise – perhaps a ‘managed retreat’ is the best option. The Authors of The Ocean Climate Platform & Sea’ties latest report breakdown the pros & cons of this adaptation strategy: Sea levels could rise by >1m without drastic GHG […]
Read more »Reforesting the Elm City
April 21st, 2025
Via Yale Alumni Magazine, a report on the Urban Resources Initiative is planting thousands of trees to make New Haven a cooler city: At first, planting street trees in New Haven was nothing more than a job for William “The Muscle” Tisdale. “I never paid too much attention to trees,” he says. He appreciated steady work […]
Read more »In 15 Years, 80,000 Homes in the New York Area May Be Lost to Flooding
April 7th, 2025
Via the New York Times, a report on how – by 2040 – dozens of neighborhoods and suburbs are likely to have lost thousands of homes to floods: More than 80,000 homes on Staten Island, in southeast Queens and in the suburbs east of New York City could be lost to floods over the next […]
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.