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 [...]
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 [...]
Boston Installing Curbside EV Chargers in Neighborhoods, Property Owners Make Profit
April 3rd, 2025 Via CBS News, a look at an innovative effort in Boston to install curbside EV chargers in neighborhoods, and allow property owners to profit: One of the biggest challenges for electric vehicle owners [...]
How Do You Stop A Megacity From Going Under Water?
April 1st, 2025 Via BBC, a report on Bangkok, a megacity going under water: Bangkok is a mega city of more than 10 million people, the economic powerhouse of Southeast Asia and one of the world’s most visited [...]
This Muggy City Keeps Cool with Minimal AC. Here’s How.
March 26th, 2025 Via The Washington Post, an article on India’s Palava City, a 5,000-acre experimental community northeast of Mumbai, which hopes to provide a model for adapting to a climate-transformed world: [...]
The History of Heat Waves Reveals the Urgency of Adaptation
March 21st, 2025 Via Harvard’s Salata Institute, a report on the relationship between humans and heat continues to change. Heat waves, once simply a natural phenomenon, are now a symptom of urbanization and [...]

ABOUT
BLACK SWANS GREEN SHOOTS
Black Swans / Green Shoots examines the collision between urbanization and resource scarcity in a world affected by climate change, identifying opportunities to build sustainable cities and resilient infrastructure through the use of revolutionary capital, increased awareness, innovative technologies, and smart design to make a difference in the face of global and local climate perils.

'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.