Are You Sure Your House Is Worth That Much?
August 26th, 2024 Via The Atlantic, a look at how climate risk is still not being priced into American homeownership: Across the United States, homeowner’s insurance is getting more expensive. In storm-battered [...]
Urban Forests: ‘Critical but Underfunded’
August 21st, 2024 Via Smart Cities Dive, a look at urban forests and the potential offered by carbon credit programs, revolving funds and partnerships with conservancies to provide some of the money needed to prevent [...]
AC: Keeping Us Cool, But Heating Up the Planet
August 21st, 2024 Via China Water Risk, a look at the hidden costs of air conditioning: It’s not just us, lots of things need cooling – medicines, textiles, data centers etc.; Plus extreme weather & [...]
Conserving & restoring waterways can mitigate extreme urban heat in Bangladesh
August 21st, 2024 Via Mongabay, a look at how conserving & restoring waterways can mitigate extreme urban heat in Bangladesh: Conserving existing wetlands and restoring urban waterways can be an effective way for [...]
The Mirror Roofs Cooling Homes In Freetown
August 18th, 2024 Via The Guardian, a look at initial results showing homes in Sierra Leone’s capital fitted with heat-reflective roofing sheets can be up to 6C cooler: Mohamed Koroma has lived in the Kroo Bay [...]
Milwaukee Wants To Build The World’s Largest Timber Skyscraper (Again)
August 18th, 2024 Via Popular Science, a report on Milwaukee’s plans to build the world’s tallest timber skyscraper (again): The new skyscraper could be feature as many as 55 floors. Credit: Michael Green [...]

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.