A New Textile Designed To Combat Urban Heat Island Effect Cools Down by 16+ Degrees
June 20th, 2024 Via Fast Company, a report on a new textile was designed to combat the urban heat island effect, reflecting both the sun’s heat and the heat that bounces off of buildings and streets: When a heat [...]
Harnessing Nature To Cool Cities: Parks For Tomorrow
June 18th, 2024 Via Harvard Magazine, an article on how nature can help cool cities: IN 2009, Bas Smets walked across an old industrial plaza in Arles, France. Entirely concrete, the space posed a problem. The area [...]
Can Mirrors Help Fight Extreme Urban Heat?
June 18th, 2024 Via BBC, a look at the potential for mirrors to help fight the threat of extreme heat: When the inside of your home feels as hot as an oven, it can be impossible to cope. During the dry season, that [...]
Extreme Heat Driving Innovation In Municipal Heat Resilience
June 17th, 2024 Via Smart Cities Dive, a report on how extreme heat is driving innovation in municipal heat resilience: As 2024 sets record highs for early summertime temperatures, city leaders once again find [...]
Banks Are Finally Realizing What Climate Change Will Do to Housing
June 17th, 2024 Via Wired, a report on how extreme weather threatens the investment value of many properties, but financing for climate mitigation efforts are only just getting going: Rising sea levels, biodiversity [...]
How to Cool Down Parks in Hot Cities
June 17th, 2024 Courtesy of Bloomberg, a look at how researchers at Princeton University are devising ways to transform green spaces into outdoor cooling centers: The drive to be outside, even in hot weather, is [...]

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.