India’s Big Bet On Electric Buses
April 18th, 2024 Via Yale Climate Connections, a report on India’s decision that its fast-growing cities need electric buses if the country is to meet its climate goals: Public transportation riders in Pune, [...]
Deadly Heat Is Baking Cities. Here’s How to Cool Them Down
April 16th, 2024 Via Wired, a look at how urban areas can be 20 degrees hotter than the surrounding country. But green spaces and reflective pavement can make city life more bearable: IF YOU’VE EVER driven from [...]
$830 Million To Fix Broken U.S. Infrastructure
April 16th, 2024 Courtesy of Wired, a discussion withUS transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg about recent grants to fix ancient roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure before it’s too late: There’s [...]
How To Stop A State From Sinking
April 15th, 2024 Via MIT Technology Review, a look at how Louisiana’s southwestern coastline faces some of the most severe climate predictions in the US. Can a government-led project build the area up and out of [...]
Adaptation: World’s Unheralded Tool to Deal With Climate Change
April 14th, 2024 Via Bloomberg, a report on adaptation: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a cut-and-dry way to stop climate change. But how the world responds to the impacts already taking place is a whole other [...]
Homeowners Face $25T Bill from Climate Change
April 14th, 2024 Via The Economist, a report on the risk that climate change poses to property owners: The residents of northern Italy had never seen anything like the thunderstorm that mauled their region last [...]

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.