Coping With Climate Change Could Be A Matter of what Building You’re In
January 26th, 2024 Via Nature, a new publication emphasizing the importance of beefing up building codes to help to save lives in extreme heat or cold: Three years after the 1978 Miyagi earthquake, a magnitude-7.4 [...]
Jakarta: Striving To Avoid Becoming Next Atlantis
January 26th, 2024 Via Onewater, an article on Jakarta’s efforts to adapt to increasing subsidence Jakarta — the fastest-sinking city in the world — has finally taken action on its core land subsidence [...]
Hot Sun, Cool Paths
January 26th, 2024 Via Australia’s The Age, a look at Australian efforts to tackle extreme heat: If you look closely when you hop off the tram at the Australian Open, you’ll notice the platform is painted light [...]
London: Underprepared For Extreme Weather
January 21st, 2024 Via BBC, a report on London’s lack of preparedness for extreme weather: London is “underprepared” for the impact of climate change such as severe flooding and extreme heat, a [...]
Recycling Heat Waste From Data Centers
January 19th, 2024 Via Impact Alpha, a look at the potential to recycle heat waste from data centers: Amazon is doing it. So are Meta, Microsoft and Google. The tech giants have begun capturing excess heat generated [...]
Opinion: World’s Cities Are Not Ready For Climate Change
January 18th, 2024 Courtesy of The Financial Times, commentary on the urgent need for urban areas to rapidly become more resilient to rising temperatures: Think of climate change, and the mind instantly tends to go to [...]

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.