An Old-School Building Material Could Take Over City Skylines
December 5th, 2023 Via The Washington Post, a report on how architects are in a proof-of-concept race to construct sustainable wood high-rises: It is right to say that the construction of one of the tallest timber [...]
Fighting Extreme Heat With Parametric Insurance
December 5th, 2023 Via the Arsht-Rockefeller Center, a look at how the Extreme Heat Income Micro-Insurance, Arsht-Rock’s new parametric insurance product, will help 21,000 women in India cover wages they would [...]
An Architect Has Found a Way to Build Flood-Proof Homes
December 3rd, 2023 Via The Washington Post, a report on one architect’s efforts to build swaths of flood-resistant homes out of bamboo: Yasmeen Lari spent a four-decade career designing award-winning structures [...]
Rising Tides, Rising Solutions: Tuvalu’s Innovative Climate Adaptation Strategies
December 1st, 2023 Via The Diplomat, a look at what the world can learn from Tuvalu’s unique approach to the existential threat of climate change: Climate change is destroying our world as we know it. The Pacific [...]
Living In A +50°C World: Cooling Must Be Considered Critical Infrastructure
November 30th, 2023 Via the University of Birmingham, a new call for global cooling and cold chain to be considered as critical infrastructure: Experts from the University of Birmingham are calling for global cooling [...]
Stay Cool: NYC Planting Thousands of New Trees To Maximize Foliage Impact
November 30th, 2023 Via The Guardian, a report on New York City’s plan to plant thousands of trees using new tech to maximize foliage impact: New York City is poised to get a lot more trees. Last month, the city [...]

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.