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8 Books on Environmental Destruction, Climate Change and City
Extreme weathers and natural disasters are reminding us that: disasters never happen alone. Therefore, we need to focus on the changes in global climate and strive to protect our planet, which requires the cooperation of governments, businesses and individuals.Sources:
https://www.planetizen.com/features/96041-planetizens-top-ten-books-2017
https://www.planetizen.com/features/101697-top-10-urban-planning-books-2018
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/5-books-about-climate-change-you-should-read-now/
As the earth warms and sea levels rise, extreme climates are becoming more frequent and intense. Not only coastal cities, but even inland cities are not immune to heavy rains and floods. The scenes of desperation and devastation in Henan are heart-breaking. Henan is by no means an isolated case, as Germany, Belgium and London have also suffered from heavy rains and floods this year. And floods are just one of the climate extremes caused by environmental damage, while at the same time, different parts of the world are experiencing droughts, heat waves, mountain fires ... What it means to live on a warming planet, where human survival becomes more vulnerable. All kinds of extreme climates and natural disasters remind us that disasters do not happen in isolation, and that there is a need to raise awareness of global climate change and the need to protect the planet. Governments, corporations and individuals all have their share to take action. I have compiled 8 books about environmental destruction, climate change and city.1. The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World
Sea-level rise is no joke. It's also no secret that we are headed for catastrophes of monumental proportions. Goodell covers the latest science of sea level rise and discusses its potential impacts on low-lying places, including Miami, Venice, the Marshall Islands, New York City, Norfolk, and Lagos, among others. His prose is fun and lively—sometimes too lively—and his message clear: cities must prepare with as much enthusiasm as possible.2. Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change
For author Ashley Dawson, the development of coastal cities is an example of capitalism at its most reckless, and the failure of governments to mitigate and prepare for sea level rise exemplifies public policy as its most lethargic. Dawson focuses on his native New York City, where he is a professor at CCNY, and points to the degradation of Jamaica Bay and (like Goodell) the cautionary tale of Superstorm Sandy. Unapologetically left-wing, Dawson does not trust the corporate classes in the least and refers to "climate apartheid" to describe the inevitable uneven impacts of climate change. Unlike Goodell, Dawson directly enlists planners, writing in his conclusion, "socially just planning needs to be articulated." 3. The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)
Lucy Jones is a longtime staffer with the U.S. Geological Survey, Jones is beloved in California for her straight talk about the state's earthquake risks. Jones recently retired from the public sector but has continued her crusade of educating the public about the dangers of disasters (especially earthquakes) and encouraging preparedness in all its forms. For Jones, this doesn't just mean retrofitting buildings and learning how to duck under tables. It includes everything from economic analyses of different scenarios—such as the economic impact of buildings designed to remain functional after a major earthquake versus those designed simply not to fall down immediately—to public awareness campaigns that, ultimately, are intended to pressure governments into taking unpredictable but real threats seriously.In the Big Ones, with a title derived from the predicted earthquake that will, one day, decimate California, Jones digs into the history of a handful of natural disasters from geological, as well as political, social, and economic, perspectives. What planners glibly refer to as "resilience", Jones understands with nuance and expertise. She covers the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the 1861 central California flood, Hurricane Katrina, and the Indonesian tsunami, among others, each time telling predictably harrowing tales and making implicit policy recommendations. Indeed, Jones is the rare scientist who grasps policy and prose just as well as she does the technicalities of her field. Jones doesn't tell planers how to do their jobs. But in describing the devastation that Mother Nature can wreak on urban areas, she gives them plenty to think, and worry, about.4. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
While drawing on his expertise and instincts as a successful tech innovator, investor, and philanthropist, Gates relies on teams of experts in science, engineering, and public policy to flesh out the details. The author focuses on five major emissions-generating activities—making things, plugging in, growing things, getting around, and keeping cool and warm.In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.5. Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land To Heal the Earth
Beginning in the vast North American Boreal Forest that stretches through Canada, and roving across the continent, from the Northern Sierra to Alabama's Paint Rock Forest, from the Appalachian Trail to a ranch in Mexico, Tony Hiss sets out on a journey to take stock of the "superorganism" that is the earth: its land, its elements, its plants and animals, its greatest threats—and what we can do to keep it, and ourselves, alive.Hiss not only invites us to understand the scope and gravity of the problems we face, but also makes the case for why protecting half the land is the way to fix those problems. Three great forested areas—Siberia, the Amazon, and the North American Boreal (in Canada and Alaska)—make up most of the world's wilderness. "Siberia is 60 percent cut over", writes the author, "and so is more than 20 percent of the Amazon, where the rate of deforestation is spiking. The Boreal, however, is 85% intact. Since human activities account for less than 40% of our continent, and 15% is already protected, the author's plan is feasible.6. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world’s rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth.One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation.7. The New Climate War: The Fight To Take Back Our Planet
Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we've been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals.Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame or greenwashing. Meanwhile, they've blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they've created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters-fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including:A common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal;
Allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels；
Debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions；
Combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering；
With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won't happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.
8. Under the Sky We Make: How To Be Human in a Warming World
Lund University climate scientist Nicholas delivers a user-friendly survey of the current state of the knowledge on climate change….What remains to be done, on a long to-do list, is to move from what she calls an "Exploitation Mindset" to one devoted to regeneration, and this takes the large-scale down to the individual level, with each of us responsible for adopting habits that contribute to environmental healing….More immediately, citizens must reject fast-fix, "pollute-now, pay later" promises on the parts of corporations and demand better solutions. Some of the author's recommendations have been voiced by other climate activists, but she writes with welcome clarity and little partisan cheerleading.Yes, companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we're in. But individuals CAN effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Nicholas explores finding purpose in a warming world, combining her scientific expertise and her lived, personal experience in a way that seems fresh and deeply urgent. Saving ourselves from climate apocalypse will require radical shifts within each of us, to effect real change in our society and culture.
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