Contents – August 2023

CONTENTS – August 2023

Character towns, small and large, can respond to important issues in the lives of their residents, issues beyond the traditional purview of city government. A major issue requiring significant civic and institutional action, and hence trust, involves the changing climate. While we are seeing anomalies in weather and sea levels along with halting efforts to create sustainable alternative fuel sources to minimize greenhouse gases and other pollutants, much of the work is not readily visible. Science and technology are not always observable; therefore, citizens must trust that the problems are real and that solutions at all levels of industry and government are necessary, sometimes at great cost. Learning the fundamentals of the issue is critical; hence the articles and books provided below. 

THE CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS EDITION

CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVITIES… 

• “The Causes of Climate Change, A simplified animation of the greenhouse effect”…NASA. 
• “Preface for a Comprehensive Energy System Plan”…wck. 
• “Small City Climate Action Plans”…wck. 
• “Energy Sources for Electric Generation”…EIA.gov. 
• “Generators of Greenhouse Gases”, Sources of Greenhouse Gases…US EPA. 
• “National Climate Report”, NOAA. 
• “NOAA’s Annual Arctic Report Card”. 
• “Readings about Small Modular [Nuclear] Reactors” – SMRs…wck. 
• “Her Plan for Putting the World Back Together? Trees”…The New York Times. 
• “Climate Change: Global Sea Level”…Climate.gov. 
• The Bloomberg Carbon Clock, May’58, May’22, May’23 

FROM THE PLANNERS’ BOOKSHELF…

• Silent Spring Rachel Carson, originally published by Houghton Mifflin, 1962. 
• Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening, Douglas Brinkley, Harper, 2022. 
• Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning, Timothy Beatley, Island Press, Center for Resource Economics, 2011. 
• Seeing Trees, A History of Street Trees in New York City and Berlin, Sonja Dümpelmann, Yale University Press, 2019. 
• A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future, Daniel C. Esty (Editor), Ingrid C. Burke (Foreword), Yale University, 2019.
• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells, Tim Duggan Books; 1st Edition, 2019. 
• Losing Earth: A Recent History, Nathaniel Rich, MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. 
• Plastic Game Changer: How to Reduce Plastic in your Organization to Make a Difference to Plastic Pollution, Amanda Keetley, Less Plastic, 2019. 
• Design with Nature, 25th Edition, Ian L. McHarg, Natural History Press in 1971, John Wiley & Sons in 1992.