Cities Demanding the Earth : A New Understanding of the Climate Emergency

Current climate change policy is necessary but insufficient. This is because the basic modus operandi – presenting scientific evidence to states for them to take action - misrepresents the complex process of anthropogenic climate change. The ‘anthropo’ bit is neglected in a misconceived supply-side (carbon) interpretation. The key question is, why is there so much demand for this carbon in the first place? This book introduces a demand-side interpretation bringing cities to the fore as central players in both generating climate changes and for finding solutions. Jane Jacobs’ urban analysis is combined with William F. Ruddiman’s historical tracing of greenhouse gases to provide a new understanding and narrative of anthropogenic climate change. The conclusion is that we are locked into a path to terminal consumption, which is accelerating as a consequence of Chinese urban growth, historically unprecedented in its sheer scale. To counter this we need to harness the power of cities in new ways, to steer urban demand away from its current destructive path. This is nothing less than re-inventing the city: not mitigation (the resilient city, necessary but not sufficient), not adaptation (sustainable city, also necessary but not sufficient) but stewardship, a process of dynamic stability creating the posterity city in sync with nature. This urgent book brings our cities to the fore in understanding the human input into climate change. The demands we are making on nature by living in cities has reached a crisis point and unless we make significant changes to address it, the prognosis is terminal consumption. Providing a radical new argument that integrates global understandings of making nature and making cities, the authors move beyond current policies of mitigation and adaption and pose the challenge of urban stewardship to tackle the crisis. Their new way of thinking re-orients possibilities for environmental policy and calls for us to reinvent our cities as spaces for activism. Front cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures About the Authors Preface 1. Declarations: Root and Branch Unthinking 2. Alternate: Jane Jacobs’ legacy 3. Inside Out: Fourteen Antitheses Authenticating Cities 4. Reset: Anthropogenic Climate Change Is Urban, not Modern 5. Action: Can We Stop Terminal Consumption? References Appendix: Primer on Climate Change Policy Index Back cover Unless we make drastic changes, the climate damage that we are causing by living in cities will result in terminal consumption. Providing a radical new argument that integrates global understandings of making nature and making cities, the authors move beyond current policies of mitigation and adaption towards making cities spaces for activism. Unless we make drastic changes, the climate damage that we are causing by living in cities will result in terminal consumption. Providing a radical new argument that integrates global understandings of making nature and making cities, this book moves beyond current policies of mitigation and adaption towards making cities spaces for activism