Resources

2007. Author: Alexis Schulman. For the past 100 years, natural resource management in the United States has reflected a belief that the top-down application of science to predict and control the natural world will, in the words of Gifford Pinchot, the Nation's first head of the U.S. Forest Service, "support the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men." However, over the past two decades, a growing number of critics have challenged the technocratic optimism of this...

2010. Author: Bjorn Jensen. This thesis uses case studies of one unsuccessful, and three successful brownfield-to-renewable energy projects to identify common barriers such projects face and how those barriers can be overcome. The most significant barriers identified are those typical of brownfield development: cleanup costs, liability risks, uncertainty, technical and legal complexity, and the need to coordinate multiple stakeholders. These barriers can be overcome through strong partnerships...

2019. Author: Carrie Watkins. In 1983, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Donald Schön published The Reflective Practitioner. In this book, he challenged the prevailing view of professional practice, which he understood as linked to the positivist practice of technical rationality. He called on educational institutions to instead train professionals such as planners, architects, and teachers to be reflective practitioners -- to practice reflection-in and on-action. In this...

2021. L. Susskind and Kim, A. Local governments in cities around the world will not be able to cope with climate change impacts until they enhance their capacity to adapt. Past efforts to build local capacity, however, have often been unsuccessful. Building municipal capacity to formulate and implement climate adaptation plans will, in our view, require a new approach. Special attention will need to be paid to (1) contingent financial arrangements; (2) widespread and continuous stakeholder...

2015. Author: Lisa Young. On September 21, 2014, 400,000 people converged on the streets of Manhattan for the People's Climate March (PCM), making it the largest climate change demonstration in U.S. history. Under a banner that read "Frontlines of Crisis, Forefront of Change," the march was led by low-income people of color and indigenous peoples -- those most affected by the health, environmental, and economic impacts of climate change and the broader fossil fuel industry. Never before had the...

2017. Author: Sonja Boet-Whitaker. Land buyout programs may be used to significantly improve climate resilience by creating a protective ecological buffer area to protect land at high risk of flooding. This thesis assesses the success of the New York State land buyout on the East Shore of Staten Island in achieving this resilient outcome. The New York State buyout program was created after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 in response to pressure from landowners who had been flooded in the storm...

2009. Author: Rachel Henschel. Coal-fired power plants produce half of the United States' electricity and are also the country's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a proposed technological solution that will sequester CO2 in the ground. Proponents of CCS have framed it as a "clean coal technology" and broadcast the story that it will solve both our dependence on coal and prevent future climate change impacts...

2015. Author: Bruno Verdini. This research examines two landmark negotiations between the United States and Mexico. The first involves the conflict over the shared hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico. The second analyzes the dispute over the shared waters of the Colorado River. For over seventy years, pursuing unilateral development, the U.S. and Mexico alternated between deadlock and confrontation in both cases. However, they were able to buck this trend in 2012, reaching two...

2006. Author: Lindsay Campbell. Urban, industrial waterways-with their contamination, environmental injustice, and nebulous development futures given changing economies-present multiple problems that are confronted by environmental civil society organizations. Despite the many problems, these groups view urban waterways as some of the last available open space in the city and as potential public amenities and natural resources that merit revitalization. This work focuses on the means by which...

2013. Author: Melissa Higbee. The electric utility sector has been a focus of policy efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but even if these efforts are successful, the sector will need to adapt to the impacts of climate change. These are likely to include increased heat waves, drought, extreme precipitation events, and sea level rise. Electric utilities play a key role in providing electricity services in cities that will be facing all of these difficulties. Cities depend on electricity...

2023. Author: J. Curry. World leaders have made a forceful statement that climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century. However, little progress has been made in implementing policies to address climate change. In Climate Uncertainty and Risk, eminent climate scientist Judith Curry shows how we can break through this stalemate. This book helps us rethink the climate change problem, the risks we are facing and our response. It helps us strategize on how we can best...

Authors: the staff of the New England Climate Adaptation Project. Coastal Flooding and Climate-Related Risks in Launton is a seven-person, multi-issue facilitated negotiation among local government, community, business, and environmental representatives trying to reach agreement on a strategy for managing climate change risks in a small, beachfront community. The game focuses on managing increased risk of coastal flooding and storm damage through construction of flood protection infrastructure...