We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2009
One thing is clear: the fate of cities will determine more and more not only the fate of nations but also of our planet. We can afford to ignore the issue of the sustainable management of our cities only at our own peril.
Elizabeth Dowdeswell (1996), former United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director, United Nations Environment ProgrammeOne California city has made an unblinking appraisal of its fate, and created a comprehensive plan for sustainability. It's a blueprint that links climate change with other environmental issues, economic development, and social equity – all in the larger context of the community's quality of life. Certainly, the effects of climate change already touch the ocean-front municipality of Santa Monica where sea-level rise sends higher-than-historical winter storm waves surging against the base of the Sustainable City Program office, and these effects will continue to change other aspects of life. Extended heatwave days, for example, could dramatically increase the risks to human health (Hayhoe et al., 2004a, b). Yet rather than just focus on energy use and emissions, Santa Monica has chosen a systems approach, addressing climate change with strategies aimed at its cultural and physical causes.
Surrounded on three sides by Los Angeles County, the pint-sized municipality of Santa Monica – just 8.3 square miles on the map, but with global vision – has consistently been at the leading edge of a movement for sustainable cities.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
