Resilient cities : responding to peak oil and climate change /

Newman (Curtin Univ.), Beatley (Univ. of Virginia), and Boyer (editor, Island Press) outline the 21st-century "double whammy" of peak oil and climate change, suggesting the solution to sustainability rests firmly with a fundamental redesign of cities, as they consume 75 percent of the world's energy and emit 80 percent of its greenhouse gases. Their analysis offers a persuasive road map and concludes with ten pragmatic steps that students, scholars, urban planners, politicians, and even home buyers seeking a wise investment will find useful. Newman et al. contend that London, New York, and Stockholm are progressive examples, moving to more transit, pedestrian, and green-oriented development and emphasizing local approaches as well as multiple sources of renewable power. Still too many inefficient transportation systems and poorly designed buildings remain, especially in the US (e.g., Atlanta, New Orleans). Drawing upon Jared Diamond's argument in Collapse (CH, Oct'05, 43-1028) that unless societies adapt, they undermine the natural resource base on which they depend, the authors discuss four possible scenarios for future cities: collapse, ruralized, divided, and resilient. Their preference is for the latter, and the work gives a comprehensive overview as to how a sixth wave of industrial innovation ushers in a post-oil economy and thus resilient city. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. M. M. Gunter Jr. Rollins College