As much as I’d like it to be true, I found the title of former Toronto mayor David Miller’s 2020 Solved: How the World's Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis to be a bit overly optimistic. I needed to look no further than my own moving day on June 16th, from Sedona, Arizona, where the temperature hit 106 degrees despite the 4500 feet elevation, to Phoenix, where the temperature that day was 115. Yes, I tipped the three moving men well.
This is not to say I didn’t find the book interesting and even inspiring. Miller is also the Director of international Diplomacy and Global Ambassador of Inclusive Climate Action at the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, an organization which devotes itself to decreasing our carbon footprint despite its fondness for bloated job titles.
The main thesis of Miller and of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group is that city governments are better equipped to take quick and effective action against climate change than state and national governments. In general, cities have greater direct control over many of the issues that most affect the environment: zoning, building codes, park spaces, utilities, traffic patterns, waste management, public health and more. City governments have a more direct link to the population that elected them than do regional, state or national politicians, making them more accountable and better able to canvas local issues. City governments are generally more agile in passing regulations than state or national governments. Cities often most directly suffer the consequences of climate change, and thus have high motivation to tackle the problem. And the great number of cities increases the number of potential ‘incubators of innovation,’ as the expression goes.
Their goals are modest: limiting the growth in global warming to the bare-minimum holding pattern of 1.5 degrees Celsius theoretically necessary to stave off total disaster. Their belief that actions taken by cities alone can achieve that goal is based on the fact that the 97 affiliated urban areas in C40 account for 25% of global GDP and 12% of the population.
It’s still very challenging. The book devotes several pages to Austin, Texas, and the work they’ve done, starting with the 2007 City Council resolution to “make Austin the leading city in the nation in the effort to reduce the impacts of global warming.” They have indeed achieved some remarkable goals and instituted some great policies, and yet a few months after the book was published, the city suffered devastating blackouts, along with much of Texas, during the ‘historic’ freezing temperatures this past winter. Leaving aside the idiot conservatives who expressed glee in the belief it discredited alternative energy policies, the blackouts demonstrated how events can overtake even good policies and intentions.
Solved is filled with dozens of examples of actions and experiments being undertaken by cities around the world. Vancouver is creating embedded emissions standards for builders (that is, the emissions created by the manufacture of the construction materials used, beyond simply standards for the energy efficiency of the building itself.) London has vowed to allow only zero-emission buildings by 2050, and has engaged in a rapid deployment of vehicle charging stations. Accra, Ghana, has expanded garbage transfer stations to serve impoverished areas of the city that had relied on emissions-producing informal dumps; at the same time, they worked to find employment for the informal waste collectors who labored within that system. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where 60% of the population normally goes to its destination on foot, but which is also experiencing sprawling informal growth, the government is trying out ways to create a more compact and connected city via inexpensive public transportation, denser housing and employment hubs.
The ethos of the C40 group emphasizes working with communities to ensure equitable and sustainable development:
C40 mayors will lead in taking action for jobs and an inclusive economy by:
- Creating new, good green jobs, fast
- Supporting and lifting up essential workers
- Training and upskilling workers to enable a just transition to an inclusive economy.
C40 mayors will continue to take the lead in acting for resilience and equity, providing fundamental public services for all, that underpin a fair society and strong economy, and that are resilient to future shocks by:
- Delivering a safe and resilient post-COVID mass transit system
- Providing fundamental public services for all such as clean water, food, sanitation and affordable, healthy housing
C40 mayors will lead in taking action for health and well-being – giving public space back to people and nature, reclaiming our streets and guaranteeing clean air to ensure liveable, local communities by:
- Creating ‘15 minute cities’ where all residents of the city are able to meet most of their needs within a short walk or bicycle ride from their homes
- Giving streets back to people, by permanently reallocating more road space to walking and cycling, investing in city-wide walking and cycling networks and green infrastructure
- Building with nature to prioritise 'nature based solutions' such as parks, green roofs, green walls, blue infrastructure and permeable pavements, to help reduce the risks of extreme heat, drought, and flooding, and improve liveability and physical and mental health
C40 mayors, alongside a global coalition of businesses, civil society organisations, climate activists and residents, are already building a green and just recovery. Their agenda calls on national and regional governments, central banks and international financial institutions to join them, by:
- Agreeing that the only stimulus should be a green stimulus.
- Committing to an equitable and inclusive recovery.
- Protecting and championing mass transit.
- Prioritising and investing in clean energy.
- Investing in resilient cities as the engines of the recovery.
- Ending all public fossil fuel investments and subsidies.
It all sounds good, and I appreciate the devotion, expertise and optimism Miller sets forth in Solved. But it’s definitely sometimes tough to share that optimism. Here in Arizona, our former home in Sedona has been choked by wildfire smoke for over a week, and in a preliminary prep stage for evacuation from the Rafael Fire. Just weeks ago the nearby town of Cornville was threatened by a wildfire. Phoenix has been experiencing record-breaking heat. The multi-year drought in the Southwest continues, and Lake Mead is at extremely low levels. There’s so much that needs to be done, and so little time.
A SELECTION OF THIS WEEK’S NEW HARDCOVERS
- The deluge of books dissecting the Former Guy tenancy is well underway. Two notable entries this week: Adam Serwer’s The Cruelty Is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America, drawn from his The Atlantic Magazine essays and focusing on how the multiple toxic legacies in U.S. history gave rise to and found full expression under Trump; and Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration's Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, by Washington Post reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta. Both books are part of this week’s featured 15% off list on my Literate Lizard website, but remember, I offer Kossacks 15% off just about any book; just write Daily Kos in the comment field at checkout.
- Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm. White person Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, takes another swing at educating white people about systemic racism.
- Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen: The Emotional Lives of Black Women, by Inger Burnett-Zeigler. The clinical psychologist praises the strength of Black women, but also delves into the trauma and adversity suffered by an estimated 80% of them, and discusses how to strike a balance.
- The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future, by Geoffrey Cain. An in-depth look into China’s surveillance regime, and what to watch for in our own present and future.
- Please Please Tell Me Now: The Duran Duran Story, by Stephen Davis. Another rock opus, with extensive access to the 1980s band
All book links in this diary are to my online bookstore The Literate Lizard. If you already have a favorite indie bookstore, please keep supporting them. If you’re able to throw a little business my way, that would be appreciated. If you write ‘Daily Kos’ in the comment field when placing an order, I can offer 15% off (an ever-changing smattering of new releases are already discounted 15% each week). We also partner with Hummingbird Media for ebooks and Libro.fm for audiobooks. The ebook app is admittedly not as robust as some, but it gets the job done. Libro.fm is similar to Amazon’s Audible, with a la carte audiobooks, or a $14.99 monthly membership which includes the audiobook of your choice and 20% off subsequent purchases during the month.
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE