The City and the Coming Climate
Climate Change in the Places We Live

First book to explore dramatic amplification of global warming underway in cities for students, policy makers and the general reader.

Brian Stone, Jr (Author)

9781107602588, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 April 2012

206 pages, 30 b/w illus. 5 colour illus.
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

'… begins with one of the most persuasive and surprising chapters that I have read … Stone's excellent book provides an important service in bringing urban heat island forward as a core and resolvable urban challenge … this is not just a book for climate enthusiasts. Rather, it will be a helpful book for anyone interested in improving human health and safety through better urban form.' Elisabeth Harmin, Journal of the American Planning Association

This book is the first to explore the dramatic amplification of global warming underway in cities and the range of actions that individuals and governments can undertake to slow the pace of warming. A core thesis of the book is that the principal strategy currently advocated to mitigate climate change – the reduction of greenhouse gases – will not prove sufficient to measurably slow the rapid pace of warming in urban environments. Brian Stone explains the science of climate change in terms accessible to the non-scientist and with compelling anecdotes drawn from history and current events. The book is an ideal introduction to climate change and cities for students, policy makers and anyone who wishes to gain insight into an issue critical to the future of our cities and the people who live in them.

Prologue: la canicule
1. Keeling's curve
2. The climate barrier
3. Islands of heat
4. The green factor
5. Leveraging canopy for carbon.

Subject Areas: The environment [RN], Meteorology & climatology [RBP], Earth sciences [RB], Earth sciences, geography, environment, planning [R]