Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Ecosystem Management: Tomorrow’s Approach to Enhancing Food Security under a Changing Climate


http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/3/7/937/

1 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi 30197, Kenya2 The James Hutton Institute, Macaulay Drive, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 25 April 2011; in revised form: 16 May 2011 / Accepted: 8 June 2011 / Published: 28 June 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Security and Environmental Sustainability)
PDF Full-text Download PDF Full-Text [375 KB, uploaded 28 June 2011 11:34 CET]
Abstract: This paper argues that a sustainable ecosystem management approach is vital to ensure the delivery of essential ‘life support’ ecosystem services and must be mainstreamed into societal conscience, political thinking and economic processes. Feeding the world at a time of climate change, environmental degradation, increasing human population and demand for finite resources requires sustainable ecosystem management and equitable governance. Ecosystem degradation undermines food production and the availability of clean water, hence threatening human health, livelihoods and ultimately societal stability. Degradation also increases the vulnerability of populations to the consequences of natural disasters and climate change impacts. With 10 million people dying from hunger each year, the linkages between ecosystems and food security are important to recognize. Though we all depend on ecosystems for our food and water, about seventy per cent of the estimated 1.1 billion people in poverty around the world live in rural areas and depend directly on the productivity of ecosystems for their livelihoods. Healthy ecosystems provide a diverse range of food sources and support entire agricultural systems, but their value to food security and sustainable livelihoods are often undervalued or ignored. There is an urgent need for increased financial investment for integrating ecosystem management with food security and poverty alleviation priorities. As the world’s leaders worked towards a new international climate change agenda in Cancun, Mexico, 29 November–10 December 2010 (UNFCCC COP16), it was clear that without a deep and decisive post-2012 agreement and major concerted effort to reduce the food crisis, the Millennium Development Goals will not be attained. Political commitment at the highest level will be needed to raise the profile of ecosystems on the global food agenda. It is recommended that full recognition and promotion be given of the linkages between healthy, protected ecosystems and global food security; that sufficient resources be allocated for improved ecosystem valuation, protection, management and restoration; and that ecosystem management be integrated in climate change and food security portfolios. We will not be able to feed the world and eradicate extreme poverty, if we do not protect our valuable ecosystems and biodiversity.
Keywords: food security; climate change; ecosystem management; ecosystem services; biodiversity; Millennium Development Goals; poverty

Rough Guide to Community Energy



What can we do to create sustainability in our own communities? How can local people work together to save or generate energy and tackle climate change? The Rough Guide to Community Energy has the answers. Packed full of practical advice and inspiring case studies, it covers:
Whether you’re looking for inspiration or you already have a local energy group, The Rough Guide to Community Energy will help you make your project happen.
About the book

Sowing the Seeds - Reconnecting London's Children with Nature


Research and Reports

The LSDC has written and commissioned research on issues that are critical to London. You can find our recent publications below. 

Sowing the Seeds - Reconnecting London's Children with Nature


London is known as a green city - approximately two-thirds of its area is defined as green space and many sites are rich in wildlife.  Much work is underway to protect and develop this, most notably through the Mayor's Great Outdoors Strategy, the London Plan which seeks to address deficiencies in line with the Mayor's Biodiversity Strategy,  and through partnerships such as the Green Grid, that seek to increase green space provision, and quality, at a local level.  Through these, the provision of the resource has been the primary focus. More recently, for example through the Health Inequalities Strategy, the focus has shifted to the benefits of increasing the level and type of use.
Previous research has suggested that a child's contact with nature is particularly important.  Natural environments are said to have restorative qualities that help in relaxing and coping with everyday stress.  They are claimed to promote adaptive processes in child development (for instance motor fitness, physical competence and self-confidence).  They are said to support learning and education. Finally, it is claimed that spending time as a child in green outdoor environments nurtures lifelong positive attitudes about nature and the wider environment.  Maximising young people's contact, and the quality of that contact, with nature in the city is therefore fundamental.  Children under the age of 12 were taken as the focus for this research.
The purposes of the research, commissioned from writer and researcher Tim Gill, are to:
. Summarise the benefits experienced by society from increasing the opportunity for children under the age of 12 to experience nature;
. Identify the most successful interventions to encourage regular access to nature amongst children under the age of 12, and make policy recommendations to facilitate this in the mainstream;
. Support the move of current thinking beyond provision of natural spaces, to focus on actual use of natural spaces;
. Develop alternative metrics that may accurately measure access to nature amongst children under the age of 12. 

The Report was launched at City Hall on 17 November 2011. The Recommendations in the Report will be taken forward by a time limited Steering Group made up of representatives from relevant sectors and co-ordinated by the LSDC.

If you would like to know more about the Steering Group please contact lsdc@london.gov.uk.

Income Inequalities

Income Inequalities
In 2010 the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC) commissioned a piece of research by Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett to further debate around the multifaceted and long-term issue of income inequalities.
Based on a similar methodology to their book, 'The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better', the work examines the cause and potential effects of income inequalities in London and implications for sustainable development.  It argues that income inequality is bad not just for those at the bottom of the income scale, but also for society as a whole.  The work opened up the debate on the cause and potential effects of income inequalities in London and the LSDC has been keen to hear all sides before drawing its own conclusions.
It is now clear from recent academic debate that there are differing opinions on the link between income inequalities and the social problems as set out within the Spirit Level.  A summary of the debate can be found here.  This documents the RSA event which brought together Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson with Peter Saunders (author of the Policy Exchange report Beware False Prophets: Equality, the Good Society and The Spirit Level) and Christopher Snowden (author of The Spirit Level Delusion) to debate the methodology and conclusions of The Spirit Level.
Notwithstanding the ongoing debate about the link between income inequality and social problems, the LSDC feels that the underlying issues affecting London's most poor remain an issue. The LSDC will therefore continue to advocate for action in support of tackling these issues and improving quality of life for all Londoners. 

The impact of income inequalities on sustainable development in London [PDF 3.6MB]
The impact of income inequalities on sustainable development in London [RTF 247KB]
Correction to figure 24

Sustainable development at the strategic level

Sustainable development at the strategic level
Capital Consumption: the transition to sustainable consumption and production in London - December, 2009
This timely report from the LSDC and BioRegional, published in the run up to climate negotiations in Copenhagen, examines the full extent of London's carbon dioxide emissions when including those from imported goods consumed in London. The report also illustrates how adopting measures to reduce consumption based carbon emissions could also help create jobs, build a more resilient economy and benefit the health and social well-being of Londoners.

Capital Consumption [PDF 5.5MB]
Capital Consumption [RTF 240KB]




Good Growth


Cover_pic
Authors
Kitty Ussher
Publication Type
Pamphlet
Publication Date
2011-11-11
ISBN
978-1-906693-87-9
Cost
10.0
The Prime Minister, paraphrasing Robert Kennedy in a speech last November, said that GDP ‘measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile’. Yet policy-makers and commentators remain fixed on GDP and growth above all else. The Government has asked the Office for National Statistics to discover how happy the population are – to measure ‘general wellbeing’ – but there is no clear policy agenda to follow from the results.

Good Growth goes a step further. The analysis in this pamphlet is a first in the measurement of ‘national progress’ – asking people their opinion on matters of policy, rather than just inquiring about their subjective experience. It finds that wider issues such as work-life balance, health and housing are viewed by the public as critical components of good economic performance, on top of raw GDP.

Through extensive polling and conjoint analysis, which forces participants to make trade-offs between factors, this pamphlet reveals what people value when push comes to shove. It recommends that at the same time as tracking GDP the Government should adopt the good growth index, so that economic policy decisions are aligned with citizens’ wishes. Only with this insight can policy- makers build the type of economy the public wants to see.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Wellbeing is our birth right


Treating crisis as an opportunity for transformation.


by Satish Kumar 

A new vision of wellbeing is on the horizon. And together with sustainability, resilience, deep ecology and Gaia we need to embrace an inclusive and holistic concept of wellbeing.
The focus is shifting. The commitment of governments around the world to the singular goal of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is being questioned and a new understanding is emerging. Economists, industrialists and policymakers are realising that GDP is not enough and is not a guarantee of a good society. For many seemingly wealthier countries, GDP has moved exponentially upwards but the health and happiness of the population have fallen. At the same time the stress on our natural resources has increased out of all proportion (peak oil is only the tip of the iceberg).
The idea of ‘wellbeing’ has often been very narrowly interpreted and poorly understood. It has been associated with personal growth and personal development; a search for job satisfaction, work/life balance, more time for yoga, walking, gardening and resting. But this view is changing.
Radical ecologists are now proposing a decrease in economic output, a reduction in material consumption, the setting of limits to our use of non-renewable resources, and an increase in the growth of human wellbeing and the wellbeing of planet Earth.
Cambridge University’s Well-being Institute has been established for the scientific study of wellbeing. The launching of the Happy Planet Index by the new economics foundation (nef) is a step in the right direction, and nef has now established a Centre for Well-being too. In other words, this topic is now being taken very seriously. Richard Layard of LSE has launched Action for Happiness, which is a movement for positive social change. One of the pioneers (as we reported in Resurgence last year) has been the government of Bhutan, which launched a measure of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in place of Gross National Product (GNP) long before anyone in Western politics had the courage to challenge the orthodoxy of GNP. Just a year later, we have European politicians such as David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy talking about the need to focus on wellbeing. As a result, in a recent survey of households in the UK the Office for National Statistics asked questions such as “To what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?”
These are all good starting points. A shift of emphasis from exclusive attention to economic growth, high living standards, social mobility and materialism to a politics of wellbeing is very welcome. The question is: how authentic and genuine is this shift?
The establishment is very good at hijacking or even stealing the words of the green movement and then carrying on with ‘business as usual’. For example, the word ‘sustainability’ is often used both by politicians and by business leaders, but when we then examine their actions and practices it is difficult to believe that they have understood the meaning of the word. It appears that they want to have their cake and eat it: they wish to achieve sustainability without disengaging themselves from the causes of ‘unsustainability’ such as globalisation, the free market, mass transportation and deep-sea oil exploration. The truth is that if they wish to embrace wellbeing they will have to be more honest about it and turn away from their clear commitment to unlimited economic growth and the religion of materialism.
Wellbeing is not merely an extrinsic value: it is an extrinsic and an intrinsic value at the same time. It is, in the long term, impossible for an individual to be happy when others are suffering from starvation, social injustice and wars. Also, how can an individual be healthy on an unhealthy planet? Health of the person and health of the planet are two sides of the same coin.
Individuals and communities live in a seamless web of relationships. If those relationships are flourishing, individuals and communities will flourish. If the web of relationships is in turmoil, there can be no tranquillity, no harmony in the lives of individuals, their families or their communities. Wellbeing is as much a spiritual value as it is an economic necessity.
If we suffer from fear, anxiety, greed, anger, craving and selfishness, then wellbeing will remain a distant goal. But if we cultivate compassion, courage, caring, gratitude and humility, then wellbeing will be near at hand. Psychological wellbeing is a first step to social and environmental wellbeing, but without social and environmental wellbeing, psychological wellbeing will remain a distant dream.
We are happy only when we make others happy – it is a seamless process. If the forests are gone, if biodiversity is diminished, if water is polluted, if cruelty is inflicted on animals, then there can be no personal peace or social coherence. If human communities are damaged because of poverty and deprivation, then they will be forced to encroach more upon natural resources. Therefore social justice is an essential part of wellbeing.
So the big vision of wellbeing is that it must be a personal, social and ecological whole: Happy Person, Happy People, Happy Planet!
Satish Kumar is Editor-in-Chief of Resurgence magazine.

Stillness in schools


Learning silence and meditation in the classroom should be the right of all children in all schools, writes Anthony Seldon.


Learning how to be still should be at the heart of every child’s education. It teaches them how to correct themselves and to know who they truly are. It’s also vital if they are to learn how to control their impulses. It is known that the brains of adolescents develop in such a way that young people find it hard to make long-term judgements about their actions. They see immediate gains, but not the long-term consequences of their choices. Learning how to be still – and to think before acting – is thus not only a desirable but also a key responsibility of schools.
It is much easier however for a school to include stillness as a regular feature for its students if it is a school set up with a special mission or a spiritual purpose. Britain’s Quaker schools, for instance, have a long tradition of regular periods when the whole school comes to complete silence. Leighton Park in Reading, nearby my own school, Wellington College, has long included regular periods of stillness each week, and the experience is reported as being widely appreciated by the students. St James School in Twickenham and Krishnamurti’s Brockwood Park School in Hampshire both also excel in offering periods for stillness and meditation.
But all these are independent schools. It is much rarer to find opportunities for silence in state schools, though some with an expressed religious affiliation (such as the Catholic schools) may well offer periods for silent prayer. Even where there is a head who believes deeply in the values of silence and stillness, the pressures on the timetable are fierce: the curriculum is ever more crowded, and schools must squeeze every last drop out of the time available to secure top exam passes for the sake of league tables. Then there are all the demands of the extracurricular timetable – sport, music and drama – and the heads of these activities jealously guard their time.
Philosophical heads or others in schools who want to introduce stillness are beset by a whole range of other problems too. Those who come from backgrounds where stillness is alien can have real difficulties with the idea of children being quiet. Often the teachers are fearful of silence in their own lives and so resist it being offered to others. Some teachers dislike the idea of silence, believing it is a way of introducing religion by the back door. At other times it is the religious teachers who object, especially the fundamentalists. Some evangelical Christians find the idea of meditation very challenging: they see potential Christian converts being captured by Indian mysticism – and I remember being told by a member of the Christian Union at the first school at which I taught that meditation was an opportunity to ‘let in’ the devil.
Surprisingly, it is not the students themselves who create the difficulties. They will typically muck around a bit at first, trying to make others giggle, digging people in the back, calling each other’s mobile phones, but once we reach week five or six in the programme, and especially if they can see there is a serious intent to make it work, they will usually abandon their efforts at disruption.
We must remember that some will remain very uncomfortable with silence, and for others it may bring painful memories. Many will find it initially embarrassing; others will find it boring, or say it makes them very sleepy. Some indeed will fall asleep (that never happens to any adult trying to meditate, does it?).
At Wellington College, led by our brilliant Head of Wellbeing, Ian Morris, we started introducing weekly 15-minute slots of stillness for our 13- to 15-year-olds. In our Wellbeing classes, students are introduced in smaller groups to stillness, and learn from different techniques of meditation. Most respond very positively to it, and it’s common for them to say that it helps them at times of stress such as during exams. They also say that it helps them to become more reflective and thoughtful and to get in touch better with what they really do think.
Work of real importance is taking place at a series of schools including Tonbridge in Kent, which is pioneering the use of meditation in the classroom. We must accept, however, that meditation in mainstream schools is failing to reach the vast majority of young people. So let me describe how mainstream schools could use stillness to enhance the educational value and spiritual development of the communities they serve.
It has to begin at the top. Sympathetic heads should follow their instincts and accept the encouragement of other teachers who are also sympathetic to the idea of teaching silence and stillness and who will support the introduction of these classes. They should then begin their own meetings with staff with a period of stillness, which will give a powerful message to the whole teaching staff about the importance being placed on meditation as a key tool in school. Every meeting that the head has should be opened with a moment – it need only be 10 seconds or so – when the head demonstrates stillness. The tone that the head sets permeates the whole school, so if there is a genuine commitment to try to be still and present – however imperfectly it may be realised – the benefits will extend throughout the school.
Teachers should begin every lesson with a minute of silence. We make impossible demands on our young people, and fondly imagine that they will turn up for every lesson focused and clear-headed. But their minds will still be full of their last lesson, or something that happened at home the night before, or an upsetting event in the playground. They need the opportunity to come to themselves and give that mental activity and their emotions a chance to subside. The effect will be transformative.
Young people should also be encouraged to be still before they perform music or drama. Students who follow rugby may have noticed Jonny Wilkinson pausing for a moment to collect himself before trying to convert the ball through the rugby posts. Drawing attention to this can help students understand that even international sportspeople can use silence positively.
Meals are another opportunity for silence. The staggered times of many schools’ lunches make it hard for there to be a collective sense of beginning, but it is not difficult nevertheless to have two minutes of total silence at mealtimes, to allow the opportunity for a silent grace or to let go of the activity of the morning. The silence before meals can be profound.
Young people are crying out for peace and more time in their lives and this is often the powerful motive behind the decision to start taking drugs. The greatest possible benefit of learning about stillness while at school is that it gives adolescents a skill that will endure for the rest of their lives. Stillness and meditation must no longer be a privilege for the very few: they should be the right of each and every child at school.
Anthony Seldon is Master of Wellington College and is a co-founder of the Action for Happiness movement.

Complete streets


 by: Gary Toth
“The desire to go ‘through’ a place must be balanced with the desire to go ‘to’ a place.” — Pennsylvania and New Jersey DOTs’ 2007 “Smart Transportation Guide.”
The “complete streets” movement has taken the United States by storm, and has even taken root in countries such as Canada and Australia. Few movements have done so much to influence needed policy change in the transportation world. As of today, almost 300 jurisdictions around the U.S. have adopted complete streets policies or have committed to do so. This is an amazing accomplishment that sets the stage for communities to reframe their future around people instead of cars.
But communities cannot stop there. Complete streets is largely an engineering policy that, according to the National Complete Streets Coalition website, “ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind — including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.”
Getting transportation professionals to think about including pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users is a key first step in creating great places and livable communities. But that is not enough to make places that truly work for people — “streets as places.” The planning process itself needs to be turned upside-down.
We at PPS like to say that engineers can ruin a good street, but they cannot create a good street — a street that is truly complete — through engineering alone. A small but growing group of communities have recognized that to really “complete their streets,” they need genuinely place-based and community-based transportation policies that go beyond routine accommodation.
“The design of a street is only one aspect of its effectiveness. How the street fits within the surrounding transportation network and supports adjacent land uses will also be important to its effectiveness.” — Charlotte “Urban Street Design Guidelines”
This illustration from Indianapolis's "Multimodal Corridor and Public Space Design Guidelines" reflects how the new wave of street policies specifies Placemaking guidance as well as how to accommodate all modes.
Communities such as Indianapolis, Charlotte, Savannah, San Francisco, and Denver have created community-based street policies that turn the transportation planning and design process upside-down, acknowledging that the role of streets is to build communities, not the other way around. The example from  the Indianapolis “Multimodal Corridor and Public Space Design Guidelines” illustrates how this new genre of street policies specifies Placemaking guidance as well as how to accommodate all modes.
PPS is helping communities realize a different vision of what transportation can be. We’ve worked in small communities in rural areas, such as Brunswick, Me.; Newport, Vt.; and Tupelo, Miss. We’ve gone to larger communities such as SanAntonio, Tex.Los Angeles, and San Francisco. On our travels, we’ve conducted capacity-building  workshops, helped develop street typologies, created visions for right-sized streets, and worked on community-based transportation policies.
Place-based plans, policies, and programs allow downtown and village streets to become destinations worth visiting, not just throughways to and from the workplace or the regional mall. Transit stops and stations can make commuting by rail or bus a pleasure. Neighborhood streets can be places where parents feel safe letting their children play, and commercial strips can be designed as grand boulevards, safe for walking and cycling, allowing for both through and local traffic.
Countries outside the U.S. are not immune from focusing on street design as an isolated discipline. After World War II, many countries around the world became enamored of a planning approach that was driven by traffic engineering. Some, like the Netherlands, reversed course relatively quickly and returned to community-based, livable street design. Ultimately, the Dutch went even further in the right direction, in part thanks to the influence of the legendary Hans Monderman (himself a traffic engineer), who developed and promoted the concept of “Shared Space.” Monderman’s designs emphasized human interaction over mechanical traffic devices. By taking away conventional regulatory traffic controls, he proved that human interaction and caution would naturally yield a safer, more pleasant environment for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
We are poised to create a future where priority is given to the appropriate mode, whether it be pedestrian, bicycle, transit, or automobile. Cars have their place, but the rediscovered importance of walking and “alternative transportation modes” will bring more people out onto the streets — allowing these spaces to serve as public forums where neighbors and friends can connect with one another.
In order to truly complete our streets, they need to be planned and designed appropriately, using the following guidelines.

Rule One: Think of Streets as Public Spaces

Not so long ago, this idea was considered preposterous in many communities. “Public space” meant parks and little else. Transit stops were simply places to wait. Streets had been surrendered to traffic for so long that we forgot they could be public spaces. Now we are slowly getting away from this narrow perception of streets as conduits for cars and beginning to think of streets as places.
A street in Amsterdam.
Streets and parking can take up as much as a third of a community’s land, and designing them solely for the comfort of people in cars, and then only for the most congested hour of the day, has significant ramifications for the livability and economics of a community. Under the planning and engineering principles of the past 70 years, people have for all intents and purposes given up their rights to this public property. Streets were once a place where we stopped for conversation and children played, but now they are the exclusive domain of cars. Even when sidewalks are present along high-speed streets, they feel inhospitable and out of place.
The road, the parking lot, the transit terminal — these places can serve more than one mode (cars) and more than one purpose (movement). Sidewalks are the urban arterials of cities. Make them wide, well lit, stylish, and accommodating. Give them benches, outdoor cafés, and public art. Roads can be shared spaces, with pedestrian refuges, bike lanes, and on-street parking. Parking lots can become public markets on weekends. Even major urban arterials can be designed to provide for dedicated bus lanes, well-designed bus stops that serve as gathering places, and multimodal facilities for bus rapid transit or other forms of travel. Roads are places too!

Rule Two: Plan for Community Outcomes

Communities need to first envision what kinds of places and interactions they want to support, then plan a transportation system consistent with this collective community vision. Transportation is a means for accomplishing important goals — like economic productivity and social engagement — not an end in itself.
Great transportation facilities truly improve the public realm. They add value to adjacent properties and to the community as a whole. Streets that fit community contexts help increase developable land, create open space, and reconnect communities to their neighbors, a waterfront, or a park. They can reduce household dependency on the automobile, allowing children to walk to school, and helping build healthier lifestyles by increasing the potential to walk or cycle. Think public benefit, not just private convenience.
Due to peak-hour design, Speer Boulevard in Denver limits the northward expansion of downtown Denver while remaining empty at midday. Instead of adding value to the community, it actually limits the city economically, socially, and in every other way. It doesn't even do what it was designed to do: solve congestion during peak hour. I-25, just to the north at the top of the photo, is bumper to bumper during peak hours. The 10-lane cross-sections become a mere parking lot.
Designing street networks around places benefits the overall transportation system. Great places — popular spots with a good mix of people and activities, which can be comfortably reached by foot, bike, and transit — put little strain on the transportation system. Poor land use planning, by contrast, generates thousands of unnecessary vehicle trips, clogging up roads and further degrading the quality of adjacent places.
Transportation professionals can no longer pretend that land use is not their business. Transportation projects that were not integrated with land use planning have created too many negative impacts to ignore.
Transportation — the process of going to a place — can be wonderful if we rethink the idea of transportation itself. We must remember that transportation is the journey; enhancing the community is the goal.

Rule Three: Design for Appropriate Speeds

Streets need to be designed in a way that induces traffic speeds appropriate for that particular context. Whereas freeways — which must not drive through the hearts of cities — should accommodate regional mobility, speeds on other roads need to reflect that these are places for people, not just conduits for cars. Desired speeds can be attained with a number of design tools, including changes in roadway widths and intersection design. Placemaking can also be a strategy for controlling speeds,. Minimal building setbacks, trees, and sidewalks with lots of activity can affect the speed at which motorists comfortably drive.
Speed kills the sense of place. Cities and town centers are destinations, not raceways, and commerce needs traffic — foot traffic. You cannot buy a dress from the driver’s seat of a car. Access, not automobiles, should be the priority in city centers. Don’t ban cars, but remove the presumption in their favor. People first!

Moving Beyond Complete Streets to Build Communities

Complete streets policies support these three rules. More importantly, they open the door for new ways of thinking about how the transportation profession should approach streets. But communities cannot get complacent and expect transportation planners to carry the whole load of creating great places. Instead, community leaders and advocates need to collaborate with the profession to tap their engineering skills to help build streets that are places.
Using an “upside-down planning approach,” this new collaboration can help the United State achieve success in tackling public health problems, climate change, energy consumption, and a failing economy. We can once again foster streets that are the cornerstone of great places.
To see the palette of PPS tools that are available to help you create streets that are places and foster “Building Communities Through Transportation,” visit ourtransportation services page.

Controlling Climate Change


The full second printing of the book is available for free as a single PDF here (22.6mb). 



Controlling Climate Change is suitable for classroom use, and teaching aids and study material are available. Consider purchasing a paperback, hard-bound or digital edition of the book through one of these sources.
The below listing of chapters link to complete PDFs from the book’s second printing.