Environmental Cities

When biologist Hanna Bjørgaas spots a fairy cup lichen in Antarctica, she is surprised to recognize it from her own backyard in Oslo. When she returns home, she embarks on a journey into urban nature, visiting city parks, cemeteries, and concrete rooftops to investigate the species that live in urban spaces. Along the way, she meets corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, fungi, and linden trees—and the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive, and thrive, in the city.

From tenements, to alleyways, 20th-century American cities created spaces where pests flourished and people struggled for healthy living conditions. In Pests in the City, Biehler argues that urban ecologies that supported pests were shaped not only by the physical features of cities, but also by social inequalities, housing policies, and ideas about domestic space. This story reveals how pests thrived on lax code enforcement; the marginalization of the poor, immigrants, and people of color; and at the intersection of public health, politics, and environmental justice.

A tremendous upheaval is coming this century: with every degree of temperature increase, roughly a billion people will be pushed outside the zone in which humans have lived for thousands of years. While we can and should do everything we can to mitigate the impact of climate change, the brutal truth is that huge swathes of the world are becoming uninhabitable. Mass migration will remake the world in the 21st century, either by accident, or design—and as Royal Society Science Prize-winning science journalist Gaia Vince shows us, far better the latter.

Our modern-day cities might seem to represent our separation from the natural world. In fact, as Ben Wilson reveals in this captivating re-examination of urban landscapes around the world, nature has always been at the heart of the city. Wilson explores the wild side of cities, past, present and future: the middens, abandoned sites and strips of land alongside railway lines.

Barcellona, Manchester o Salonicco, Torino, Bari o Genova: cosa hanno in comune queste città? Il fatto che possono essere considerate smart, misurandole con diversi parametri che vanno dai trasporti all'istruzione, dalla sanità alla sostenibilità ambientale all'innovazione tecnologica. Smart city è dunque una definizione complessa cha allude ad una trasformazione delle nostre attuali città con l'obiettivo non solo del superamento delle emergenze energetiche ed ambientali, ma anche della qualità del vivere per il cittadino e per la comunità, sul piano sociale ed economico.

The Agile City engages the fundamental question: what to do about it? Journalist and urban analyst James S. Russell argues that we'll more quickly slow global warming - and blunt its effects - by retrofitting cities, suburbs, and towns. The Agile City shows that change undertaken at the building and community level can reach carbon-reduction goals rapidly. Adapting buildings (39 percent of greenhouse-gas emission) and communities (slashing the 33 percent of transportation related emissions) offers numerous other benefits that tax gimmicks and massive alternative-energy investments can't match.

Taking cues from progressive cities around the world, including Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Oslo, Shenzhen, and Sydney, this book is a summons to every city to make small but significant changes that can drastically reduce our carbon footprint. We cannot wait for national governments to agree on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and manage the average temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees. In Solved, David Miller argues that cities are taking action on climate change because they can–and because they must.

St. James City is a sleepy fishing village on the southern tip of Pine Island, Florida. It has one grocery store, one tackle shop, one church, a multitude of bars—and quite a few corpses. Fortunately, amateur sleuths Jim and Jill Story are always ready for another thrilling adventure. When some friends head out for a fun day of fishing for grouper, they catch more than they bargained for. They pull in a corpse from the depths which they recognize as R. V. Dodge, one of St. James City’s most notable and unpleasant characters. The investigation uncovers no shortage of suspects, as lots of...

Two men and a woman are waiting in a large modern conference room for a fourth person who is late. They are in a bit of a panic because he has never been late before. This fourth person, as the play develops, seems to be someone of immense power upon whom they are dependent for their own authority. As each of these characters in his own way breaks down certain unpleasant truths emerge further fueling their disintegration. Imagine a world where a group of mysterious and powerful people have taken control of everything, from the environment to the economy, from the media to the politics. They...

Greenpoint, Brooklyn has recently become one of the most attractive places to live in New York City. Greenpoint however, has a long and fascinating history. One of the first places in America to industrialize, Greenpoint's factories attracted immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, and many other places. Its rich history is characterized by many colorful characters, including famous artists, actors, and even notorious criminals. Discovering Greenpoint, Brooklyn on Foot allows the reader to trace that vibrant history through a series of themed walks that reveal the many aspects of the ...