Sustainable Communities For A Healthy Planet

Sustainable Communities for a Healthy Planet presents an unconventional collection of ideas, practices, and ways of living together with the potential to enable long-term human and planetary health. Grounded in first-hand accounts from researchers, health practitioners, and social innovators across diverse fields, Katharine Zywert’s book argues that the most promising approaches often depart substantially from the incentive structures, goals, and mindsets that define the status quo and do not necessarily align with mainstream sustainability discourses. The book instead presents promising approaches that disrupt dominant ideas about mental health, ageing, and chronic illness; circumvent exploitative markets for medications, medical technologies, and professionalized care; attend not only to the health of individual human bodies, but to the health of internal ecologies, human populations, nonhuman species, and the planet as a whole; and embody alternative, more inclusive ways of practicing medicine within communities and ecosystems. The stories assembled in this book illustrate how human beings might live healthy lives, supported by health systems that are not dependent on perpetual economic growth. Sustainable Communities for a Healthy Planet challenges conventional ways of thinking about the future of health systems and asks hard questions about what it takes to cultivate human and planetary health in a time of rapid ecological, economic, and social change.

The vision of ecological cities is one that links ecological sustainability with social justice and the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods. ECO-CITY DIMENSIONS explores in depth the key features of ecological cities, demonstrating that real movement is under way toward implementing the vision of eco-cities. Illustrated.

Sustainable development - Yes! But how do we actually do it? This completely updated and revised edition of Mark Roseland's classic text is the best resource available for citizens and their governments on how to apply the concept of sustainable development in their communities.

The health of our planet and ourselves depends on how we plan, design, and construct the world between our buildings. Our increasing dependence on fossil fuels over the last century has given us unprecedented individual mobility and comfort, but the consequences are clear. Climate change, sprawl, and reliance on foreign oil are just a few of the challenges we face in designing new-and adapting existing-communities to be greener. Based on the National Building Museum's Green Community exhibition, this book is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health. Green Community brings together diverse experts, each of whom has a unique approach to sustainable planning, design, politics, and construction.

Scientists and policymakers have realised that localities are central to addressing the causes and consequences of global environmental change. The goal of the Human-Environment Regional Observatory project (HERO) was to develop the infrastructure necessary to monitor and understand the local dimensions of global change. This book presents the philosophy behind HERO, the methods used to put that philosophy into action, its results, and the lessons learned from the project. HERO used three strategies: it developed research protocols and data standards for collecting data; it built a web-based networking environment to help investigators share data, analyses and ideas from remote locations; and investigators field-tested these concepts by applying them in diverse biophysical and socioeconomic settings - central Massachusetts, central Pennsylvania, southwestern Kansas, and the US-Mexico border region of Arizona. The book highlights the unique focus of HERO regarding thinking and acting on complex, integrative, and interdisciplinary global change science at local scales, and is valuable for global change scientists.

A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world's leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability Sustainability has emerged as a global priority over the past several years. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges such as the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future. This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book's forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. The book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.

This book would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of each of the chapter authors. For some authors, writing a chapter was beyond their “9–5” job, and this book re?ects their commitment to sustainability at the local level for their communities. To every chapter author and their staff, friends, and families, thank you. This dynamic and paradigm-changing volume on the topic of sustainable development is focused on communities such as cities, schools, and colleges where the future of our families and children are most at risk. We must act today as each of the chapters represents in their presentations. This book marks a new era: the Third Industrial Revolution. The new age of the Third Industrial Revolution has been labeled by some as the “green era” or “green economy,” but it had already started around the world, especially in Europe and Japan, for over a decade – since the end of the 20th c- tury. More signi?cantly, the book highlights people and communities who have a shared concern and vision along with the will and determination to enact programs and polices that make sustainable development real – not just political rhetoric or “branding” or even the current “buzz word” for obtaining funds and grants. The book presents “The Sequel to an Inconvenient Truth” – actual examples of how c- munities can and have changed in order to mitigate climate change. Again, thanks to everyone and their colleagues.

Less stuff, less stress - more freedom, more joy. Our obsessive pursuit of wealth isn't working-people are afraid and anxious; we're destroying the planet, undermining happiness, and clinging to an unsustainable economy. But there's another way. Less can be More. Throughout history wise people have argued that we need to live more simply-that only by limiting outer wealth can we have inner wealth. Less is More is a compelling collection of essays by people who have been writing about Simplicity for decades -including Jim Merkel, Bill McKibben, Duane Elgin, Juliet Schor, Ernest Callenbach, John de Graaf, and more. They bring us a new vision of Less: less stuff, less work, less stress, less debt. A life with Less becomes a life of More: more time, more satisfaction, more balance, more security. When we have too much, we savor nothing. When we choose less, we regain our life and can think and feel deeply. Ultimately, a life of less connects us with one true source of happiness: being part of a caring community. Less is More shows how to turn individual change into a movement that leads to policy changes in government and corporate behavior, work hours, the wealth gap and sustainability. It will appeal to those who want to take back their lives, their planet and their well-being.