Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate change, and politics as usual, Clive Doucet

January 30, 2008
Urban Meltdown on shortlist announced by
The Writers' Trust of Canada's
Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing - 2007
For more information - click on cover below (pdf)

In 1950, only thirty percent of the world's population lived in cities. By 2007, the planet's population has now doubled and today, as many people live in cities as populated the entire planet in 1950. Eighty percent of the planet's greenhouse gases are created by these energy-intensive urban centers. Thus, the key to creating climate change solutions resides with cities.

Author and Ottawa city councillor Clive Doucet provides a razor-sharp insider's perspective, stating his central theme: "It's not about planning. It's about politics." Climate change is proceeding so quickly not for lack of knowledge, but because politicians who deviate from the car-based sprawl model cannot get elected.

Urban Meltdown describes how we got here, why we got here, and what can be done about it, as evidenced by the author's observations that:

economic growth has no built-in environmental accountability
until the political thinking about growth and the progress model itself is changed, our environmental concerns will never be properly addressed
we need a new governance paradigm at all three levels
the cautionary tale of how the 1960s tried to take us down a different route but failed, not for lack of leadership but because the system didn't permit it

Urban Meltdown reveals, castigates and inspires. This is an important book for anyone who cares about thinking differently, acting differently and making a difference.

Urban Meltdown by Clive Doucet