In this exhilarating look at cities, past and future, Ben Wilson proposes that, in our world of rising seas and threatening weather, the natural world may prove the city's savior "Illuminating. . . Wilson leaves readers with hope about the future of efforts to preserve the ecosystems that surround us, as well as a new perspective that looks beyond the concrete and asphalt when walking along a city s streets." AP Since the beginning of civilization,...

Shows city dwellers how to enjoy a more satisfying lifestyle and plant seeds for the sustainable future of our cities, homesteading by growing food anywhere, composting with worms, preserving and fermenting foods, diverting greywater to your garden, and cleaning your house without toxins.

This book examines some environmentally friendly construiction in design, architecture and construction.

"The rise of China and its status as a leading global factory--combined with an increasing worldwide desire for inexpensive toys, clothes, and food--are altering the way people live and consume. At the same time, the world appears wary of the real costs of this desire: toys drenched in lead paint, dangerous medicines, and tainted pet food. Examining sites in China, including the plan for a new eco-city called Dongtan on the island of Chongming, suburbanization...

"Visionary physicist Geoffrey West is a pioneer in the field of complexity science, the science of emergent systems and networks... Fascinated by issues of aging and mortality, West applied the rigor of a physicist to the biological question of why we live as long as we do and no longer. The result was astonishing, and changed science, creating a new understanding of energy use and metabolism: West found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes...

A new model for urban development is emerging in cities to aggressively tackle the realities of climate change. It transforms the way cities design and use physical space, generate economic wealth, consume and dispose of resources, exploit and sustain the natural ecosystems, and prepare for the future. In Life after carbon, urban sustainability consultants Pete Plastrik and John Cleveland assemble this global pattern of urban reinvention from the...

From urban design that suits the local landscape to zero-carbon living, this fascinating book looks at how cities around the world are adapting to environmental change. Readers are presented with real-life, eco-city solutions to issues such as water use in times of drought, and why green spaces matter. --from Amazon.

""Imagine a city draped in a blanket of green ... Is this the city you know?" This beautiful book of narrative non-fiction looks at the urban forest, starting with a bird's-eye view of the tree canopy, then swooping down to street level, digging deep into the ground, then moving up through a tree's trunk, back into the leaves and branches. It discusses the problems that city trees face such as the abundance of concrete, poor soil and challenging light...