Abstract
In Chaps. 5–9 we reviewed the major megatrends that will affect society in the twenty-first century. Now, let’s take a look at how these trends may affect the cities and regions that we discussed in Chap. 4. The sustainability rankings are based on the following key factors and trends, and how they are expected to vary across the American landscape.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See The bug that’s eating the woods by Hillary Rosner in the April 2015 National Geographic for a description of how high temperatures are leading to widespread tree death due to beetle infestations and resulting forest fires.
- 2.
E. Rignot, J. Mouginot, M. Morlighem, H. Seroussi, B. Scheuch. Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith, and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica, from 1992 to 2011. Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 3502–3509. Doi:10.1002/2014GL060140.; IPCC 2013, ibid.
- 3.
International Energy Agency (IEA). 2014. World Energy Outlook 2014. London.
- 4.
Tverberg, G. 2014. Oil price slide – no good way out. Our Finite World. http://ourfiniteworld.com/2014/11/05/oil-price-slide-no-good-way-out/
- 5.
Geewax, M. 2014. Predictions of ‘peak oil’ prove slippery. NPR. http://www.npr.org/2014/10/17/356713298/predictions-of-peak-oil-production-prove-slippery
- 6.
Gold, R. 2014. Why peak-oil predictions haven’t come true. The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-peak-oil-predictions-haven-t-come-true-1411937788
- 7.
Ezra Pound, Canto LXXXI
- 8.
Cassidy et al. 2014. Redefining agricultural yields: from tonnes to people nourished per hectare. Environmental Research Letters, 8, 034015.
- 9.
- 10.
United Nations General Assembly (March 20, 1987). “Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future; Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Co-operation: Environment; Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development; Paragraph 1”. United Nations General Assembly.
- 11.
Elizabeth Becker. 2013. Overbooked. Simon & Schuster, NY. 449 p.
- 12.
C. Kerschner, C. Prell, K. Feng, and K. Hubacek. 2013. Economic vulnerability to peak oil. Global Environmental Change, 23, 1424–1433.
- 13.
William Rees. 2012. Cities as dissipative structures: Global change and the vulnerability of urban civilization. In: M. Weinstein and R. Turner (editors), Sustainability Science. Springer, New York.
- 14.
Catherine Tumber. 2012. Small, Gritty, and Green. The MIT Press, Cambridge. 211 p.
- 15.
Becker, 2013, ibid.
- 16.
Laura Parker. Treading Water. National Geographic. February 2015. pp. 107–125.
- 17.
John Edward Weems. 1957. A Weekend in September. Texas A&M University Press, College Station. 180 p.
- 18.
USA Today. Sept. 3, 2014. P. 1A.
- 19.
- 20.
Lynn Ingram and Frances Malamud-Roam. 2013. The West Without Water. The University of California Press, Berkeley. 256 p.
- 21.
Cook, B. I., Ault, T. R., & Smerdon, J. E. 2015. Unprecedented 21st century drought risk in the American Southwest and Central Plains. Science Advances, 1(1), e1400082.
- 22.
Ingram and Malamud-Roam, 2013, ibid.
- 23.
Hannah, L. et al. 2013. Climate change, wine, and conservation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110, 6907–6912.
- 24.
National Geographic magazine, November 2014 and references cites therein.
- 25.
- 26.
- 27.
Richard Forman. 2008. Urban Regions Ecology and Planning Beyond the City. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.
- 28.
Fragkias, M. Lobe, J., Strumsky,D., and Seto, K. 2013. Does size matter? Scaling of CO2 emissions and U.S. urban areas. PLOS one, 8(6): e64727.;
Jones, C. and Kammen, D. 2011. Quantifying carbon footprint reduction opportunities for U.S. households and communities. Environmental Science and Technology. x.doi.org/10.1021/es102221h;
Jones, C. and Kammen, D. Spatial distribution of U.S. household carbon footprints reveals suburbanization undermines greenhouse gas benefits of urban population density. Environmental Science and Technology. dx.doi.org/10.1021/es4034364.
- 29.
Hall and Klitgaard, 2012, ibid.
- 30.
Jordan Rappaport. 2003. U.S. Urban Decline and Growth, 1950 to 2000. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. 44 p. www.kc.frb.org
- 31.
Pimentel, D., Williamson, S., Alexander, C.E., Gonzalez-Pagan, O., Kontak, C., Mulkey, S.E., 2008. Reducing energy inputs in the U.S. food system. Hum. Ecol., 36, 459–471.
- 32.
William Rees, 2012, Ibid.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Day, J.W., Hall, C. (2016). Revisiting and Ranking the Cities and Regions. In: America’s Most Sustainable Cities and Regions. Copernicus, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3243-6_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3243-6_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Copernicus, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3242-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-3243-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)