by admin | Apr 9, 2019 | Activism, Books, Chicago, Climate, Drought, Environment, Floodplain management, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Science, Water
I grew up near the shores of Lake Erie, in suburban Cleveland. After a seven-year stint in Iowa and Nebraska, I ended up in Chicago, where I have lived since 1985. The Great Lakes have been part of my ecological and geographic consciousness for essentially 90 percent...
by admin | Jan 28, 2019 | Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Floodplain management, Government, Natural Hazards, Public policy, Resilience, Urban Planning
Eroded hillsides have helped push New Zealand to adopt its own approach to risk reduction. Late in 2017, I received an inquiry from Oxford University Press. Professor Ann-Margaret Esnard at the Urban Studies Institute at Georgia State University had recommended me for...
by admin | Nov 29, 2018 | Books, Climate, Disaster, Disaster policy, Emergency Management, Geography, Natural Hazards, Public health, Public safety, Weather, Wildfire
Summarizing the major points from a densely factual book like Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future, by Edward Struzik (Island Press, 2018), is about as challenging as understanding precisely what is happening in the midst of a rapidly moving massive...
by admin | Nov 24, 2018 | Books, Careers, Climate, Disaster, Emergency Management, Environment, Natural Hazards, Public health, Public safety, Urban Planning
Just nine days ago, on November 15, I stood in front of two successive audiences of long-term health care practitioners to present workshops at a conference in Wisconsin Dells discussing, of all things, “Fundamentals of Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery.” Where,...
by admin | Jul 31, 2018 | Activism, Books, Climate, Disaster, Floodplain management, Geography, History, Housing, Journalism, Natural Hazards, Racism, Water, Weather, Writing
It has always amazed me how much time and energy has been wasted, particularly in the U.S., on the denial of climate change in the face of so much scientific evidence. Sea level rise is a directly measurable phenomenon. So are changes in precipitation patterns over...
by admin | Jun 3, 2018 | Activism, Business, Climate, Economics, Environment, Government, Politics, Renewable Energy
Last Friday, June 1, marked one full year since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from participation in the Paris climate accords that President Barack Obama had signed just two years ago. As too often is the case in this administration, one wonders...
