by admin | Jun 2, 2021 | Careers, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster policy, Earthquake, Emergency Management, Environment, Government, Hazard Mitigation, Information technology, Natural Hazards, Nature, Parks, Personal history, Resilience, Urban Planning
I first met Ken Topping at the American Planning Association (APA) office in Chicago on a cold day in January 1994. Chicago was suffering one of its classic Arctic blasts at something like -20°F. Ken, a tall, very polite, and articulate gentleman, had his heavy winter...
by admin | Apr 27, 2021 | Activism, Books, Business, Climate, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster policy, Economics, Environment, Floodplain management, Government, Hazard Mitigation, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Politics, Public policy, Resilience, Transportation, Urban Planning, Water
President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill aims to fix much that is ailing in America, and its sheer size is drawing predictable—and short-sighted—fire from Republicans in Congress. The nation has a great deal of aging infrastructure, which will...
by admin | Mar 15, 2021 | Agriculture, Careers, Coastal Management, Disaster, Disaster policy, Economic development, Emergency Management, Environment, Geography, Government, Hazard Mitigation, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Parks, Public policy, Public safety, Resilience, Science, Social Equity, Urban Planning
Volcanoes pose a unique challenge for hazard mitigation and post-disaster recovery in the parts of the world where they occur. In the United States, these regions are along the Pacific Rim and in the middle of the ocean itself—in other words, the Pacific Northwest,...
by admin | Mar 10, 2021 | Activism, Books, Careers, Climate, Environment, Housing, Infrastructure, Nature, Public health, Renewable Energy, Resilience, Technology, Transportation, Urban Planning, Volunteerism, Water
About six weeks ago, as the Biden administration was first asserting its priorities regarding climate change and the environment, I reviewed a book about the positive actions already being taken by cities around the world in addressing the climate crisis. The...
by admin | Jan 28, 2021 | Activism, Books, Business, Climate, Energy Conservation, Environment, Government, Infrastructure, Politics, Resilience, Transportation, Urban Planning
One of the more remarkable facets of the political debate over climate change is the almost knee-jerk rejection among conservative skeptics of the science is that they abandon the same can-do spirit of capitalism that they would otherwise adopt when defending the...
by admin | Nov 23, 2020 | Activism, Agriculture, Books, Civil rights, Climate, Economic development, Environment, Government, Hazard Mitigation, History, Immigration, Industry, Nature, Politics, Public health, Public policy, Racism, Resilience, Science, Urban Planning, Water, Weather
A presidential transition has always been a time to look forward in American history, anticipating change, contemplating new directions. Sometimes we like the new direction, sometimes we don’t; sometimes we think it just doesn’t go far enough to remedy the problems we...