19: Local Solutions
- Page ID
- 41715
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)KEITH PEZZOLI UC San Diego, Bioregional Center for Sustainability Science, Planning and Design
This chapter has four main learning objectives, the accomplishment of which will enable you to do the following:
- Explain localization. Explain why so many global scientific organizations and international agencies are now claiming that the commitments and actions of cities and other local subnational entities (for example, counties, port districts, metropolitan planning organizations) are vital to averting climate change disaster on a planetary scale.
- Describe green infrastructure. Describe how green infrastructure is being used in local climate action plans and ecological landscape design to address flooding and drought while meeting climate change mitigation and adaptation goals on a bioregional scale.
- Analyze natural climate solutions. Identify potential benefits of natural climate solutions (for example, urban agriculture, food forests, carbon farming) and hybrid solutions that couple human and natural systems (for example, community composting, anaerobic biodigesters, aquaponics) from social justice, economic efficiency, ecological sustainability, and resilience perspectives.
- Define rooted university. Assess from an ethical standpoint the current and potential role of universities in creating and helping to advance climate change solutions. List one or more ways you can improve science-society relations by linking climate change knowledge and action through community engagement.
This chapter will also examine the power of narratives and framing to help you become a good climate change solutions communicator. The chapter content you’ll need to meet these learning objectives is organized in four sections:
- 19.1 Localization and the Bioregional Transition
- 19.2 Green Infrastructure and Climate Action Planning
- 19.3 Natural Climate Solutions and Hybrid Approaches
- 19.4 Rooted Universities and the Green Infrastructure Nexus
Overview
The combined impact of anthropogenic climate change and ecological degradation worldwide poses an existential threat to humanity. Significant global and national efforts are underway to accelerate climate change mitigation and adaptation. But there is a rising concern that these efforts may be too little too late. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and many other reputable science-based organizations are sounding the alarm. That is, that much more needs to be done, and quickly, if we are to avert devastating climate disruption. The fact that Earth’s land, water, and ecosystems are subject to mounting cumulative stresses from unsustainable development practices greatly complicates matters.
This chapter focuses on what we can do about this problem, now and going into the future. We’ll be exploring local solutions that involve people working together where they live and work. This raises some key questions for you to ponder: Which of these place-based solutions should we try to better understand, rally around, improve, and share? Which factors are most essential to the success of solutions? Is it the science and technology; community engagement; cultural, political, and/ or economic system change; some combination of these? This chapter concentrates on identifying and examining climate change solutions that are local and bioregional. In particular, we will concentrate on natural climate solutions and green infrastructure.
Natural climate solutions can remove significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere through better stewardship of natural and working lands. Examples include land management practices that increase carbon storage and/or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through ecological restoration, wetland protection, regenerative agriculture, community composting, carbon farming, and reforestation. Natural climate solutions are taking place in both rural and urban environments. The results are sometimes mixed (good and not so good) and thus need to be more closely studied and understood.
Green infrastructure incorporates the functioning of natural systems like trees, soil, and waterways into human-built systems designed to improve environmental services (for example, storm water management and flood control, ecological conservation, and drought-resistant landscaping in the public realm). Green infrastructure provides solutions to climate change through physical planning and design that integrates ecological systems, land use, and the built environment. Green infrastructure is included in a growing number of climate action plans.
Natural climate solutions and green infrastructure are woven together in this chapter as part of a bioregional approach taking into account local-global and urban-rural relationships. The term bioregion is a place-based concept that is not solely urban nor solely rural; it is a territorial space composed of urban-rural linkages. The bioregional frame enables us to think about a city-region as a functioning whole including relationships among urban centers, towns, and natural and working lands. Strengthening urban-rural linkages through a bioregional approach can help bolster support for climate change solutions.
Bioregional imagination helps inspire ideas, innovation, and civic engagement needed to create an equitable green economy with good jobs while improving community health and well-being, minimizing waste, and regenerating ecosystems. Along such lines, this chapter presents the idea of a bioregional transition and points to what some universities are doing to help navigate this transition. One example is the creation of a green infrastructure nexus, a social and technical concept that provides a narrative that values justice and democracy in science-society relations. Our prospects for successfully “bending the curve” depend on our strengthening democratically inclusive and informed participation in sustainability science, planning, and design.
The green infrastructure nexus can help society meet human needs (for example, for food, water, energy, resilient and healthy life space) while supporting local and bioregional development that is climate friendly, resilient, and regeneratively sustainable. This chapter encourages you to ponder whether something like a green infrastructure nexus, supporting natural climate solutions along with other approaches, can help bring about a climate-friendly land ethic and rooted democracy.
Much of the technical data and observations provided in this chapter are derived from assessments, special reports, and conference proceedings published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; United Nations; and university centers and institutes. Other sources include scholarly literature spanning the social, natural, physical, and life sciences; arts and humanities; and engineering, management, planning, and design. Chapter sections that highlight particular cases unfolding in Southern California and Northern Baja California, Mexico, are mostly derived from the author’s direct engagement and participant observation in these cases over the course of three decades.