New Books in Pc Activist Catalog

Now we need a book about farming and gardening responses to climate change.

Extreme Weather Hits Home
Protecting Your Buildings from Climate Change
By John C. Banta
256pp, 2007, $23

We know how to prepare our homes for each seasonal change, but do we know how to prepare for climate change? Violent weather events like floods, tornadoes, ice storms and hurricanes only tell part of the story. Climate change is frequently more subtle but its effects on our homes and properties can still be devastating.

Nearly 50 percent of North America has a potential for structural damage from shifting moisture in expansive clay soils; a condition that is already costing billions of dollars each year. Humidity is projected to increase, trapping moisture in wall cavities and resulting in deterioration. As the climate changes and moisture levels adjust, there are a number of proactive steps that can be taken to prevent or lessen expensive repairs.

Extreme Weather is the only book of its kind that shows how to protect your home or business from climate change, by focusing on the following areas:

* Risk and causal assessment, due to region and soil
* Extreme weather’s rapid and slow effects
* Site, foundation, wall, and roof considerations and modifications
* Insurance options
* Anticipated changes for the United States, Canada and Mexico

Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty:
A Guidebook on Peak Oil and Global Warming for Local Governments
by Daniel Lerch 2007, 113pp, $28

Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty is a guidebook on peak oil and global warming for people who work with and for local governments in the United States and Canada. It provides a sober look at how these phenomena are quickly creating new uncertainties and vulnerabilities for cities of all sizes, and explains what local decision-makers can do to address these challenges.

Post Carbon Cities fills an important gap in the resources currently available to local government decision-makers on planning for the changing global energy and climate context of the 21st century.

"How will we cope with a future of energy scarcity? As a policy maker I look to other communities for inspiration and ideas, but there's been a lack of information on what local governments are doing to adapt to Peak Oil. Post Carbon Cities fills this gap: herein lies the roadmap plotted by the cities that are leading the way. Enthusiastically recommended!"
Dave Rollo, City Council President, Blooomington, Indiana

"Post Carbon Cities is an exceptionally clear and comprehensive call-to-action to those who actually work in the trenches of city governance. We don't have any more time to waste getting ready for an energy-scarcer future, and for those who remain dazed and confused, this book is an excellent place to start."
--James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and The Geography of Nowhere