How cities can better confront climate change - WBUR News
How cities can better confront climate change | On Point
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How cities can better confront climate change
Climate change across America. Cities are particularly vulnerable.
So, hundreds of local governments have drafted plans to cut their carbon emissions and prepare for more extreme weather. Milwaukee is one of them.
But very few cities have met their climate goals. Why not?
"We build cities just like termites build their cities or beavers engineer dams. And therefore, they should be classified as a form of nature," Adrian McGregor says.
Today, On Point: We take a look at Milwaukee's climate plan, and ask how cities can do better in reaching their climate goals.
Guests
Erick Shambarger, director of Environmental Sustainability for the City of Milwaukee, where he leads the Environmental Collaboration Office
Joe Kane, fellow at Brookings Metro, where his research focuses on infrastructure issues
Adrian McGregor, founder and Chief Design Officer at McGregor Coxall, an urban design, landscape architecture and environment firm in Australia and the United Kingdom. Author of the new book “ Biourbanism: Cities as nature."
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.