urban resilience project

Building Climate Resilience at the Water's Edge

By Rebecca Wodder / On March 30th, 2016
We live in challenging times. The shocks and stresses of global warming affect every community in one form or another. Rising seas and storm surges swamp coastal communities. Floods and droughts of biblical proportions are visited on city dwellers and farmers alike. Forest fires and landslides follow in the wake of dying trees and barren hillsides. Unfamiliar viruses travel northward with pests whose ranges expand with warmer temperatures

World Water Day – Woodstock, NY Fights Water Battle & Wins!

By Pamela Boyce Simms / On March 22nd, 2016
An attempted Niagara Bottling Company water grab in iconic Woodstock New York was a defining moment for Rachel Marco Havens. In Rachel’s words, her story is about “a beautiful lake in a little town with a BIG voice, and the taxpayer-funded, corporate water grab that almost happened.” 

What happens when NAACP leaders becomes climate activists?

By Laurie Mazur / On February 29th, 2016
Kathy Egland was one of the first black students to desegregate her high school in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 1967. As a child and young adult, she marched for the right to vote and against segregated buses and drinking fountains. Now she’s fighting for the right to a clean, safe environment, serving as chair of the NAACP National Board’s committee on environmental and climate justice.

Disaster assistance (finally!) takes nature into account

By Laurie Mazur / On February 23rd, 2016
If a tree falls in the forest, what does it cost? From the perspective of federal disaster assistance, the answer traditionally has been “not much.” But now — thanks to improved number-crunching — the federal government is taking nature into account when it tallies the cost of disasters.

For a Resilient Future, Put Community First

By Pamela Boyce Simms / On January 24th, 2016
Imagine a respite from the relentless torrent of bad news! Both The Transition Towns (Transition) and  Intentional Communities movements facilitate secession, to varying degrees, from the exploitive culture that surrounds us, and build alternatives that are supported by broad networks.  Now the two movements have joined together to share lessons learned about egalitarian community building.

Terrorism is Americans’ #1 concern. We have bigger problems

By Denise Fairchild / On January 21st, 2016
Tuesday night—in his final State of the Union address—President Obama asked us to face the future with hope, not fear. He spoke to a nation that has grown increasingly fearful: Since Obama’s last address, terrorism has emerged as Americans’ No. 1 concern, edging out perennial worries about the economy and jobs.

What happens when disaster strikes during gridlock?

By Laurie Mazur / On January 13th, 2016
I was late for an appointment, sitting in traffic on one of the major arteries out of Washington DC. It was miserable, barely moving traffic of the kind that makes you whimper with frustration as yet another green light turns yellow, then red, as you inch along

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