The Octopus in the Parking Garage : : A Call for Climate Resilience / / Rob Verchick.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press Complete eBook-Package 2023
• VerfasserIn: Verchick, Rob,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource :; 8 figures

One morning in Miami Beach, an unexpected guest showed up in a luxury condominium complex’s parking garage: an octopus. The image quickly went viral. But the octopus—and the combination of infrastructure quirks and climate impacts that left it stranded—is more than a funny meme. It’s a potent symbol of the disruptions that a changing climate has already brought to our doorsteps and the ways we will have to adjust.Rob Verchick examines how we can manage the risks that we can no longer avoid, laying out our options as we face climate breakdown. Although reducing carbon dioxide emissions is essential, we need to adapt to address the damage we have already caused. Verchick explores what resilience looks like on the ground, from early humans on the savannas to today’s shop owners and city planners. He takes the reader on a journey into the field: paddling through Louisiana’s bayous, hiking in one of the last refuges of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert, and diving off Key Largo with citizen scientists working to restore coral reefs. The book emphasizes disadvantaged communities, which bear the brunt of environmental risk, arguing that building climate resilience is a necessary step toward justice.Engaging and accessible for nonexpert concerned citizens, The Octopus in the Parking Garage empowers readers to face the climate crisis and shows what we can do to adapt and thrive.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- PART I Understanding Resilience -- 1 Let’s Talk About the Octopus -- 2 Adapt or Die -- 3 Sprawling Brains and Rubber Arms -- 4 Climate and Caste -- 5 Believing Is Seeing -- PART II: DOING RESILIENCE -- 6 Moonshot on the Bayou -- 7 Lights Out -- 8 Flash! Crack! Boom! -- 9 Yuccas, Gardeners, and Zookeepers -- 10 The Octopus’s Garden -- 11 The Long Goodbye -- 12 Persist and Prevail -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index