ABSTRACT
The warmest five years on record occurred from 2015 to 2020, and during that period the world saw record-breaking fires, devastating hurricanes and floods, widespread heatwaves and drought, and mass glacier loss. The climate crisis feels more like the new nuke, ousting the role the atomic bomb once played in people's shared nightmares. Climate events must be considered within the totality of human need, however. As of 2013, nine states failed to mention climate change in their state hazard plans and so local hazard plans may be the only place a discussion of climate occurs. Many urban planners link climate work to the municipality’s Emergency Hazards Plans. There is another aspect to climate change work, which the author refers to as “the call.” The call disrupts the comfort of ordinary life and leads individuals and communities on a kind of quest. Working to avoid calamity can bring communities together in a way few things can.
