Columbia University Earth Institute Sustainability Primers

Aimed at a nonspecialist audience, this book provides concise and comprehensible answers to the core questions cities confront when seeking to develop legally sound local climate policy.

This book offers a concise overview of climate adaptation governance. In clear, accessible language, Lisa Dale presents the theory and practice that underlie climate adaptation efforts at local and global scales, providing illuminating case studies that foreground the problems facing developing countries.

Conflicts frequently arise over environmental issues such as land use, natural resource management, and laws and regulation. This book is a primer on causes of and solutions to such conflicts. Joshua D. Fisher provides a foundational overview of the theory and practice of collaborative approaches to managing environmental disputes.

This concise text offers an overview of the key issues in sustainable food production for all readers interested in the ecology and environmental impact of agriculture. It details the ecological foundations of farming and food systems, showing how to create sustainable alternatives to the industrial production methods used today.

This book is a primer on the essential science for grasping the workings of climate change and climate prediction. It is accessible for readers with little to no background in science, with an emphasis on the needs of those studying sustainable development.

This book is a primer for readers of all levels on the coming energy transition and its global consequences. Bruce Usher provides a concise yet comprehensive explanation for the growth in wind and solar energy; the trajectory of the transition from fossil fuels to renewables; and the implications for industries, countries, and the climate.