Climate Change and the Future of Seattle

Seattle is one of the most politically progressive and economically dynamic cities in the contemporary United States. This book explores Seattle’s current climate policy agenda and future climate challenges within the context of its historical, bio-regional, and metropolitan settings. While practitioners and academics have lauded Seattle’s urban sustainability and climate action efforts for many years, the analysis here focuses especially on mounting political concerns with social equity, income polarization, and racial justice in a “high-tech” city-region already experiencing the deleterious effects of global climate change. Drawing on a framework first suggested by the Urban Climate Change Research Network, the discussion considers major research themes like mitigation and adaptation policies; Seattle’s regional, national and international participation in climate action networks; disaster risk reduction and risk assessment; and the impacts of climate change and climate policy formation on the city’s most disadvantaged populations. Climate Change and the Future of Seattle will, therefore, be of wider interest to scholars and students at all levels in urban planning, human geography, political science, urban studies, public administration, and sustainability studies. 

Yonn Dierwechter is Professor of Geography and Planning in the School of Urban Studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma. His research interests include spatial planning systems, city-regionalism, and new urban geographies of sustainability.