A Bramley-based environmental campaigner is launching a book which is a ‘call to arms’ to city teams to take emergency action over the climate.
Paul Chatterton, one of the leading lights behind the Lilac co-housing community in Victoria Park Avenue, has written How To Save the City: A Guide for Emergency Action.
The new book issues a ‘call to arms’ to take emergency action. Mr Chatterton says How to Save the City is a guide for action on the converging and accelerating emergencies of our age.
“While the climate emergency is the most urgent, we also face deep and long-standing social inequalities in health, housing, work, gender and race, the breakdown of our natural world, and the deep ripples resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
“These emergencies are playing out in acute ways in urban areas. Locked in to high-energy, high-resource use, cities are responsible for about three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ecological and carbon footprints far bigger than their city limits, and are the beating heart of our pro-growth, unequal, consumer-saturated way of life. To ensure a safe future, the city has to change fast, but how?”
Paul Chatterton engages and empowers all those engaged in city life to get into emergency mode and join up with others in ‘breakaway action coalitions’. He offers the reader a strategic plan, guidance and proven practical tactics to save their city.
The book is launched on Wednesday, 29 November, from 5.30-7.30pm, at Imagine Leeds – the climate action hub at 11 Albion Street, 7th floor City Exchange, Leeds, LS1 5ES. Reserve a free place here
Hosted by award winning Leeds-based presenter Peg Alexander, there will be a panel debate with local politicians, activists and business leaders. Signed copies available on the night for £10 (£15 RRP).
The book is available to buy at bookstores and online at Agenda and Amazon
Mr Chatterton is Professor of Urban Futures at the University of Leeds, and author of over 70 publications. He has been a campaigner on social, ecological and climate issues for 25 years. He supports Climate Action Leeds in their 10-year vision to transform Leeds, and lives in the award-winning co-housing community Lilac Grove.