Radical reductions in carbon emissions and inclusive engagement are necessary to address the triple emergencies of social, ecological, and climate crises. At the AMS Scientific conference 2024, Prof. Paul Chatterton illustrated the need for aligning urban planning with the urgency of the climate emergency and social justice with the most informative stick figures ever seen. The cartoons are from his book, How to Save the City: A Guide for Emergency Action, on how people can take action to make cities more sustainable, liveable and safer places. He guides the reader through a sequence of challenges, strategies, players, moves and practical tactics of how to save their city.
Paul is an urban geographer who calls for emergency action to save cities from ecological collapse and social inequality. His game-based strategy for engaging people in different ways makes for large-scale, far-reaching transformations, starting with the city county challenge. For him, gamification and visual multimedia are effective ways to unleash knowledge. The keynote speech also outlined his book’s 10-point plan to address global political challenges, with strategies for creating sustainable cities including transformative action for environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic viability.
Quotes:
“I call what is going on the triple emergency: The massive social, ecological, and climate emergency facing systems today. Record breaking weather events and carbon accumulations to the atmosphere, along with major social and political inequality. So this is not merely just a story of carbon reduction. This is a story of ecological collapse and mass social inequality.”
“How do we work on these triple emergencies? We know things are going in the wrong direction, but we know there is hope. My book’s message is hopeful because we're hopeful! This sense of what you're all doing at the AMS Institute, this entire audience: you know it, we know it. We've got all the insights and abilities and capabilities to make this great transformation. How do we supercharge that in a way that is deeply participatory?”
“We must stop talking about net zero because it's utter rubbish. It's a dead end. It’s not good for policy. It’s not good for action. It's not good for organising. It’s not good for academic rigour. But we need to talk about the remaining carbon budget. We need to know what it is at the city level, how much you've got left in the city and what you're spending it on.”
“I call my 10 point plan my learn, act, and build strategy. And it's about identifying those challenges, to be honest about and say, look, this is what we're up against as cities.”
“Going upstream, how do we link those downstream little actions that we all do: change to LED light bulbs, using our bikes, etc, to upstream power: how we allocate resources and how we make decisions. Really linking downstream with upstream, because they're all linked to different ways we intervene in the system. Showrooms, boardrooms, supermarkets: all those different places are points of intervention. We need to link them all together because on their own, one won’t create change.”
“Focus on the economy because “it's the economy stupid,” it's what we do. It's what we make. So change is a growth orientated, globalised, deeply commodified economy. So this is a de-growth, post-growth agenda. The economy is beyond growth.”
“Our global society is locked into the car for many reasons.How do we get this new vision of going beyond the car? Unless we unlock this, then humanity doesn't have a safe future. It's a keystone move, which will unlock many other moves in terms of biodiversity restoration, in terms of social equality, transport, poverty, radical carbon emissions, reductions.”