Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level in the United States

The concept of community, in all its diverse definitions and manifestations, provides a unique approach to learn more about how groups of individuals and organizations are addressing the challenges posed by climate change. This new volume highlights specific cases of communities developing innovative approaches to climate mitigation and adaptation around the United States. Defining community more comprehensively than just spatial geography to include also communities of interest, identity and practice, this book highlights how individuals and organizations are addressing the challenges posed by climate change through more resilient social processes, government policies and sustainable practices. Through close examinations of community efforts across the United States, including agricultural stakeholder engagement and permaculture projects, coastal communities and prolonged drought areas, and university extension and local governments, this book shows the influence of building individual and institutional capacity toward addressing climate change issues at the community level. It will be useful to community development students, scholars and practitioners learning to respond to unexpected shocks and address chronic stress associated with climate change and its impacts.

Chapter 1: Community Approaches to Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century Paul Lachapelle and Don Albrecht SECTION ONE: COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST AND IDENTITY Chapter 2: Earth's Changing Climate: A Community Primer Rob Davies Chapter 3: Public Opinion on Climate Change in Rural America: A Potential Barrier to Resilience Shawn K. Olson-Hazboun and Peter D. Howe Chapter 4: Building Local Resilience to Climate Change through Citizen Science, Environmental Education, and Decision-making Erin E. Posthumus, LoriAnne Barnett, Theresa M. Crimmins, Jody Einerson, Esperanza Stancioff and Peter L. Warren Chapter 5: Creating a Civic Spark: Using AmeriCorps National Service to Catalyze Rural Climate Change Action Kif Scheuer, Kristen Wraith and Kristin Brubaker Chapter 6: Participatory Research to Assess the Climate Resiliency of Snow-fed River Dependent Communities: A Collaborative Modeling Case Study in the Truckee-Carson River System Loretta Singletary and Kelley Sterle Chapter 7: Nevada’s Approach to Minimizing the Risk from Prolonged Drought Mark Walker and Kerri Jean Ormerod SECTION TWO: COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE Chapter 8: Mitigating Projected Impacts of Climate Change and Building Resiliency through Permaculture Roslynn Brain McCann, Jeremy Lynch and Jeff Adams Chapter 9: Engaging Southeastern Science Educators in the Development of a Climate Change Instructional Module Martha C. Monroe and Annie Oxarart Chapter 10: Engaging with Michigan Agricultural Stakeholders to Address Climate Change Julie E. Doll and Claire Needham Bode Chapter 11: Communicating Climate Change at the Community Level Huston Gibson Chapter 12: University Extension Communities of Practice: Learning, Communicating, and Engaging on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the United States Corn Belt Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, J. Arbuckle, Jamie Benning, Lois Wright Morton and Adam Wilke SECTION THREE: COMMUNITIES OF PLACE Chapter 13: Variables Influencing the Adoption of Sustainability Programs by Local Governments John J. Duffy and Susan Todd Chapter 14: Supporting Climate Adaptation Planning in Northwest Alaska Nathan P. Kettle, Josephine-Mary Sam, Sarah F. Trainor and Glenn T. Gray Chapter 15: Financial Resilience of Local Government Impacted by Natural Disasters: A Framework for Calculating Climate Change Risk Liability J. Matthew Fannin Chapter 16: The Role of Community Capitals in Climate Change Adaptation in Binational Setting Kristen A. Goodrich, Danielle Boudreau, Jeffrey A. Crooks, Ana Eguiarte and Julio Lorda Chapter 17: Engaging Citizens to Address Community Climate Change Issues Daniel Kahl and Amber Campbell Chapter 18 : Local Adaptation to Climate Change: What Comes Next? Don Albrecht and Paul Lachapelle

Paul Lachapelle is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Montana State University-Bozeman USA. His teaching and research spans many disciplines and practices; from community climate change resiliency to social impact investing to diversity, inclusion and social justice topics. His publications include the edited book in this current series, "Addressing Climate Change at the Community Level" (Routledge 2019) as well as journal articles on energy impacts in communities, democratic practice and local governance, and community visioning. He earned a Ph.D. (Forestry) at the University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation with a focus on natural resource policy and governance and serves as Editor of the Community Development Society Current Issues Book Series and member of the Board of Directors (and past-President) of the International Association for Community Development. Don Albrecht began his role as the Director of the Western Rural Development Center in July 2008. He received a B.S. in Forestry, an M.S. in Sociology from Utah State University and a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology from Iowa State University. He then served as a member of the faculty at Texas A&M University for 27 years where he worked in the Departments of Rural Sociology and Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences. He has researched and written extensively on the issues confronting the communities and residents of rural America. Among the issues explored are natural resource concerns, economic restructuring, demographic trends, poverty, inequality and education.