Making the Global Local Responding to Climate Change Concerns from the Ground

Local communities play a key role in tackling the issue of global climate change. Are local places capable of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that they produce? If so, how can they be motivated to do so? If some aspects of the problem are beyond their means, what must be done to empower these communities? A study of four places in the United States is instructive for the rest of the nation-and the rest of the world. Additional informationNotes on contributorsThomas J. Wilbanks Robert W. Kates, an independent scholar, is currently co-convenor of the Initiative for Science and Technology for Sustain ability and co-principal investigator of the Association of American Geographers—Global Change in Local Places (AAG-GCLP) research group. He is a university professor emeritus at Brown University, where he served as director of the Feinstein World Hunger Program. Kates was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1991 for his work on hunger, environment, and natural hazards. He is an executive editor of Environment and can be contacted at rkates@acadia.net. Thomas J. Wilbanks is a corporate research fellow and leader of Global Change and Developing Country Programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His research focuses on sustainable development, responses to concerns about impacts of global change, issues of geographic scale and scale interactions. He is currently co-principal investigator of the AAG-GCLP research group. He has previously served as chair of geography committees at the National Academy of Sciences and has authored or co-authored numerous books and journal articles on sustainable development and global change. Wilbanks is a contributing editor at Environment and can be contacted at (865) 574-5515 or via e-mail at twz@ornl.gov.