It was a year like no other: 2020 brought a deadly pandemic, crippling recession, protests against racial injustice, and bitter political division—all against a backdrop of unprecedented climate change impacts. At the same time, we saw the skies clear over cities that are usually shrouded in pollution, along with a record-breaking (if temporary) drop in carbon emissions. We saw a long-overdue reckoning with systemic racism, including its ghastly toll in human life and its grotesque distortion of democracy.
However disturbing the reasons, 2020 was a year that ruptured expectations and forced us to step outside the rhythms of daily life. From this unfamiliar vantage point, we could imagine a different future, and at the Island Press Urban Resilience Project, we did just that. Through the creation of original articles and op-eds, we exposed what is unsustainable and unjust and offered alternative visions.
Our stories and solutions have now been collected in this new e-book Resilience Matters.
