Climate Change from the Streets

Finalist for the John Friedmann Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

Winner of the 2023 Paul Davidoff Book Award, sponsored by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

Winner of the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award, sponsored by the International Studies Association

Winner of the 2021 Betty and Alfred McClung Lee Book Award, sponsored by the Association for Humanist Sociology

“Méndez’s argument is both urgent and fascinating: at the scale of the places where most people live, global warming can only be addressed as part of a broader public-health crisis.”—Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster
 
“A crucial addition to the climate change literature. Avoiding the normal view-from-on-high, Méndez gets down into the nitty-gritty of environmental justice campaigning, with all its tradeoffs, frustrations, and hard-won successes.”—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
 
“This timely book tracks the narratives and actions of multiple stakeholders in their responses to climate change in California. Amplifying the voices of environmental justice activists, Méndez skillfully interrogates their strategies to ensure climate solutions tackle both the global problem and local needs.”—Julian Agyeman, author of Introducing Just Sustainabilities
 
“Méndez chronicles the conflicts that have shaped California’s climate policies. Those who seek to form a durable—or any—consensus on national climate policy would be advised to read this book.”—Debra Kahn, Politico
 
“Méndez moves fluently between local communities, state-level policy debates, and international dimensions. His smart take on health, risk, and social movements is the account of climate justice that we so urgently need now.”—Julie Sze, author of Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger
 
“Michael Méndez’s Climate Change from the Streets makes a strong case that the climate crisis is more than parts per million and greenhouse gases and offers an excellent analysis for incorporating environmental justice and health equity principles into climate change policy.”—Robert D. Bullard, author of The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities

“This excellent richly-researched book connects evidence, public health, and politics to argue lucidly for equity-oriented approaches linking embodiment, environmental justice, and climate change.”—Nancy Krieger, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
 
“A first-rate—and first-hand—account of how environmental justice activists shifted climate policy in California, this is a must-read for understanding how grassroots activism can shift science, policy, and politics.”—Manuel Pastor, author of State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future
 
“Méndez’s refreshing approach engages the diverse embodied perspectives of a broad range of activists, the multiscale reality of environmental injustice, and the real work of making policy across difference. Climate Change from the Streets is an authentic, important, and necessary addition to the field.”—David Schlosberg, University of Sydney
 
“Michael Méndez carefully and thoughtfully demonstrates the multiscalar role of civic advocates in challenging established climate policy practice by embedding justice and public health impacts and goals in climate change science and solutions.”—Isabelle Anguelovski, author of Neighborhood as Refuge: Community Reconstruction, Place Remaking, and Environmental Justice in the City
 
“Climate change is often described in distant, global, abstract terms. This book remedies those shortcomings with powerful case studies of how climate change impacts people’s everyday lives and how everyday people have worked to shape policies to address these challenges. This book is a major contribution to the scholarship on climate justice and environmental justice studies.”—David Naguib Pellow, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice