Cities Through a Closing Window: Indigenous and Insurgent Climate Planning

Abstract

The International Panel on Climate Change released the Sixth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers, in early 2023, describing our current historical moment as within a “rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all”. The report emphasizes the significance of sub-national and urban adaptations in inclusive planning for infrastructure, land use, and coordinated resource consumption to avoid climate collapse. This thesis examines these three points of intervention through the lens of Insurgent Planning and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, arguing that both are necessary to meaningfully accomplish the goals articulated by the IPCC. This thesis outlines frameworks for an “urban mycorrhiza” composed of a Civic Climate Corps (CCC), a Climate Adaptation Planning (CAP) process, a Climate Optimization Modeling Program (COMPanion), and a New England Climate Accords. Such a “mycorrhiza” would use democratically articulated community priorities and ecological constraints to algorithmically optimize tax structures, financial incentives, and land use planning. These frameworks are situated in the New England context due to the projected inflows of people and capital and attempts to answer the existential question of how we shift urban metabolism towards one based in a critical climate consciousness.