Rob Verchick discusses The Octopus in the Parking Garage with guest Antonia Juhasz.

Buy your copy of the book here: https://shop.lostcitybookstore.com/book/9780231203548

About The Octopus in the Parking Garage:

One cloudy day in Miami, an octopus was found in the parking garage of a fancy condominium complex. How it got there is a tale of quirky plumbing and climate breakdown. (In brief, sea-level rise caused a storm drain to reverse and burp out the cephalopod.) A funny Instagram meme, "the octopus in the parking garage" is also an eight-armed alarm bell, part of an urgent call to prepare ourselves for all the things that soaring heat, rising seas, and suped-up storms can do to us. It's a call for communities to develop climate resilience. That means "bouncing back better." Or as an expert might say, managing and recovering from a climate impact in a way that allows a community to learn, adapt, and thrive. This book explains, to non-experts, how we can manage current and future hazards of climate change that we can no longer avoid. How do we reach across party lines and get people to care more? How do we make plans that are flexible enough to handle surprises? How do we involve and address disadvantaged communities, which already bear the brunt of environmental risk? When do we resist? When do we adjust? When do we retreat? And by the way, who gets to decide? The book will take readers on a community-oriented journey, laying out the options and offering guidelines and insights to shape the conversation

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Rob Verchick is a leading climate law scholar who designed and implemented climate-resilience policies in the Obama administration. He holds the Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans and serves as board president of the Center for Progressive Reform. In 2023-24, he will be a Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Verchick is the author of four books and the host of the podcast CPR’s Connect the Dots. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University (’86) and a law degree from Harvard University (’89).

Antonia Juhasz is a leading energy and climate author and investigative journalist. She is the senior researcher on fossil fuels at Human Rights Watch. An award-winning writer, her bylines include Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, CNN.com, The Nation, Ms., The Advocate, The Guardian, and many more. Antonia is the author of three books: Black Tide (2011), The Tyranny of Oil (2008), and The Bush Agenda (2006).

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Accessibility note: This event is up two flights of stairs and Lost City Books does not have an elevator. This event will be simultaneously live streamed on our YouTube page!