C. Organize this framework for comparison and information retrieval according to a simple extension of
the POET mnemonic of the classic ecological model of community studies (Park and Burgess 1921, Bernard
1973) such that we P=Population; O=Organization; E=Environment; T=Technology; I=Institutions; and,
C=Culture.^41 The heuristic device of POETICs provides a handy referent for making comprehensive descriptions
of different places that can locate the city/region within a larger continent, within a complex trans-border
commercial trading regime, or a world system of social stratification, known as the developed and developing
world (PEWS). Organizing questions and data collection according to POETICs provides an easy-to-remember
device to encourage the systems thinking at the base of Earth Systems Science. Besides non specialists
working in communities of various sizes, social scientists may see links between their topical interests and the
de-carbonization challenge. The aim is to address the systemic questions of how material and socio-cultural
conditions combine with natural features of a geographical place and ecosystem type.^42
D. Refine this model of Community-Carbon-Change in Middletown, USA with information from communities
selected for relevant experiences in environmental disasters and severe climate changes, e.g., New Orleans,
Mississippi coastal communities, fire damaged California, tornado-struck Greenburg, Kansas. Others, like
Moloka’i, the first community the US DOE selected to test how community values could drive electricity self
sufficiency (Canan and Hennessy 1982). Add sociological research findings to the database once they have been
re-coded for geo- and socio-place locators.
E. Develop and maintain interactive database, organized by POETIC categories into which place-based human-
carbon-climate system research can be available to permit meta-analyses, immediate access to we could reply
academic practical inquiries like the following:
Dear all,
We are looking for information on cities in Asia which have developed climate change
action plans, either on mitigation and/or adaptation. ...Once we have an overview we
will share this with the Listserv. We are interested to find out (i) how many cities have
such plans or are working on them, and (ii) whether such action plans adopt a co-benefit
approach,i.e. integrate air quality or other developmental objectives as co-benefits of the climate
action proposed. Please send the information to meat [email protected] with
copy to [email protected].(^41) For similar sets of factors used in comprehensive overviews of the environmental impacts of human activities as captured by ecologists
and biologists, see MacKellar 1998; Lebel 2003; Abler 2003; Lambin 2001; Geist and Lambin 2003. See also sociologists Rudel and Roper
1996; Rudel 2001.
(^42) Consider the life that comes to mind with PLACE NAMES like the Bible Belt, the Dust Bowl, the Rust Belt, the Pacific Islands, the
Rocky Mountains. These place names evoke images of their unique configurations of topography, climate, natural resources, settlement
size, demographic composition, ethnicities, cultural practices, languages, political and economic activities, wealth, governance structures,
music, language, and even poetry. They certainly differ in their carbon budget dynamics. See Schulz (2006) for an empirical test of the
POETICs of PLACE model applied to Japan’s urban, industrial CO 2 emissions.