Rebecca Solnit on land, climate, and culture

The Five Thousand Pound Life: Land, Closing Remarks

September 26, 2014

Activist and writer Rebecca Solnit, in dialogue with former Urban Omnibus Editor Cassim Shepard, discusses American identity formation in relation to land and settlement patterns, touching on the American ethos of “rugged individualism,” changes in environmental activism and attitudes toward conservation, and the role of community action in countering climate change.

Solnit is a writer, historian, and activist. She is the author of Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas (2010), Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas (2013), and The Faraway Nearby (2014), among others. She is a contributing editor to Harper’s and regular contributor to the political site TomDispatch.

The Five Thousand Pound Life: Land was a symposium on rethinking land and its value in light of climate change organized by The Architectural League and co-sponsored by The Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design in September 2014.

Explore