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Full Description
A visionary look at Central Park's creation as an urban success story inspiring bold climate action
Climate change is the existential crisis of our time. With extreme heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods displacing millions, many wonder: What can I do? Ten Thousand Central Parks challenges the despair of inaction, using the history of Central Park as an unlikely yet urgent environmental parable.
Created in the years immediately before, during, and after the Civil War, Central Park IS a radical experiment in urban renewal, transforming a chaotic and polluted terrain into an 843-acre refuge. More than a scenic landmark, it was a visionary public project that provided jobs, green space, and a lasting environmental legacy. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the park was America's first large-scale public works project, undertaken at a time of national crisis and built almost entirely by immigrants. Its creation offers a powerful lesson: even in turbulent times, cities can be reimagined, and large-scale ecological transformations are possible.
With over half of the world's population living in cities today, predicted soon to reach nearly 70%, urban green spaces are more crucial than ever. Morris argues that Central Park is not just an artifact of the past but a model for the future. Its 18,000 trees sequester nearly a million pounds of carbon dioxide annually, proving that ambitious, nature-based solutions can improve the quality of life while addressing environmental challenges.
Written with urgency and optimism, Ten Thousand Central Parks offers a fresh perspective on the climate crisis, rejecting doom in favor of possibility. We need projects on the scale of Central Park - thousands of them - to meet today's environmental challenges. This book - a boundary-crossing work of narrative nonfiction - is an invitation to think big, act boldly, and embrace radical hope.
Contents
Introduction: Why Central Park? 1
1. Once Upon a Time in 1857 8
2. Olmsted Seeking Olmsted 18
3. Paperback Writer 25
4. A Young Snowy Owl 33
5. An Unpractical Man 42
6. Enter Calvert Vaux 49
7. The Weeping Time 59
8. The Greensward Plan 67
9. The Wiping Out of Seneca Village 77
10. An Escape from Buildings 87
11. Sideways Time Travel 97
12. A People's Park 107
13. Imagination & Machinery 116
14. Big Artwork of the Republic 124
15. Decline & Renewal 134
Conclusion: The Fullness of Life 145
Notes 157
Index 175
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