"This book is based on the premise that climate change is happening around us today and its impacts on our lives will be far worse than commonly acknowledged. It argues that many modern buildings are not only 'unsustainable' but are also having a catastrophic effect on the global climate. In a uniquely frank argument, the book illustrates that the only way we can hope to survive the following century, with our societies intact, is if we begin to radically reduce CO[subscript 2] emissions from our buildings, to stop building climatically disastrous 'modern' buildings and to develop a new generation of 'resilient', regionally appropriate, low-impact buildings, powered by clean, renewable energy, in which we can survive comfortably, in a warming world and in the dark cities of the future."--BOOK JACKET.