Rob Hopkins is the founder of the Transition movement in the UK, "transition" being the term for a process of creating more resilient and self-reliant communities. The handbook is a good guide and motivator to making changes at the local level and includes a compelling argument that peak oil and climate change must be addressed together.

This beautiful book is an excellent reference for coming to grips with that slippery but important issue, density. Density can have both positive and negative connotations -- and effects -- depending on its context and execution. The photos in Visualizing Density illustrate this wonderfully, and can help us get a better mental grasp on the variety of ways people can live at a variety of different density levels.

Originally conceived as a workbook for students in urban and environment studies, public administration, geography, and planning, Greening Cities shows how environmental concerns can be incorporated into local government policy.

The Natural Step for Communities is a guide to applying the science- and democratic process-based Natural Step framework to achieve more sustainable towns and communities. Full of concrete examples of localities where the framework has been put to use, it is an easy and compelling read, and the Natural Step formulation is a useful tool for explaining sustainability concerns.

This book is a complete primer for performance and investment analysis of public transportation. It provides a solid foundation in analysis methods and public transportation system design, along with ideas for incorporating unquantifiable social costs and benefits and measures of sustainability into an analysis.

This touchstone book by James Howard Kunstler (author of The Geography of Nowhere)offers a vivid and uncomfortable vision of a post-oil future. As a result of artificially cheap fossil-fuel energy we have developed global models of industry, commerce, food production, and finance that are now threatened with collapse. Building on his previous work analyzing American suburban (i.e., energy-intensive) lifestyles, Kunstler sketches potential outcomes that may result from our current dysfunctional economic and cultural patterns.

Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty is a guidebook on peak oil and global warming for people who work with and for local governments in the United States and Canada. It provides a sober look at how these phenomena are quickly creating new uncertainties and vulnerabilities for cities of all sizes, and explains what local decision-makers can do to address these challenges.

Preparing for Climate Change is the first major local government guidebook on planning for the impacts of climate change. Produced by ICLEI (best known for their widely-implemented Cities for Climate Protection local GHG tracking and mitigation framework, King County (home of Seattle, Washington, and one of the leaders of the new Cool Counties initiative) and the University of Washington.

Produced by the IEA after oil prices hit record highs in 2004, Saving Oil In A Hurry assesses of the potential oil savings and costs of rapid oil demand restraint measures for transport. The book examines potential approaches for rapid uptake of telecommuting, "ecodriving", and car-pooling, among other measures. It also provides methodologies and data that policymakers can use to decide which measures would be best adapted to their national circumstances.

"How Green is Your City?," by SustainLane Chief Strategy Officer Warren Karlenzig, is the first systemic report card ranking the sustainability of the 50 largest US cities. It provides analysis of each major city's management policies, strengths and challenges, as well as a survey of where clean technologies might break new ground to expand job-markets and tax-bases across the country.