Climate and Code

Climate change, the digital divide, and economic inequality are often treated as separate problems. Climate and Code shows how closely they are connected, especially in communities that have faced decades of disinvestment, environmental risk, and unequal access to technology. Drawing on research, lived experience, and work with global communities, the book examines how broadband access, climate resilience, and economic opportunity increasingly shape one another. It examines the lasting effects of redlining, segregation, colonialism, and uneven public investment. Climate and Code shows how those histories continue to shape who can access information, participate in the digital economy, and adapt to a changing climate. The book also centers the knowledge and experience of communities too often left out of technology and climate policy. Residents, local organizations, emergency managers, public officials, and community leaders help illuminate what resilience looks like on the ground and why solutions designed without local participation frequently fall short. Rather than treating technology as a cure-all, Climate and Code explores how digital tools, public policy, community ownership, and better investment can work together. It offers a practical vision for closing the digital divide, strengthening climate resilience, and building systems that allow more communities to thrive in an increasingly connected and climate-disrupted world.