As Climate Week approaches, Environmental Policy Press is highlighting Robert W. Collin’s Who Gets to Adapt?, which examines unequal access to climate resilience.
— Environmental Policy Press is highlighting Robert W. Collin’s Who Gets to Adapt? Environmental Elites, Blue Collar Communities and the Growing Climate Divide as Climate Week approaches in September 2026.
The book examines a question at the center of climate adaptation: who has the resources, protection, and opportunity to respond to environmental change, and who faces greater barriers to doing so?
Climate Week brings together policymakers, businesses, organizations, and community representatives for discussions surrounding climate action and its social and economic implications. Collin’s latest book contributes a community focused perspective to that broader conversation by examining how climate adaptation can affect workers, blue collar families, renters, rural communities, and other populations differently.
Who Gets to Adapt? Examines Unequal Access to Climate Resilience
Who Gets to Adapt? is the concluding volume of Collin’s Climate Adaptation Trilogy. The book moves beyond the question of whether communities need to prepare for climate change and examines how access to adaptation resources can vary according to income, housing, employment, geography, infrastructure, and participation in decision making.
Climate resilience can involve investments in infrastructure, housing, insurance, land use, emergency preparation, and community planning. While these measures can reduce exposure to environmental risks, Collin argues that their benefits may not be distributed equally.
“Climate change affects everyone, but the ability to adapt is not shared equally,” said Robert W. Collin. “Workers, blue collar families, and communities that helped build America should have a meaningful place in conversations about how communities prepare for a changing climate.”
The book considers the practical circumstances that can shape a household’s ability to respond. A homeowner may have greater control over property improvements, while renters can face limitations over changes to their housing. Families with greater financial resources may have more options following a disaster, while other households may have fewer alternatives.
A recent five-star editorial review of Who Gets to Adapt? further underscores the book’s central argument, describing environmental elitism as a framework for understanding how climate decision-making power can become concentrated among institutions with greater wealth and influence. The review notes that the book examines how environmental protection can increasingly favor those with greater resources while leaving blue-collar workers, renters, and rural communities to absorb more of the costs of climate impacts.
“The central concept Collin introduces, environmental elitism, is not a rhetorical flourish. It is a precise analytical category describing the concentration of climate decision-making power in the hands of government agencies, large nonprofits, universities, and the finance and real estate sector,” the review states.
From Climate Resilience to Human Flourishing
Collin approaches climate adaptation through an interdisciplinary background that includes environmental policy, law, urban planning, social work, education, and environmental justice.
A central distinction in Who Gets to Adapt? is between resilience and human flourishing. A community may withstand or recover from a climate related event while residents continue to face displacement, damaged infrastructure, financial pressure, unsafe housing, or repeated exposure to environmental hazards.
This perspective broadens the discussion about what successful adaptation should accomplish. Physical protection is one consideration, but community stability, opportunity, dignity, and long term quality of life can also influence how adaptation is evaluated.
“Working people built our communities. They should not be the last people protected as the climate changes,” Collin said.
That distinction between simply recovering from disruption and creating conditions in which communities can thrive also stood out in the recent review. “The distinction Collin draws between resilience and flourishing is the book’s most important intellectual contribution,” the reviewer wrote, emphasizing the book’s argument that adaptation should go beyond helping communities return to baseline and instead contribute to health, dignity, and opportunity.
Climate Week Provides a Timely Context
Climate Week 2026 takes place September 20 through September 27 and provides a timely setting for discussions about climate policy, environmental justice, infrastructure, and communities.
As part of the Climate Week campaign, a one-day advertisement is scheduled to run Tuesday, September 22, with the placement targeted to go live between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
The themes explored in Who Gets to Adapt? intersect with these broader discussions by examining how climate related decisions affect people differently. Questions involving public investment, housing, infrastructure, land use, insurance, and community planning can influence which populations gain greater protection from environmental risks.
Collin’s focus is therefore not limited to the physical effects of climate change. The book also considers the social and institutional factors that can determine who has the ability to prepare, recover, and participate in decisions affecting their communities.
The recent five-star review adds another layer to that conversation, calling the book “one of the most necessary books in the current climate conversation” and highlighting its examination of the relationship between wealth, power, environmental policy, and climate adaptation.
A paragraph may be added closer to publication to incorporate a relevant Climate Week announcement, policy development, event, research finding, or other timely development connected to climate adaptation, environmental justice, or community resilience.
Completing the Climate Adaptation Trilogy
Who Gets to Adapt? completes Collin’s Climate Adaptation Trilogy, which examines climate education, preparation, adaptation, inequality, and human flourishing.
The Climate Adaptation Generation: A Blueprint for the Future, an earlier volume in the trilogy, examines climate adaptation as a practical concern for communities, educators, policymakers, and younger generations.
According to information provided by Collin, The Climate Adaptation Generation received recognition from the Evergreen Awards as Best Environmental Book in the United States for 2025 and received a Runner Up distinction in the nonfiction category from the PenCraft Book Award Contest. The book also received a Silver Award in the Restorative Earth Practices category of the 2026 Nautilus Book Awards and appeared on the 2026 Green Earth Book Award Long List in the Young Adult Non Fiction category.
Collin has also stated that the trilogy has received awards and recognition across its three volumes. Audiobook editions are available on selected platforms, and a Spanish ebook and paperback edition of The Climate Adaptation Generation is planned.
About Environmental Policy Press
Environmental Policy Press is the publishing organization associated with Robert W. Collin’s work on environmental policy, climate adaptation, sustainability, and environmental justice. Collin’s work draws on environmental law, urban planning, social work, education, and community perspectives to examine how climate policy and adaptation affect different populations.
Additional information about Robert W. Collin and his books are available at robertwcollin.com. His professional and published resources are also available through Facebook, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Kirkus Reviews. Business inquiries may be directed to collinrobert4@gmail.com.
Contact Info:
Name: Robert William Collin
Email: Send Email
Organization: Environmental Policy Press
Website: https://robertwcollin.com
Release ID: 89203845
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