Science, Culture, and Climate: Navigating Change makes an engaging case that solutions to the climate crisis require a deep embrace of science, along with an understanding of social constructs and history. Initial chapters calibrate the reader’s understanding and significance of science, with following chapters focusing on how climate and life on Earth are deeply interconnected, the evolution of human society, and how our energy choices have triggered a climate crisis. Other sections explore how people process risk as they respond to challenges while reflecting on how major change was accomplished in America’s past.
Concluding chapter highlights the moral imperatives that form the basis of trust to help pave the fraught road to lasting climate solutions, along with global approaches. This textbook is ideal for undergraduate students in environmental science and non-science majors studying climate change within history, anthropology, ethics, political science, engineering, psychology, and other disciplines. It is also useful for professionals in areas related to environment and sustainability, for advanced high school students, as well as for a general readership. Supplementary resource materials to accompany the book include narrated videos, in-class activities, and PowerPoint slides.
Concluding chapter highlights the moral imperatives that form the basis of trust to help pave the fraught road to lasting climate solutions, along with global approaches. This textbook is ideal for undergraduate students in environmental science and non-science majors studying climate change within history, anthropology, ethics, political science, engineering, psychology, and other disciplines. It is also useful for professionals in areas related to environment and sustainability, for advanced high school students, as well as for a general readership. Supplementary resource materials to accompany the book include narrated videos, in-class activities, and PowerPoint slides.
Table of Contents
1. Our Relationship with ScienceFact? Opinion? Theory? Belief?
The Power of Science
Science, Art, Religion: Tools to Make Sense of the World
Consensus in Science
Science and Politics: An Uneasy Truce
2. A Brief History of Climate Change
Climate A Quick Primer
So, What is Climate Change, Anyway?
The Concept of Deep Time - Opportunity from Catastrophe
How Has Climate Changed in the Past?
The Connection Between Life and Climate
3. Climate Change and the Evolution of Human Society
The Rise of Humans in the Ice Age
Leaving the Garden of Eden
Abu Hureyra
The Great Flood
A Respite
Over the Rise
A First Glimpse of Understanding
4. Recent Climate Change: Trends, Impacts, Projections
Here’s What We’re Up Against
It’s All About Carbon Dioxide
The Canary in the Coal Mine
Rising Seas
Peering into the Future: Temperature
Heavy Rain: Shifting the Odds
The Consequences of More Drought
5. The Nexus of Climate Change and Energy Development
Jaws of the Alligator: The Energy Challenge Ahead
The Four Great Energy Transitions
Energy Strategies: Contrasting the U.S. and Brazil
A Brief History of Global Carbon Emissions
6. How to Make Big Changes in the Face of a Challenge
Processing Risk When Trouble Looms
Gilligan’s Island
Strategies of Mitigation and Adaptation for Climate Change
Decisions: Should We Act on Climate Change?
How Change Actually Happens: Lessons from America’s History with Slavery
7. National and Global Response to Climate Change
The Task In Front Of Us
Environmental Science Meets Policy
The Kyoto Protocol
Shifting Gears in the United States
The States Take Control of Climate Action
The Paris Climate Agreement
The Way Forward in the United States
8. The Political and Moral Question of the Stewardship of the Earth
The Conundrum of Science and Society
American Perception of Climate Change
Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Will Climate Science Survive Its Death-Defying Leap into Policy?
Finding Our Way on the Rough Road Ahead
Trust Is Earned
Authors
Thomas Rickenbach Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Earth, Environment and Planning, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.Dr. Thomas Rickenbach is an internationally recognized, award-winning expert in precipitation variability and climate. Formerly a research meteorologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC, he is currently a professor of atmospheric science in the Department of Earth, Environment and Planning at East Carolina University. His research, funded by NASA, NOAA, and the NSF, investigates the connection between precipitation systems and regional climate.
