Science, Culture, and Climate
Navigating Change
- 1st Edition - March 11, 2026
- Latest edition
- Author: Thomas Rickenbach
- Language: English
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 soc… Read more
Description
Description
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.
Key features
Key features
- Provides detailed overview of the social, scientific, and historical context framing climate change
- Explains key concepts from climate science, geology, history, anthropology, sociology, and political science that are relevant to the field of climate change
- Reviews global and national responses to the climate crisis and examines the politics of climate change in the United States
- Traces the importance of scientific discourse informing policy within a democracy and discusses climate solutions based on trust in science
Readership
Readership
Students in undergraduate courses on Climate Change: Science and Society or Climatology
Table of contents
Table of contents
1. Our Relationship with Science
2. A Brief History of Climate Change
3. Climate Change and the Evolution of Human Society
4. Recent Climate Change: Trends, Impacts, Projections
5. The Nexus of Climate Change and Energy Development
6. How to Make Big Changes in the Face of a Challenge
7. National and Global Response to Climate Change
8. The Political and Moral Question of the Stewardship of the Earth
2. A Brief History of Climate Change
3. Climate Change and the Evolution of Human Society
4. Recent Climate Change: Trends, Impacts, Projections
5. The Nexus of Climate Change and Energy Development
6. How to Make Big Changes in the Face of a Challenge
7. National and Global Response to Climate Change
8. The Political and Moral Question of the Stewardship of the Earth
Product details
Product details
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: March 11, 2026
- Language: English
About the author
About the author
TR
Thomas Rickenbach
Dr. Thomas Rickenbach is an internationally recognized, award-winning expert in precipitation variability and climate, and has published over thirty peer-reviewed scientific articles in top journals. After working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a research meteorologist, he is now Professor of Atmospheric Science in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where he teaches a variety of courses from radar meteorology to the societal aspects of climate change. His research has been funded by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor of Atmospheric Science, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USAView book on ScienceDirect
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