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Read more about Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local

Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local

(3 reviews)

Marja Bakermans, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Copyright Year: 2021

Publisher: Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language: English

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Attribution-NonCommercial Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC

Reviews

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Reviewed by Kayla Rihani, Instructor, Northeastern Illinois University on 5/5/23

I thought that this book covered many areas related to Global Climate Change, but not all of them. It would have been good to spend more time of the solutions section; specifically to talk about more of the solutions that we currently have and... read more

Reviewed by Jeff Ellenbird, Professor of English Language Learning, Bunker Hill Community College on 3/20/23

Climate change is a huge topic that no text can cover comprehensively. However the scope of this textbook hits all areas I want in my class: the science of climate change, the social impact with a focus on inequities, cases studies of specific... read more

Reviewed by Melissa Haeffner, Assistant Professor, Portland State University on 12/4/22

The book covers several topics on socio-ecological systems, and it is clear that they are not trying to cover every single topic. Instead, they are providing a framework, and enough explanation so that students can apply these ideas to topics of... read more

Table of Contents

  • Part I. Climate Systems
    • 1. Atmosphere
    • 2. Hydrosphere
    • 3. Cryosphere and Lithosphere
    • 4. Biosphere
  • Part II. Social Impacts of Climate Change
    • 5. Climate Change Impacts on Food Systems
    • 6. The Societal Impacts of Climate Change on Water Resources
    • 7. Climate Change Impacts on Human Health
    • 8. Inequalities Due to Climate Change
  • Part III. Communities and Climate Change
    • 9. Puerto Rico
    • 10. Boston
    • 11. The Himalayas
    • 12. Fiji
  • Part IV. In Search of Solutions
    • 13. Rigged for Oil Rigs
    • 14. Climate Change Impacts on Native Hawaiian Population
    • 15. Destigmatizing Nuclear Energy to Decarbonize the Worlds' Power Supply
    • 16. Small Scale Carbon Capture Implementation and Utilization

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About the Book

Anthropogenic climate change is one of the, if not the most, pressing issues of our times. The problems that it causes range across many social and environmental domains from habitat and species loss and displacement to the more human and social concerns and issues of access to water, sea level rise that affects coastal communities, to economic degradation as a result of the aforementioned and other connected issues such as increased frequency of storms, droughts, wildfires, and the like. We also know that the affects of climate change are not distributed evenly across populations- that many will and do feel the negative effects of this slow developing problem earlier and more intensely than others based on where they are located both geographically and within economic and other socio-cultural hierarchies. We also know that recently, there is a marked effort to begin to move away from simply decrying the horrors of climate change to a continued recognition of those horrors as they exist now and into the future alongside attempts to begin to come to terms with the changing climate and to rethink the ways that our social and environmental relations and communities are organized with an eye toward both adapting to these changes and mitigating further damage. There is, however, much work to be done. This book was co-authored by undergraduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute while exploring the influences of Earth systems and human systems on climate change and the communities at most risk in an interdisciplinary project-based first year course. This course attempts to bring together knowledge of the science of ecological and climate systems and their changing status with knowledge of the social and communal structures within which these systems are embedded and through which they have been influenced. The book highlights key interests and insights of current students in their quest to think through these issues and to create a better world. 

About the Contributors

Author

Marja Bakermans, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

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