Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local

Reviewed by Barbara Decker, Senior Lecturer/BSSW Program Director, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 5/31/24

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

A lot of ground is covered in this text, and the structure of the book is helpful in letting the reader know what to expect in each section.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The information throughout the text appears accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Chapter 14 on Hawaii seems most vulnerable to issues in this area – since the wildfires in Maui in 2023 are not covered. Also, information about the water crisis in Cape Town would benefit from having dates included – since it appears that the crisis has eased somewhat. I wonder if referring to the ongoing United Nations COP meetings might be a way to keep the text more relevant – so that students know that new international actions related to climate change are occurring frequently.

Clarity rating: 4

Chapter 1 gave a particularly good overview of the science underlying climate change. In most places, the explanations for more technical aspects were clear. A bit more detailed explanation of the importance of the S/N ratio would be helpful.

Consistency rating: 4

The introductions to each section help with consistency though the writing quality and style varies across the chapters.

Modularity rating: 5

The organization of the text into four themed sections with four chapters each works very well for assigning specific sections. Section 3 on communities and climate change seems a nice jumping off point for students who might want to investigate other communities – perhaps their own neighborhoods. Section 4 on the search for solutions seems a particularly good section to expose students to the research process used by the undergraduate authors of the text. I can see using the chapters in that section as examples to help students think through their own research process. I especially liked that the authors of the final chapter contacted relevant professionals to discuss possible solutions.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The organization of the book as a whole was clear. Including headings and subheadings within chapters would support the organization a bit more.

Interface rating: 4

For the most part, the figures were clear and supported the text well. Some of the figures were blurry, however. For example, in Chapter 10, Appendix 1 was not readable – and it looks like it contains some terrific information!

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Overall, the writing is clear. Occasional grammar and sentence structure mistakes are a little distracting.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

A more nuanced discussion of tourism and Native Hawaiians in Chapter 14 would have been helpful. Including information about organizations run by Native Hawaiians would strengthen this section.

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

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

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 their relative benefits and disadvantages.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The material is presented in an unbiased way. The goal for a book like this, with a controversial topic, is to present a complex topic to a generalized audience with scientific facts. I believe that they achieved this.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

The information presented is accurate, although it will go out of date very quickly, and probably already is out of date. If this book won't be updated regularly, it will not be useful for the college classroom much longer.

Clarity rating: 5

The topics addressed were done so clearly and concisely (although sometimes too concisely).

Consistency rating: 3

This book is written by several authors. There is a general cohesiveness to the work and structure, but it is painfully obvious that it is written by different people with differing purposes from one section to another.

Modularity rating: 5

The modules in this book could easily work into a classroom structure and schedule. The section topics would work well for a semester syllabus, but the content in each section is light and would need to be supplemented with some of the works referenced in the text or with other materials to provide enough context for even a 100 level college course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

I liked how this text was organized. It was out of the box and interesting. I particularly liked the section on "Communities and Climate Change" which talked about how specific areas of the world are affected by Global Climate Change...almost like a case study of those areas. I was really uncomfortable with the section on Hawaii, though. It seemed like it belonged somewhere in between the Communities section and where it was placed (in the solutions section). It would have been better if it were broken up between the two sections.

Interface rating: 3

I looked at this text in both the pdf and online versions. Some sections were fine, but many had very blurry figures that were almost unreadable. The very first figure (a pie graph representing the gases in the atmosphere) didn't even have labels in the pdf version), which is a bad example for students. However, it was animated and made more sense in the web version. I don't think I could present a book like this to my students with so many un-readable and blurry figures.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There were no major areas of grammatical concern.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Again, I thought the inclusion of various world areas and the impact of climate change on those areas was unique and useful for inclusion in college courses that seek to include diversity in the conversation.

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

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

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 communities, and examples of solutions. There are many sources cited at the end of each chapter for further investigation.
However I was a little disappointed in the chapters focused on specific communities located under the third unit, Communities and Climate Change. I did not see a clear focus, main point or lesson learned in these chapters. For example, the chapter on Boston was interesting in the historical view it took in how Boston was addressing climate change, but I would like to have seen the authors take a strong position or make an insightful point through this discussion.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Because I’m an ELL teacher and not science teacher, I can’t speak authoritatively to the content accuracy.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The shelf life of any textbook on climate change is going to going to be short because of the nature of the topic. This textbook is no different. There was much discussion of the Paris Accords, which is less relevant than it was 4-7 years ago. I also noticed that many of the sources in the post-chapter bibliographies were written before 2018.

Clarity rating: 5

The explanations are clear for someone who does not have a science background with friendly language for English language learners (ELL) students. The text is not overly technical or jargon-laced with short paragraphs, supporting examples that help clarify, and images and graphs to further support the text. That said, this is a textbook, and the text has the same limitations of the genre with a narrative that is objective, dry and often decontextualized.

Consistency rating: 5

Despite the fact and challenge of many authors writing a textbook – most of them undergraduate students in a class on climate change – I still found the text to be internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 4

Abstracts at the beginning of each chapter summarize the content and provide helpful previews. Some of the chapters end with a concluding paragraph that serves as a summary at the end of each chapter, but not all which is a little confusing. Chapters might have benefited with bullet points naming main points. Links for more information might have been helpful. But overall, the modularity of this online book is well-organized making it easy to assign different chapters at different points of the semester without consideration of the ordering of the chapters.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

Well-organized. Their is a clear organization to the content chapters with accessible previews. The major units go from science, to social impacts, to case studies of communities. And ends with solutions. Unlike other textbooks I’ve seen, the science of climate change is organized according to earth systems. Though the authors acknowledge that these systems are interconnected and the chapters reflect that, I wonder if this organizational framework makes it harder to see the whole interconnected picture of climate change.

Interface rating: 4

Clear navigational system. However there is not an option for a side bar with a table of contents that I’ve seen in other online textbooks that makes navigation much easier. Some of the graphs are a little blurry.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I caught no grammatical errors and found the writing to be clear and straight forward.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text takes a truly global look at climate change with case studies drawn from diverse corners of the world. There is also significant discussion around how climate change impacts people differently based on social inequities.

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

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

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 their choice.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Overall, most of the chapters are well-written and informative. For the last chapters, it appears the students worked on advocacy projects and presented them as part of a culminating activity for the course. If an instructor were to assign this book to a class, I would suggest reviewing chapters 13-16 to determine if they are all necessary. Chapter 14, in particular, was very well done.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book was co-authored by undergraduate students, and that alone should make it exceedingly relevant to undergraduate readers. Of course, the book covers climate change and human impacts. Our knowledge about these subjects is changing every day. It would be impossible to write a book on these topics that would not become obsolete within a short period of time. However, the book is written in a way to motivate students to do their own research and apply the ideas to other case studies. The case studies and facts should be relatively easy to update.

Clarity rating: 5

This book would be easy for college freshmen to read.

Consistency rating: 4

In the introduction of section 2, the authors introduce the terminology Majority World and Minority World Countries to avoid using derogatory language like developed/developing world, First/Third World, Global North/South, etc. The words are linked to a website that explains a lesson plan for students learning about global development issues. The words Majority and Minority are not defined in either the book or the linked website, but it is assumed that the combined Majority Countries have the majority of the world's population and the combined Minority Countries have less. However, these terms are not used elsewhere in the book.

Modularity rating: 5

The book consists of 16 chapters divided into four sections. Each section starts with a 1/2-1 page overview. Each chapter is about 6 single-spaced pages long. I can see assigning a chapter to my college freshmen for homework to use as a jumping-off point for them to conduct more research on each topic. For example, chapter 14 presents a five-point decision tree to evaluate potential technical solutions on scope, the problem addressed, the effect on the community and environment, implementation time, and cost-effectiveness. After reading this chapter, students can identify their own solution and evaluate it by applying this matrix.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The sections and chapters are very well-organized. The first section focuses on physical and natural processes related to climate systems. The second section explains human-environment interactions associated with climate change. The third section reviews four case studies to delve deeper into how communities around the world deal with climate change impacts. The examples examine communities at different scales (state, city, country, region).

Interface rating: 4

Very few (I noticed three) figures are blurry but are still legible. The authors include conceptual maps of each case study in Chapter 4 that are too small to read as-is, but can be read when zoomed in. The captions call them "appendices," but they are not available in the Appendix section. I was disappointed that there are only three pictures with people in the background in a book that seeks to integrate social and natural systems. The book could do more to visually "put a human face" on climate change.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not see any grammatical errors except in chapter 15, for example, "However, this system is the largest reason why stigmas spread quickly, and as a result, benefit perception towards nuclear energy is getting more increasingly rare." It is unclear what is meant by "benefit perception." There are other phrases in chapter 15 that impede comprehension.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

It is clear that the authors made an intentional effort to provide examples from all over the world - Siberia, Afghanistan, South Africa, and Hawai'i, are just a few.

Comments

I have been teaching a college-freshman general education course on socio-ecological systems for the last five years. I had to put together my own materials because there were no textbooks available at the time. The organization of this book is very close to how I've constructed my class. I will strongly consider using this book. It is sure to be very motivating to my students since it is written by their peers.