New
Science, Culture, and Climate,
Edition 1 Navigating ChangeEditors: By Thomas Rickenbach
Publication Date:
01 Aug 2026
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Science, Culture, and Climate: Navigating Change is a timely textbook that makes an engaging, accessible case that solutions to the climate crisis require a deep embrace of science, infused with an understanding of the social constructs and history that forged our culture.
The initial chapter calibrates the reader’s understanding and significance of science. The next chapters describe how climate and life on Earth are deeply interconnected, trace the nexus of climate change and the evolution of human society, and demonstrate how our energy choices have inadvertently triggered a climate crisis. Subsequent chapters explore how people process risk as they respond to challenges, reflect on how major change was accomplished in America’s past, and examine global approaches and U.S political response to climate change.
The concluding chapter highlights the moral imperatives that form the basis of trust, to help pave the fraught road to lasting climate solutions.
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
- Provides a 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
About the author
By Thomas Rickenbach, Professor of Atmospheric Science, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA
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
ISBN:
9780443329289
Page Count:
250
Retail Price (USD)
:
Access to teacher/student resources is available to registered users with approved review copies or confirmed adoptions. To review this material, please request a review copy.
Students in undergraduate courses on Climate Change: Science and Society or Climatology