Sharon Spray, assistant professor of political science and director of the Elon University Poll, has published "Climate Change," the first in a series of books. Details...
Spray and Karen McGlothlin, a biologist at the University of the South, are co-editing the series, titled “Exploring Environmental Challenges: A Multidisciplinary Approach.” The series, published by Rowman and Littlefield Publisher, Inc., is specifically designed for the interdisciplinary approach to teaching which is used in many of the courses taught at Elon.
Each book in the series will focus on environmental issues, balanced with contributions from the natural sciences, as well as scholars in the humanities or social sciences. “Climate Change” is designed to strengthen a reader’s understanding of the mainstream scientific community’s understanding of global warming and current climatic changes through chapters written from geological, atmospheric chemistry and ecology perspectives. The text also includes chapters from anthropology, economics and political science to provide insight into historical human responses to past climatic changes as well as contemporary economic and political responses.
In a preface to the series, Spray and McGlothlin write, “The series is not neutral in its basic premise. The various topics in the series were chosen because we believe that the topics addressed are environmental challenges that we want students to better understand and hopefully work towards future solutions…We care deeply about the environment and we hope that this series serves to stimulate students to take the earth’s stewardship seriously and promote a better understanding of the complexity of some of the environmental challenges facing us in this new century.”