Hardback | |
February 28, 2014 | |
9780295993683 | |
English | |
312 | |
19 illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.3 Pounds (US) | |
$50.00 USD | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Paperback / softback | |
February 9, 2016 | |
9780295995601 | |
English | |
312 | |
19 illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.05 Pounds (US) | |
$24.95 USD | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Behind the Curve
Science and the Politics of Global Warming
In Behind the Curve, Joshua Howe attempts to answer this question. He explores the history of global warming from its roots as a scientific curiosity to its place at the center of international environmental politics. The book follows the story of rising CO2—illustrated by the now famous Keeling Curve—through a number of historical contexts, highlighting the relationships among scientists, environmentalists, and politicians as those relationships changed over time.
The nature of the problem itself, Howe explains, has privileged scientists as the primary spokespeople for the global climate. But while the “science first” forms of advocacy they developed to fight global warming produced more and better science, the primacy of science in global warming politics has failed to produce meaningful results. In fact, an often exclusive focus on science has left advocates for change vulnerable to political opposition and has limited much of the discussion to debates about the science itself.
As a result, while we know much more about global warming than we did fifty years ago, CO2 continues to rise. In 1958, Keeling first measured CO2 at around 315 parts per million; by 2013, global CO2 had soared to 400 ppm. The problem is not getting better - it's getting worse. Behind the Curve offers a critical and levelheaded look at how we got here.
About the Authors
Reviews
"Fastidiously researched….there are no clear heroes and villains…Howe relates a multi-layered conflict that is leading us to a catastrophe of biblical proportions."—Nick Walker, South China Morning Post
"In Howe’s Behind the Curve we have a good story, and an instructive one. It is not the only story to tell about climate change and it won’t be the last. But it is one that should be listened to."—Mike Hulme, Climatic Change
"Page after page, Behind the Curve demonstrates the profound tension between science and politics—or more accurately, the anxiety among scientists that their credibility would be torpedoed if they allowed themselves to be lured from the safe harbor of factual inquiry into the treacherous shoals of politics."—Chris Lydgate, Reed Magazine
Endorsements
"Scientists have proven to be right about the causes of a warming planet, but they have failed to stop the warming. Stopping it involves politics and economics more than science, and in this important book Joshua Howe examines how scientists and environmentalists– although both live in intensely political worlds—-have managed to get the science right and the politics wrong. This is not the usual story of heroes and villains. Howe tells a more nuanced story– a tragedy– in which a somewhat naive faith in science rendered scientists politically impotent in a complicated world. Few books published this year will tell a more important story."—Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford
"How shall we deal with climate change? That is not just an important topic but, from the standpoint of future generations, arguably the most important of all topics. Thorough and wide—ranging, this book puts the history of global warming policy in its full political and cultural context."—Spencer Weart, author of The Discovery of Global Warming
"Behind the Curve is a much—needed book on the history of climate science and politics stretching back to the immediate post—World War II period."—Mark Carey, author of In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers
"Scientists and activists concerned about global warming have long expressed frustration that progress in our understanding of climate science hasn't been matched by comparable progress in climate policy. In Behind the Curve, Joshua Howe offers an elegant environmental history to argue that this disconnect is not at all an accident: only by changing the way we think about climate science and policy will we finally bring them more into alignment. A must—read for scientists, policy makers, and concerned citizens alike."—William Cronon
Hardback | |
February 28, 2014 | |
9780295993683 | |
English | |
312 | |
19 illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.3 Pounds (US) | |
$50.00 USD | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Paperback / softback | |
February 9, 2016 | |
9780295995601 | |
English | |
312 | |
19 illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
1.05 Pounds (US) | |
$24.95 USD | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Other Titles by Joshua P. Howe
Making Climate Change History
Other Titles by William Cronon
Native Seattle, second edition
A Storied Wilderness
The Wilderness Writings of Howard Zahniser
Other Titles from Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books
People of the Ecotone
Charged
Communist Pigs
Other Titles in SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change
The Future of Sustainability Education at North American Universities
After the Flood
Science for a Green New Deal
Other Titles in Forestry & related industries
Ecology and Empire
Northwest Passage, revised edition