Field Notes from a Catastrophe:  Man, Nature, and Climate Change
by Elizabeth Kolbert
2006, 191 pages, $11.16 from Amazon

Part I:  Nature – 4 chapters mixing background scientific explanations with first-hand accounts from various sites around the world
Part II:  Man – 6 chapters on responses and lack of responses from individuals, organizations, communities and countries

Rationale:  Global warming is a major phenomenon that will be affecting life forms on Earth and human society for centuries to come.  Now that there is general acceptance of the situation it is time to focus ourselves as much as possible on greater understanding of the issues and encouragement of countertrends.  This book, written by a New Yorker contributor and former New York Times reporter, has been likened to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which stimulated the modern ecology movement.  Kolbert chronicles human, social and environmental aspects of global warming in a style that one reviewer refers to as "vivid, technicolor reportage".  She concludes with the ominous warning, "It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing."

The topic is so far-reaching that a broad spectrum of faculty members may choose to have students read at least selected sections of the book.  English faculty could focus on the journalistic approach, business faculty could concentrate on economic effects, health faculty could address medical consequences and science faculty could help explain some of the more technical issues.  This book could definitely serve as a truly common reading experience for the entire CCBC community and as an incentive for our community to actively influence the global community.

Related movies:
An Inconvenient Truth (Oscar winner)
The Great Warming (2006)
The Great Warming (2003)
Scientific American programs hosted by Alan Alda
The Day After Tomorrow – fictional thriller that wildly compresses likely environmental effects

Play:  The Silencer by Rhiannon Tise

Sample ties to courses:
Environmental Science – habitat alteration                    Geography – landscape and coastline changes
Meteorology – hurricane intensification            Oceanography – shutdown of Gulf Stream
Biology – species extinction                            Chemistry – reactions of greenhouse gases
History – fall of civilizations                    Political Science – U.S. vs. Kyoto
Sociology – disaster dislocations                Anthropology – effects on indigenous peoples
Philosophy – personal and societal ethics                    Psychology – denial and avoidance behavior
Mathematics – non-linear feedback mechanisms           Astronomy – orbital changes
Information Technology – climate change modeling
Engineering – wind and solar power projects    
Economics – emission taxation            
Business – industrial dislocation
Law & Justice – local initiatives and federal inaction
Allied Health – public health crises        
English – journalistic activism            
Teacher Education – propagation of worldview shift
Health & Wellness – lifestyle changes
Arts – imagery as education
Physics – thermodynamics