Global warming interacts in multiple ways with ecological and social systems in Northern America. While the US and Canada belong to the world’s largest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, the Arctic north of the continent as well as the Deep South are already affected by a changing climate. In
Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America academics from various fields such as anthropology, art history, educational studies, cultural studies, environmental science, history, political science, and sociology explore society–nature interactions in – culturally as well as ecologically – one of the most diverse regions of the world.
Contributors include: Omer Aijazi, Roland Benedikter, Maxwell T. Boykoff, Eugene Cordero, Martin David, Demetrius Eudell, Michael K. Goodman, Frederic Hanusch, Naotaka Hayashi, Jürgen Heinrichs, Grit Martinez, Antonia Mehnert, Angela G. Mertig, Michael J. Paolisso, Eleonora Rohland, Karin Schürmann, Bernd Sommer, Kenneth M. Sylvester, Anne Marie Todd, Richard Tucker, and Sam White.
Bernd Sommer is a sociologist and head of the research division “Climate, Culture & Sustainability” at the Norbert Elias Center for
Transformation Design & Research, European University Flensburg, Germany. In his research, he deals with the cultural and social dimensions of climate change as well as transformations of carbon-based societies.
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Glossary of Terms
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Climates and Cultures in Northern America - Bernd Sommer
Part 1: Ideas
1 The “American Way of Life” and US Views on Climate Change and the Environment - Roland Benedikter, Eugene Cordero and Anne Marie Todd
2 From Conservationists to Environmentalists: The American Environmental Movement - Angela G. Mertig
3 The Role of Norms for US Foreign Climate Policy - Frederic Hanusch
Part 2: Past
4 North American Climate History - Samuel White, Kenneth M. Sylvester and Richard Tucker
5 Hurricanes in New Orleans: Disaster Migration and Adaptation, 718–1794 - Eleonora Rohland
6 The Landscapes of Man: Ecological and Cultural Change before Hurricane Katrina - Demetrius L. Eudell
Part 3: Present
7 Science (and Policy) Friction: How Mass Media Shape US American Climate Discourses - Maxwell T. Boykofff and Michael K. Goodman
8 “Save Ga$. Ride this Bus”: Racialised Poverty, Violence and Climate Change in Urban America - Jürgen Heinrichs
9 Climate Change Beliefs and Climate-relevant Behaviour at the Northern US West Coast: A Practice Theoretical Analysis - Karin Schürmann
10 A New Clayoquot? Examining the Convergence of First Nations and Environmental NGO s in Vancouver’s Anti-Pipeline Protests - Omer Aijazi and Martin David
Part 4: Prospects
11 Incorporating Climate Change Remedies into Community Development in Greenland - Naotaka Hayashi
12 Cultural Dynamics of Adaptation to Climate Change: An Example from the East Coast of the US - Grit Martinez and Michael J. Paolisso
13 “Back to the Future”: Imagining Climate Change Futures in US American Literature - Antonia Mehnert
Bibliography
Index
All interested in the cultural dimensions of climate change, and anyone concerned with environmental history, environmental sociology as well as environmental policy in North America.