Making Climate Change History

Howe has done a huge service in bringing together, in one concise volume, many of the key documents related to the growing understanding of climate change from the nineteenth-century to the present. A must-have for anyone teaching or researching this crucial topic. -- Naomi Oreskes, co-author of Merchants of Doubt and author of The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future To improve critical thinking, nothing serves better than analysis of original source materials. Howe's compilation provides exactly what such work needs: a variety of interesting materials, supported by commentary on the historical context, on an issue crucial for any examination of the relations among science, government, and the public. -- Spencer Weart, author of The Discovery of Global Warming Climate change has a history. Drawing on these documents, Howe shows how scientists came to understand global warming and how it became a contentious political matter. Making Climate Change History helps us better comprehend one of the most vexing and divisive issues of our time. -- Robert M. Wilson, Syracuse University

This collection pulls together key documents from the scientific and political history of climate change, including congressional testimony, scientific papers, newspaper editorials, court cases, and international declarations. Far more than just a compendium of source materials, the book uses these documents as a way to think about history, while at the same time using history as a way to approach the politics of climate change from a new perspective.

Making Climate Change History provides the necessary background to give readers the opportunity to pose critical questions and create plausible answers to help them understand climate change in its historical context; it also illustrates the relevance of history to building effective strategies for dealing with the climatic challenges of the future.