Climate Change Teach-In - Course-Specific Resources
Social Problems
Introduction to Sociology
Sociology of Religion
Sociology of Media
Political Sociology / Social Movements
Sociology of Health and Illness / Medical Sociology
Sociology of Emotions
Social Stratification / Environmental Justice
Social Psychology
Social Problems
Courses in Social Problems might consider questions such as: How has climate change been created as a social problem by different interest groups? How does climate change reflect larger questions of how social problems rise and fall in urgency in our society? What examples can be found of social problems indirectly linked to climate change? Does climate change interact with other social problems in particular ways? See the general resources page and also peruse specific ideas for other courses.
Introduction to Sociology
Introductory courses in Sociology might consider questions such as: How does social inequality influence different social groups' vulnerability to climate change? See also other questions and readings listed under media, religion, race, etc below.
Sociology of Religion
What role do environmental problems play in re-shaping religious communities today? How has the consideration of environmental problems as moral issues changed over time? How has climate change in particular split the evangelical community? What is the significance of a religious dimension of the environmental movement? How might this intersect (or not) with secular aspects of the movement?
Watch the Bill Moyers On America episode, "Is God Green?"
Gottlieb, R.S. "A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet's Future". Oxford University Press. 2006.
Hendricks, S. "Divine Destruction: Wise Use, Dominion Theology and the Making of American Environmental Policy". Melville House. 2005.
McGraw, B. "Rediscovering America's Sacred Ground: Public Religion and the Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America". SUNY Press. 2003.
Tucker, M.E. "Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase". Open Court. 2003.
Sociology of Media
Courses on Sociology of the Media might address the host of interesting studies on media framing of climate change.
Episode of On the Media with interview of Ross Gelbspan (2004)
Journalist Ross Gelbspan's website with updated news stories on climate change from around the world
Competitive Enterprise Institute commercials
Environmental Defense Global Warming commercial
Antilla, L. "Climate of skepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science of climate change". Global Environmental Change. 2005. (link)
Boykoff, M. and Boykoff, J. "Balance as Bias: Global Warming and the US Prestige Press". Global Environmental Change. 2004. (link to PDF)
Dispensa, J. and Brulle, R.J. "Media's Social Construction of Environmental Issues: Focus on Global Warming". International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. 2003. (link to PDF)
Gelbspan, R. "Boiling Point". Basic Books. 2004.
Political Sociology / Social Movements
Hertzgaard, M. "While Washington Slept". Vanity Fair. 2006. (link)
McCright, A.M. and Dunlap, R.E. "Defeating Kyoto: The Conservative Movement's Impact on U.S. Climate Change Policy". Social Problems. 2003. (link to PDF)
Buell, F. "From Apocalypse to Way of Life: Environmental Crisis in the American Century". Routledege. 2004.
Brulle, R. and Jenkins, J.C. "Fixing the Bungled U.S. Environmental Movement". Contexts. 2008. (link)
Bluhdorn, I. "Symbolic Politics and the Politics of Simulation: Eco-political Practice in the Late-Modern Condition". Environmental Politics. 2007. (link to PDF)
Greenpeach site tracing funding flows from Exxon-MobilÕs anti-global warming campaign
BBC series on climate skeptics
Sociology of Health and Illness / Medical Sociology
Epstein, P.R. "Climate Change and Human Health". New England Journal of Medicine. 2005. (link to PDF)
Sociology of Emotions
Norgaard, K.M. " 'People Want to Protect Themselves a Little Bit': Emotions, Denial and Social Movement Nonparticipation." Sociological Inquiry 2006. (link to PDF)
Social Stratification and Environmental Justice
Courses in Social Stratification and Environmental Justice might consider how peopleÕs experience of climate change are organized by race, class and gender. The racialized dimension of exposure to Ònatural disastersÓ such as hurricanes obviously hit the public consciousness after Hurricane Katrina. On the opposite end of the inequality spectrum, privileged people may encounter emotions of guilt regarding their perpetuation of the problem.
Understanding Katrina: Perspectives from the Social Sciences
Social Psychology
Social Psychology courses might discuss how people perceive climate change, including how they fail to process information about this topic:
Bazerman, M. "Climate Change as a Predictable Surprise". Climate Change. 2006. (link to PDF)
Norgaard, K.M. " 'People Want to Protect Themselves a Little Bit': Emotions, Denial and Social Movement Nonparticipation." Sociological Inquiry 2006. (link to PDF)
Ungar, S. "Why Climate Change Is Not in the Air: Popular Culture and the Whirlwind Effect". Proceedings of the Conference on Climate Change Communication, June 22-24, 2000. (link to PDF)
Weber, E. "Experience-Based and Description-Based Perceptions of Long Term Risk: Why Global Warming Does Not Scare Us (Yet)". Climactic Change. 2006. (link to PDF)