About this item
In 1958, Charles David Keeling began measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. His project kicked off a half century of research that has expanded our knowledge of climate change. Despite more than fifty years of research, however, our global society has yet to find real solutions to the problem of global warming. Why?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.
About the Author
Joshua Howe is Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Reed College. His new book, Behind the Curve: Science and the Politics of Global Warming (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014) , explores the political history of climate change since the 1950s, and he continues to work on historical questions about sustainability and the global environment that bridge environmental history, the history of science, and the history of American foreign policy. Originally an Idahoan and now an Oregonian, Josh is also particularly interested in the local and state level political responses to the potential impacts of climate change on the resources of the American West. When he is not in the region's archives and universities studying its history, you can find him fishing in its rivers, riding its waves, exploring its deserts, and playing in its mountains.
