Description Environment and Society relates to a diverse audience and encompasses viewpoints from a variety of natural and social science approaches. This integrative book about human-environment relations connects many issues about human societies, ecological systems, and environments with data and perspectives from different fields of study. Its viewpoint is primarily sociological and it is designed for courses in Environmental Sociology and Environmental Issues, or taught in departments of Sociology, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Political Science, and Human Geography. Features “Personal Connections” - Each chapter is followed by questions and issues that attempt to help students make macro—micro links between large-scale issues and the lives of people. These are not “review questions” that summarize chapter content, but rather opportunities for dialogue between the book and its readers and between readers. They may be points of departure for discussion and argumentation (ex. p. 29). What You Can Do - These sections are scattered throughout the text. Here, suggestions for changing the human-environment relationship to a more “sustainable” environment, society and world order are examined (ex. p. 30). More Resources - Each chapter concludes with More Resources. This provides the students with relevant websites and suggested readings that are significant to the topic of discussion (ex. p. 31). New to this Edition Thorough discussion of the environmental impacts of the BP oil spill disaster that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 (ex. p. 99) Updated ideas to address climate change–for example, wedge analysis–are included (ex. p. 76) Discussion of the possibilities offered by biofuels, including information about the ethical tradeoffs between current ethanol biofuels and food prices (ex. p. 114-5). Expanded discussion of the levers for progress in human—environmental relations (ex. p. 11) Updated material on “green consumerism” and the weakening of American environmental regulation between 2000 and 2009 (ex. p. 196) Table of Contents 1. Environment, Human Systems, and Social Science 2. Humans and the Resources of the Earth: Sources and Sinks 3. Global Climate Change 4. Energy and Society 5. Population, Environment, and Food 6. Globalization, Growth, and Sustainability 7. Transforming Structures. Markets and Politics 8. Environmentalism. Ideology and Collective Action Author Charles Harper is a professor of sociology at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. As a member of the faculty there since 1968, he has developed and taught numerous courses in the sociology department. Dr. Harper¿s teaching and scholarly interests inolve the study of social change, globalization, the sociology of religion, social theory, and environmental sociology. He has published papers in a variety of academic journals. Along with Environment and Society, Dr. Harper is the author of two other textbooks. Co-authored with Kevin Leicht, his book Exploring Social Change: America and the World (Prentice Hall, 2007) is now in its Fifth Edition. Another book, Food, Society, and Environment (Prentice Hall, 2003) was co-authored with Bryan F. LeBeau. . As an undergraduate, Dr. Harper studied biology and the natural sciences. He received a bachelor¿s degree from Central Missouri State University, a Master¿s degree in sociology from the University of Missouri, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He and his wife, Anne, live close to Creighton¿s campus near a ¿clan¿ of adult children, stepchildren, and grandchildren. He also enjoys traveling, bicycling, and reading.