SMITH COLLEGE Spring 2015
AMS 351 / ENG 290-02
Writing About American Society: “The Climate of the Country”
Class meets Tuesdays 1:00 - 2:50 p.m. in 310 Seelye.
Dava Sobel
205 Pierce
585-3108
dsobel@smith.edu
Office Hours:
1 - 2 p.m. Monday
3 - 5 p.m. Tuesday
Also by appointment.
This course invites you to combine your interest in writing with your
concerns about climate change. Class discussions will explore the attitudes of
American society toward the weather and humanity’s role in changing it.
In addition to the required and suggested texts listed on the next page, I will
provide handouts of articles, poems, and other relevant readings. You will be
asked to monitor several news sources on your own for a weekly exchange of
ideas and information. Writing assignments will include three essays, a
profile of a personality in the climate dialogue, and daily entries in a personal
weather log.
Your grade will depend on your contributions to class discussions,
completion of assignments in a timely manner, and willingness to rewrite as
needed. Respect for deadlines will assure ample time for frequent individual
conferences.
I have invited three authors to visit the class as guest speakers. Outside
events planned by various campus groups for this semester will no doubt
further augment the course content as we contemplate the current and longterm effects of climate change.
The following outline is necessarily incomplete, as I will shape the course
assignments partly in response to your interests, needs, and aspirations.
Readings
Please keep up on your reading so that you finish the required texts before their
authors come to visit. As you read, select several paragraphs that you judge
excellent or terrible. Copy out a few from each book, and note what you liked (or
didn’t like) about them.
Required texts
Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway, The Collapse of Western Civilization (by Feb. 10)
Jonathan Mingle Fire and Ice (by March 10)
Diane Ackerman, The Human Age (by April 7)
Brian Adams, Love in the Time of Climate Change (by April 21)
Suggested texts (read at least one of these by March 24)
Rachel Carson Silent Spring
Michael Crichton State of Fear
Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Laurie Garrett The Coming Plague
Sheri Fink Five Days at Memorial
Al Gore An Inconvenient Truth
James Hansen Storms of My Grandchildren
Sebastian Junger The Perfect Storm
Naomi Klein This Changes Everything
Elizabeth Kolbert The Sixth Extinction, Notes from a Catastrophe
Jon Krakauer Into the Wild
Erik Larson Isaac’s Storm
Aldo Leopold A Sand County Almanac
John McPhee The Control of Nature
David Michaels Doubt Is Their Product
John Muir My First Summer in the Sierra, The Yosemite
Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway Merchants of Doubt
Richard Preston The Hot Zone
Carl Sagan The Demon-Haunted World
George R. Stewart Storm
Carol Tavris Mistakes Were Made But Not by Me
Henry David Thoreau Walden
Gabrielle Walker An Ocean of Air
Spencer Weart The Discovery of Global Warming
E. O. Wilson Naturalist
Paddy Woodworth Our Once and Future Planet
Gavin Pretor-Pinney The Cloudspotter’s Guide
N.B. I have copies of several of these books in my office, and am happy to lend them.
27 January (#1)
CLASSES CANCELED IN ANTICIPATION OF WINTER STORM JUNO.
3 February (#2)
THE PERSONAL WEATHER LOG
Talking about the weather, identifying reliable sources of information, following the
stories, taking time to write...
10 February (#3)
GLOBAL WARMING V. CLIMATE CHANGE
Gauging societal attitudes about weather and climate change, weather words, story
ideas and approaches...
17 February (#4)
THE WEATHERMAN, THE SCIENTIST, AND THE STORM CHASER
Personalities in the climate debate, framing interview questions, effective use of
statistics and quotations...
24 February (#5)
RECORD HIGHS AND LOWS
Assessing climate trends in history, organizing research materials...
3 March (#6)
LOCAL FLOODING
Setting the scene of the story, describing local color...
10 March (#7)
THE GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE
Visit from Jonathan Mingle, author of Fire and Ice.
17 March – No class (Spring Break)
24 March (#8)
A CHANGE OF SEASON
Observable effects of climate change, using structure to interweave story lines...
31 March (#9)
BETWEEN GROUNDHOG DAY AND EARTH DAY
Coopting observances, reporting events...
7 April (#10)
SUSTAINABILITY IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: A POET’S PERSPECTIVE
Visit from Diane Ackerman, author of The Human Age.
14 April (#11)
ACTION AND INACTION
Government and individual response to climate change, peer editing exercises...
21 April (#12)
FINDING THE HUMOR IN GLOOM
Visit from Brian Adams, author of Love in the Time of Cholera.
28 April (#13)
OUTLOOK
Forecasting future directions, discovering your own voice...