This is very cool… The University of Washington in Seattle is making it mandatory for all incoming freshmen to read Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change. The program, called UW Common Book, encompasses all students and degrees. ‘Catastrophe’ is written by New Yorker journalist Elizabeth Kolbert and addresses the monumental issue of climate change.
Kudos to the University of Washington for taking a leadership role on this issue. Let’s hope it will inspire others to do the same.
….update, 11.12.07: I just finished reading this book and it is fantastic! It takes the emotion and controversy out of the climate change issue and injects a professional, well researched perspective. Field Notes is a must read…. Here’s a quote from the book that hit home:
“Our refusal to act on the grounds that still more study is needed or that meaningful efforts are too costly or that they impose unfair burden on the industrialized nations, is not to put off the consequences, but to rush toward them”
- Elizabeth Kolbert, pg 187
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