Subject Guides: Human Dimensions of Climate Change 2024: Home

Human Dimensions of Climate Change Film Series Resources

UMaine's Fogler Library purchases a broad range of materials to support research and teaching needs on campus. On this page, you will find a selection of works in Fogler Library (and beyond!) that emphasize the potential impacts of, and adaptations to, climate change among populations throughout the world. This interdisciplinary subject is growing in visibility, and is the subject of course work throughout the university.

This list of resources corresponds with a film series on the same topic. See the flyer below. This year's series is jointly sponsored by Fogler Library, the Climate Change Institute, the Department of Anthropology, the School of Food and Agriculture, the Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series Fund, the McGillicuddy Humanities Center, and the School of Economics. Many thanks to Associate Professor Cindy Isenhour for her continued collaboration!

2024 Human Dimensions of Climate Change Film Series films

Selection of Materials in Fogler Library

Adapting to Climate Change: Thresholds, Values, Governance by W. Neil Adger (Editor); Irene Lorenzoni (Editor); Karen L. O'Brien (Editor)
Call Number: ebook (one user at a time)
Biodiversity and Climate Change by Thomas E. Lovejoy (Editor); Lee Hannah (Editor); Edward O. Wilson (Foreword by)
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019-01-08
The Carbon Farming Solution by Eric Toensmeier
Call Number: ebook
Climate, Fire and Human Evolution by Andrew Y. Glikson; Colin Groves
Call Number: ebook
Climate and Society: Climate as Resource, Climate as Risk by Nico Stehr
Call Number: ebook
Climate Change, Ethics and Human Security by Karen O'Brien (Editor); Asunción Lera St. Clair (Editor); Berit Kristoffersen (Editor)
Call Number: ebook
Climate change, food security and natural resource management by Mohamed Behnassi, Olaf Pollmann, Himangana Gupta (Eds.)
Call Number: ebook
Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives by Jane McAdam (Editor)
Call Number: HV640 .C53 2012
Climate Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives on Climate Change by Jessica Barnes (Editor); Michael R. Dove (Editor)
Call Number: QC903 .C5642 2015
Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change by Allen Thompson (Editor); Jeremy Bendik-Keymer (Editor)
Call Number: ebook (one user at a time)
Gender and Climate Change: Impacts, Science, Policy by Joane Nagel
Call Number: ebook
Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change by Sarah Boulter (Editor) et al.
Call Number: HV635.5 .N38 2013
Sustainable Solutions for Food Security by Atanu Sarkar (Editor); Suman Ranjan Sensharma (Editor); Gary W. vanLoon (Editor)
Call Number: ebook
Urban drought: Emerging water challenges in Asia by Bhaswati Ray, Rajib Shaw (Eds.)
Call Number: ebook
The Water Paradox by Edward B. Barbier
Call Number: ebook

Selection of Additional Films in Fogler Library

Bangladesh and Bhutan-Climate Change, Ade on the Frontline
Ade Adepitan travels to the frontline of climate change, first through Bangladesh's Ganges delta, under threat from increasingly extreme weather, and then to the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. Ade witnesses, and participates in, local interventions and innovations, and even discovers how Bhutan isn't just carbon neutral, it's carbon negative.
Climate Refugees
"[E]xplore[s] the global human impact of climate change and its serious destabilizing effect on international politics. The film turns the distant concept of global warming into a concrete human problem with enormous worldwide consequences ... The film features a variety of leading scientists, relief workers, security consultants, and major political figures, including John Kerry and Newt Gingrich."
Condor and the Eagle
"Four Indigenous leaders embark on an extraordinary trans-continental adventure from the Canadian plains to deep into the heart of the Amazonian jungle to unite the peoples of North and South America and deepen the meaning of 'Climate Justice'.
In the Path of Resistance: Justice Beyond the Keystone XL Pipeline
"Two college students adventure along the proposed route of the KXL pipeline to meet those living on the frontlines. On the Gulf Coast, Black and Latino activists stand up for their communities, which are surrounded by refineries and chemical plants. In the Sandhills of Nebraska, a 92-year-old grandmother, a retired rancher, young woman taking over her family farm, and others unite to stop the KXL. On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Lakota activists see the pipeline as part of a legacy of oppression and resistance."
Landfall
"Featuring intimate encounters with Puerto Ricans as well as the newcomers flooding the island, LANDFALL reflects on a question of contemporary global relevance: when the world falls apart, who do we become?"
The Last Days of Shishmaref
"A documentary on the first victims of global warming. The filmmakers travel to a small village in northwest Alaska, home to an Inupiaq Eskimo community, where homes are literally falling into the sea. The entire village is expected to disappear within 10 years."
Lobster War: The Fight Over the World's Richest Fishing Grounds
The disputed 277 square miles of sea known as the Gray Zone--the swath of water surrounding Machias Seal Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy--were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed lobsters have migrated north and the Gray Zone's previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty in the area, contesting American claims to the bounty and foreshadowing potential conflicts exacerbated by climate change.
Merchants of Doubt
“... takes audiences on a satirically comedic, yet illuminating ride into the heart of conjuring American spin ... [and] lifts the curtain on a secretive group of highly charismatic, silver-tongued pundits-for-hire who present themselves in the media as scientific authorities — yet have the contrary aim of spreading maximum confusion about well-studied public threats ranging from toxic chemicals to pharmaceuticals to climate change.”
Seeds of Time
A perfect storm is brewing as agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler races against time to protect the future of our food. Seed banks around the world are crumbling, crop failures are producing starvation and rioting, and the accelerating effects of climate change are affecting farmers globally. Communities of indigenous Peruvian farmers are already suffering those effects, as they try desperately to save over 1,500 varieties of native potato in their fields. But with little time to waste, both Fowler and the farmers embark on passionate and personal journeys that may save the one resource we cannot live without: our seeds.
Sinking Cities. Episode 1, New York
Most of the world's great cities stand on coastlines and rivers and today they are in grave danger. Billions of people are living in the face of disaster. As the earth warms, sea levels rise, and super-storms become more frequent and more intense, many major coastal cities will soon be under water. Sinking Cities is a fast-paced four-part series that shows how New York, London, Tokyo and Miami face similar and also individual dangers - and how they are preparing for the real-time impact of rising seas.
There Once Was an Island = Te henua e nnoho
"Told from the perspective of three main characters, this film gives a human face to the direct impacts of climate change in the Pacific community of Tak. Two visiting scientists offer advice but in the wake of a flood the islanders must decide whether to stay with their island or move to an unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind." Also available streaming here.
This Changes Everything
"What if confronting the climate crisis is the best chance we'll ever get to build a better world? This film presents seven portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana's Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond."
Years of Living Dangerously
"... explores the human impact of climate change. From the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy to the upheaval caused by drought in the Middle East, [this show] combines the blockbuster storytelling styles of top Hollywood movie makers with the reporting expertise of Hollywood's brightest stars and today's most respected journalists."