Successful Launch of Graduate Certificate in the Environmental Humanities

Yale Environmental Humanities successfully launched its new graduate certificate program in the 2019-2020 academic year. More than twenty graduate students are participating in the inaugural yearlong workshop, “Topics in the Environmental Humanities,” drawing from a broad range of disciplines, including history, literature, anthropology, music, public health, environmental studies, etc. Some of the students shared their research at our fall graduate symposium.
Yale Environmental Humanities completes yearlong “Energy and the Humanities” thematic program
During the 2018-2019 academic year, I worked with colleagues to host a yearlong conversation on the thematic intersection of energy and the humanities. The program included roundtables and workshops featuring Yale faculty and student work, visiting speakers, two new undergraduate courses, and three conferences.
Read more about it here: https://environmentalhumanities.yale.edu/news/energy-and-humanities-report-2018-2019-programming
GRE dropped as graduate admissions requirement in Yale History
The Yale History Department successfully voted to eliminate the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) from its application requirements in April 2019. As Director of Graduate Studies, I facilitated this conversation with the goal of further opening our graduate program to a broader range of applicants and removing the GRE’s costly burden and often inequitable results.
Yale Environmental Humanities expands its reach with new graduate certificate
Starting Fall 2019, Yale Environmental Humanities will offer a graduate certificate program to strengthen student training and support. The Graduate Certificate in the Environmental Humanities is open to doctoral students at any stage of their graduate training.
Read more about it here: https://news.yale.edu/2019/02/05/yale-environmental-humanities-expands-reach-new-graduate-certificate
For an overview of the Certificate requirements, visit: https://environmentalhumanities.yale.edu/academics/graduate-certificate-environmental-humanities
Yale Environmental Humanities launches new website, events calendar, course listings
The new Yale Environmental Humanities Initiative kicked off the Fall 2017 semester with a new website featuring environmental humanities events and news from across the university. A compilation of course listings gathered offerings from history, literature, American Studies, anthropology, religious studies, and other departments, as well as the professional schools.
“More than Nature: Environmental Humanities at Yale”

Yale Environmental Humanities Initiative hosted an interdisciplinary conference featuring scholarship by Yale graduate students from eleven different programs. Panels were organized about key themes: “Imagined Environments,” “Imperial Legacies,” “Agrarian Landscapes,” and “Posthumanism and the Anthropocene.”
“New Perspectives in Environmental History” Conference

Yale Environmental History hosted its sixth annual environmental conference on April 22, 2017, “New Perspectives in Environmental History.” Graduate students and faculty from northeast colleges and universities presented papers and commentary on three panels: “Transnational Commodities,” “Living Empires,” and “Nature by Design.”
“ ‘Everything has a Price’: Jimmy Carter and the Struggle for Balance in Federal Regulatory Policy”
Published “‘Everything has a Price’: Jimmy Carter and the Struggle for Balance in Federal Regulatory Policy” (Journal of Policy History, 2016). The essay examines how President Jimmy Carter and his policy advisors sought to balance regulation to protect health and the environment with regulatory reform that would improve the efficiency of government action.
“Environmental Law and the End of the New Deal Order”
Published “Environmental Law and the End of the New Deal Order” in Law and History Review. This essay on the founding of public interest environmental law firms in the late 1960s and early 1970s situates the organizations in the context of growing liberal disillusionment with government, particularly in the context of the civil rights movement and Vietnam War. Early environmental lawsuits almost exclusively targeted government agencies such as Interior, Transportation, and TVA over their infrastructure and economic development plans. I shared the essay in late September at a stimulating conference at UC Santa Barbara, “Beyond the New Deal Order.”
The Bet published in a Chinese translation
Carbon and Its Discontents
The Bet: Our Gamble Over Earth’s Future
Spoke at the University of Colorado-Boulder on The Bet and how history can shape our thinking about present and future environmental challenges.
“New Perspectives in Environmental History”
Yale Environmental History hosted its fifth annual environmental conference on April 18, 2015, “New Perspectives in Environmental History.” Terrific papers and commentary from graduate students and faculty from northeast colleges and universities.

newPerspectives_flier15
The Bet: Our Gamble Over Earth’s Future
Public lecture at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History on The Bet as part of the 2014-2015 John H. Ostrom Program Series “Nature’s Narrators.”
The Bet: Our Gamble Over Earth’s Future
The Bet: Our Gamble Over Earth’s Future
Gave public lecture on The Bet to Columbia Society of Fellows as part of their series on “Exhaustion.”
History and other disciplines
Presented the inaugural Betsy Wood Knapp ’64 Lecture in the Social Sciences to help celebrate Wellesley College’s new Knapp Center for Social Science. A wonderful opportunity to return to my hometown to talk about The Bet and how history can contribute to interdisciplinary conversation.
Paperback edition released
What role for historians on energy and climate?
Spoke at Brown University on the topic, “Making a Place for Historians in the Climate and Energy Debates.” My talk explored how our understandings of history are currently shaping the policy debate, and what lessons historians might offer regarding changing energy systems.
H-Net Roundtable on The Bet
The Bet was the topic of an H-Net roundtable forum, with comments from Sarah Phillips, Patrick Allitt, Peter Shulman, and Keith Woodhouse, and edited by Christopher Jones.
Nature Conservancy Science Blog review
Abrams Sustainability Seminar at Ann Arbor
Visited Ann Arbor to speak about The Bet as part of the Abrams Sustainability Seminar, an interesting effort to encourage teaching about sustainability across the disciplines. A tornado alert made it particularly memorable!
Book Talk at Carnegie Mellon University
Enjoyed talking about The Bet at Carnegie Mellon as part of their lecture series in environmental history.
Hosted “New Perspectives in Environmental History”
Yale Environmental History hosted its fourth northeast environmental history conference on April 12, with terrific papers from ten graduate students from nine different universities. Conference program available here.
Talks at Facebook and Google
I spoke about The Bet to audiences at Google and Facebook. The Google author talk is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JG02YRtOc
Review in Choice, March 2014
“Carefully researched and engaging … The Bet is remarkably evenhanded in its treatment.” Choice Review by A. R. Sanderson, University of Chicago (“Highly recommended”)
Interview on Econ Talk
Interview on Green Sense Radio Show
Coverage of “The Bet” in Zeit Wissen
Journalist Robert Levine features The Bet in a recent story in German-language Zeit Wissen on the clash between optimists and pessimists about the future of the planet: “Optimisten gegnen Pessimisten”
“Earth at Stake,” Chronicle of Higher Education
NPR’s Planet Money Episode: “A Bet on the Future of Humanity”
NPR’s Planet Money organized a podcast episode around The Bet, with historical audio and a brief interview with Paul Ehrlich. Link to Planet Money episode
NPR’s Morning Edition covers “The Bet”
“The Bet” now available as an audiobook
Review of The Bet in World Economic Forum Forum:Blog
This “scholarly and engaging book… beautifully sets the context of an academic dispute between two world-class thinkers.… Sabin writes lightly and with respect . . . The result is a timely and well-considered explanation of how we’ve ended up in a debate about the existence and effects of climate change – and why it divides along political lines.” —Sheridan Jobbins, World Economic Forum Forum:Blog article link
One of the “Best Business Books of 2013.”
Bill Gates calls “The Bet” one of his 7 favorite books of 2013
Article link: Bill Gates’ Top 7 Books in 2013
The Bet “provides surprising insights for anyone involved in addressing the world’s ‘wicked problems.’… I recommend The Bet to anyone wanting to understand the history of the divisive discussions we have today, especially the stalemate over climate change.”
Q&A in HuffPost, December 11, 2013
Review of “The Bet” in the New York Review of Books, December 5, 2013
Cass Sunstein examines the lessons of “The Bet” in the December 5 issue of the New York Review of Books. “The Bet makes a convincing case that the debate between Ehrlich and Simon illuminates central issues of its era … With their contrasting narratives of looming environmental catastrophe and techno-optimism, they define important strands of the Democratic and Republican parties and indeed of American culture.” “The Battle of Two Hedgehogs.” (paywall)
Review of “The Bet” in Financial Advisor Magazine
“My pick hit of 2013, The Bet …[is] a riveting story of the clash between two outsized and highly idiosyncratic personalities … a lucid, readable gem.” —Nick Murray, Financial Advisor magazine
One of five “Books of the Year 2013.”
New Scientist magazine ranks “The Bet” one of the “Best Science Books of 2013”
Interview on Remapping Debate, November 6, 2013
Thoughtful conversation with Kevin Brown for the “History for the Future” show on Remapping Debate. audio link
Interview on MacMillan Report, October 30, 2013
Interview on “Where We Live,” CT WNPR, October 7, 2013
I discuss “THE BET” and recent environmental politics with WNPR “Where We Live” host John Dankosky. audio link
“In a 1981 Letter, Scalia Lists His GOP Bonafides” in Slate Magazine’s “The Vault”
In this letter that I found in the National Archives, Antonin Scalia, seeking appointment as Solicitor General, details his political loyalties and his experience in government and legal practice.
Interview on “Talk of the Town with Larry Rifkin”
I enjoyed talking about “The Bet” with host Larry Rifkin on his show “Talk of the Town” on WATR 1320 AM.
“Lessons From a Famous Bet,” New York Times Economix Blog, September 30, 2013
How are climate change and population growth different, and what are some of the lessons from “The Bet”? I chat with David Leonhardt of the New York Times: “Lessons From a Famous Bet.”
Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox Business News
I discussed “The Bet,” and the current polarization of environmental politics, with Lou Dobbs on Fox Business News.
“Innovating Our Way to Energy Abundance- and Climate Change,” Time, September 13, 2013
I discuss “The Bet” with Time energy and environment reporter Bryan Walsh, including the implications for how we think about energy abundance and climate change: “Innovating Our Way to Energy Abundance- and Climate Change.”
“Want to Bet?” Slate, September 12, 2013
In a world in flux, how do we know whether things are getting better or worse for people and for the planet? I discuss the challenge of setting terms for a bet on Earth’s future: “Want to Bet?”
Interview on David Boze Show
I discuss “The Bet” and its implications with conservative talk show host David Boze on Kiro Radio out of Seattle. audio link