(Global Warming) A Threat So Big, Academics Try Collaboration

(excerpt)

By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH

Published: December 25, 2007

It is a basic tenet of university research: Economists conduct joint studies, chemists join forces in the laboratory, political scientists share ideas about other cultures — but rarely do the researchers cross disciplinary lines.

But the threat of global warming may just change all that.

“The academic tradition is to let one discipline dominate new programs,” said Nabil Nasr, the institute’s director. “But the problem of sustainability cuts across economics, social elements, engineering, everything. It simply cannot be solved by one discipline, or even by coupling two disciplines.”