Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Bampton, Professor of Geography, who recently published his book, The North Atlantic Polar Triangle: Documenting the End of an Epoch. Matthew Bampton is a Professor of Geography at the Muskie School of Public Service. Matthew’s research examines human responses to climate change and he engages in field mapping techniques and GIS for his research. This book explores the broad trajectory of the Holocene epoch in a region defined as the North Atlantic Polar Triangle (NAPT). The text is multi-disciplinary and synthetic, and focuses on the area extending from the North Pole to the Equator, and covers 60 degrees of longitude, encompassing the entire North Atlantic and significant parts of the land-masses that surround it. It discusses the physical, ecological and cultural history of the NAPT and its bordering regions after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. It outlines the long-term changing relationships between environmental processes and humans within this single space, providing insight into the broader and more complex interactions happening globally. The concluding argument is that the recently defined geological time unit the Anthropocene can more properly be seen as a boundary event, rather than a new epoch.
Click here to purchase a copy of the new book.