For this latest installment of “Between the Lines,” a question-and-answer feature with authors, SEJournal book editor Tom Henry interviewed longtime SEJ member Cynthia Barnett about her third book, “RAIN: A Natural and Cultural History,” which came out in April. It’s a unique, ambitious book that goes beyond climate science and water in general to show how rain itself has been perceived around the world by numerous cultures throughout history. Barnett sees rain as “a unifying force in a fractured world.” She also is the author of two other highly acclaimed books,“Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.” and “Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis.

For the latest Between the Lines – a question-and-answer feature in which published authors provide advice to SEJ members – SEJournal Book Editor Tom Henry interviewed Jörg Friedrichs, author of “The Future Is Not What It Used to Be: Climate Change and Energy Scarcity,” which received an honorable mention in the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award category [23] of SEJ’s 2014 annual awards contest. The book offers a unique perspective by explaining how transitions between climatic eras of the past are unlikely to happen again because infinite growth is not possible. Friedrichs, a native of Germany, is an associate professor in politics at the University of Oxford in England.