He earned his Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He is co-author of the textbooks Environmental Issues: An Introduction to Sustainability (3rd ed.) and Environmental Issues in Oceanography (2nd ed.), and writes the weekly environmental column Sea Level for the Myrtle Beach Sun News. Dr. Abel is a Fellow of the SC Sustainable Universities Initiative and a Senior Fellow of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. He is the founding director of CCU's Campus and Community Sustainability Initiative. He resides in Pawley's Island, SC.