What is environmental history?

• history is usually the history of people
  
• physical and biological changes the environment has undergone--mostly studied by ecologists
• how have human actions (human history) resulted in changes in the ecosystem
• historians contribute how the way we see things (the meanings we give to things) has changed
  
• the history of the environmental movement (history of ideas and political activism)
• history of government action related to the environment
• how our ideas about nature have changed--history of ideas
• history of attitudes: what does our country generally care to do about the environment (government action and individual behavior)

We have a problem where we are harming our environment.  Start with history:

• when did that problem start
• how has the problem changed over time
• have people tried to fix the problem and has that worked?
• if it didn't work maybe we can learn mistakes to avoid
• what has it taken in the past to motivate people to fix such problems
  

What are the important issues--the factors that affect history when we look at the environment:

• STS wants you to see how science and technology affect and are affected by how society changes, they aren't just separate and neutral
• science and technology can fix problems but they can also cause problems (some of them that we never expected)
  
• the growth of technology--Technology can create some problems and help fix others, but technology will not magically solve all our problems
• historians of technology think some technologies lead us in the right direction and some lead us in the wrong direction--we need to choose carefully
  
• ecology and natural resources matter--Crosby shows that colonization worked in some places and not in others for ecological reasons
• ecology affects what human beings can do AND human beings change the ecology
• human beings change the ecology MORE than it affects us (?)
• that has grown increasingly true as we have more technology
• we have grown more careful, we less have the goal of conquering the environment (consider the history of dams)
  
• how do we see those parts of nature we can't control (wilderness, but consider weather)
  
• our environment shapes our history (eg. Nash--American environment has shaped American history)
  
• the drive to expand (both earlier empires and today)
• human ideas matter
• Nash talks about approaches to conservation and ideas about wilderness--the ideas we have today about how to do good for the environment are not the same as in earlier times
• how has our idea of wilderness changed--to answer look carefully at how different people define wilderness
• politics matters--broad definition of politics, not just who gets elected but also how laws are made and enforced, changes in public opinion
• the problem of waste--a problem that grows more serious as population increases and consumption increases
• example: nano-silver washing machine may threaten the working of sewage treatment plants
  
• consumption--can we continue to increase, or if not what do we do?
• environment/science/technology affect and are affected by society
  

Social science general education requirement wants you to understand something about the methodology of social sciences

• different groups of historians ask quite different questions
• history is not just neutral facts
• always a selection of facts
• usually also interpretation and analysis
• may also make recommendations for the future
  

What is this particular author trying to do?



what have you learned from this course that will help you understand environmental issues today?

• how complex environmental issues are--ask many different questions
  
• values are always involved, you can't come up with a technological right answer, we will never agree
  
• different people mean different things by wilderness, nature--our ideas about what is natural and what is unnatural play a very big role in what we think should be done (when we get used to something we think it is natural, even if it isn't)
• pay attention to where you get your information from--even the experts are often biassed
  

1. how much can human beings change ecosystems (and how much are we affected by ecosystems)

• Europeans went out and conquered much of the rest of the world--what was the ecological impact of this
  
• this involved changing ecosystems as well as political conquest
• why was this successful?
  
• human history is tightly connected to the ecosystem people live in
• we are not separate from nature but our story is woven in with the story of how nature has changed

2. How have our ideas changed?  is it ideas that matter most?  ideas and technology affect each other

• ideas about wilderness are shaped by: religion, how much we can control the environment, political need for something to be proud of to bring the nation together, ideas of writers and artists, reactions against how capitalism and the industrial revolution are changing the world, the fear that the frontier is necessary to make us virtuous citizens, growing urbanization and scarcity of wilderness, individual experiences, growing science of ecology, the decline in general acceptance of religious arguments...
• our ideas about wilderness are uniquely American (in other countries people have quite different ideas)
• our way of seeing the world can change quite radically and quite quickly (out of longer-term trends)

3. how do you accomplish (change) anything?

• both by individual behavior (including both activities and public opinion) and by government action
• government is generally the most effective way to act on issues of the public good (because of the tragedy of the commons)
  
• public opinion matters--you need to have an effective combination of citizen concern and expertise
• the environmental movement is a way of organizing individual views to create change on a government level
  
• you need to consider how laws are written, passed, enforced, changed
  
• what is the best place in the system of government to put pressure about a particular issue
• sometimes what is most needed is new laws
  
• in the 1970s lawsuits were often most effective
• by 2000 more conservative judges had been appointment and environmentalists won fewer lawsuits
  
• sometimes we need more research and development
• sometimes the issue is enforcement--are the necessary organizations in place
  
• growing scientific knowledge isn't easy to handle in the political process
• we need to realize that the scientific understanding of these issues is going to keep changing

• what do we want from the environment?
• what services do humans get from the environment:
• our food grows
• some pollution is cleaned up by natural processes
• a place for recreation
• a sense of peace, maybe spiritual benefits
  
• should we be concerned only about how the environment affects us, or should we want to protect the environment for its own sake?
• is concern about the environment just a luxury for the rich?  but many people are affected
  
• how do we balance progress and economic growth with concerns about the environment
• growth is most important and we shouldn't let environmental concerns get in the way?
• in order to protect our environment we need to slow growth and settle for less?
• technology is going to allow us to have both growth and environmental protection at the same time?
  
• do progress and economic growth always hurt the environment?
• we tend to think of ourselves as separate from nature, think of nature and culture as opposites, but we aren't so separate
  
• we have choices--one particular future is not inevitable
• to make good choices we need to try to think about the future and what we want, even if it can't be predicted
• we need to have lots of strategies and figure out which one will work in any given case
  
• we need to think about the consequences of how we live our lives
• we can't keep thinking that nature will take care of us--what do we need to do to take care of nature?
  

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