Environmental History Resources
Exploring Environmental History podcast
Exploring Environmental History is the podcast about human societies and the environment in the past. The periodic programmes feature interviews with people working in the field, reports on conferences and discussions about the use and methods of environmental history. You can listen to these audiocasts on your own computer simply by clicking on the "Listen to podcast " links in the list below. Podcast of previous years can be found in the annual archives. The following years are available: 2006, 2007, 2008.
If you use a podcast aggregator like iTunes or Juice, you can subscribe to the podcast feed to automatically download the files for syncing to portable audio devices. Once you subscribe to Exploring Environmental History, you will automatically receive the lastest episode each time a new podcast is published. For more information on how to subscribe and podcasting clients, view the subscription instructions
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You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @EH_Resources.
Do you have comments about or suggestions related to the podcasts? Send us your feedback.
Podcast 37: The First World War and the transformation of forestry in British Columbia
Monday, 19 July 2010
Canadian Forestry Corps in France unloading timber during World War I.
Source: National Library of Scotland
During the First World War thousands of foresters left the logging camps of British Columbia and other parts of Canada to serve in the Canadian Forestry Corps in Europe. The Forestry Corps was set up to help European allies producing sufficient amounts of timber from their forests for the war effort. In Europe, these Canadian foresters were confronted with intensive forest management practices, unknown to them back home.
After the War the British and other European governments appealed to Canada for tree seed to replant the devastated European forests. To meet this demand the British Columbia provincial government established a system for fir cone harvesting, seed extraction and overseas shipment. Although this was deemed appropriate for forests in Europe, the hand planting of tree seedlings was considered neither economically feasible, nor desirable as a method of forest regeneration in Canada. In this podcast episode David Brownstein of the University of British Columbia explains how the coincidence of the exposure of Canadian foresters to European forestry management practice and the post-war seed collection were to transform Canadian forestry, leading to the abandonment of the policy of natural regeneration.
Website mentioned
AAC2010: Environments
Music credit
"The Way" by Pitx
Available from ccMixter
Podcast 36: Island Environmental Histories: the Ogasawara Islands
Friday, 9 July 2010
Islands are complex ecological objects produced through flows of flora, coral polyps, human migration, and global capital. They are places that are constantly being changed through human and non-human action. Therefore, they are wonderfully rich sites for environmental historians, not to mention cultural, economic, and historians of science, to examine. They are less miniature worlds than they are places made by the convergence of worlds. In this podcast Colin Tyner, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, examines the Ogasawara Islands group and it environmental histories.
The Ogasawara Islands are situated one thousand kilometres south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. They were first settled in the 19th century and went through distinct phases of exploitation, military use and nature conservation during this period reflecting changing attitudes to the natural world. Colin will illustrate how different social, cultural and natural worlds converged on the Ogasawara Islands.
Blogs mentioned
Colin Tyner, The Labour of Nature and Island Life
Place and Placelessness virtual workshop
Music credit
"Aerofonia" by Mario Mattioli
Available from ccMixter
Literature cited
Anderson, Jennifer, "Nature's Currency: The Atlantic Mahogany Trade and the Commodification of Nature in the 18th Century", Early American Studies, 2:1 (Spring 2004).
MacArthur, Robert H., Edward O. Wilson, The Theory of Island Biogeography (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967).
Ponting, Clive, A green history of the world (London: Penguin, 1991).
Podcast 35: Mountains, the Asiatic Black Bear and conservation in Japan and New Zealand
Thursday, 19 May 2010
The guest on this episode of Exploring Environmental History is Japanologist and environmental historian Cath Knight. In her spare time she maintains the blog Envirohistory NZ which explores the environmental history of New Zealand. On the podcast Cath briefly talks about the origins and topics of the blog before exploring her work on Japanese environmental history. She will discuss Japanese conservation history, in particular in relation to the Asiatic black bear and the conceptualisation of uplands and mountains in Japanese and Maori folklore. In many cultures, cosmologies define attitudes towards nature and the way that people interact with their environment. Cath also considers why the trajectory of Japanese conservation history is quite different from the European and North American perspective.
Blog mentioned
Envirohistory NZ
Music credit
"Time Decay " by morgantj
Available from ccMixter
Podcast 34: Volcanoes in European history
Saturday, 17 April 2010
On 14 April 2010 the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted for a second time in two month after having been dormant for just under 200 years. The second eruption caused an ash plume that was ejected into the stratosphere and transported by the wind to Northwest Europe and all air traffic was shut down. As a result the eruption became a major news story. A secondary reason why the eruption became a major news story is the fact that volcanic ash clouds have not affected Europe in such an immediate way in living memory. But looking at the historical record of volcanic eruptions it becomes clear that these events have affected Europe and other parts of the world in significant ways and sometimes even altered the course of history. This extra edition of the Exploring Environmental History podcast considers a small sample of such volcanic event events, including the 536 AD dust veil event, the Black Death and the Laki eruption of 1783.
Resources and further reading
Nature as Historical Protagonist by Bruce M. S. Campbell
The Tawney Memorial Lecture 2008
Watch the lecture online
Gavin Schmidt, 536 AD and all that, RealClimate
L. B. Larsen et.al., "New ice core evidence for a volcanic cause of the A.D. 536 dust veil", Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 35, L04708, 5 PP., 2008.
R. A. Dodgshon, D. D. Gilbertson & J. P. Grattan, "Endemic stress, farming communities and the influence of Icelandic volcanic eruptions in the Scottish Highlands", Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2000; v. 171; p. 267-280.
Stephen Self, Icelandic eruptions, open2.net
Music credit
"Revolve" by hisboyelroy
Available from ccMixter
Podcast 33: Distance learning environmental history and Scottish forestry
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
The creation of a conventional classroom based environmental history course is challenging because of the diversity of topics involved. A distance learning course in environmental history delivered trough the Web is even more challenging. This requires a different approach to integrate written material, audio, video, map material and online datasets and to put it in a coherent package to make it relevant to the context of each student. This edition of the podcast features Richard Rodger, Professor in Social and Economic History at the University of Edinburgh, who talks about a new distance learning masters programme in Landscape, Environment and History. This interview is followed by an audio extract from a video lecture about Scottish forest history to illustrate the type of content that the masters programme has on offer. Jan Oosthoek talks in this interview about the importance of land management agencies such as the British Forestry Commission in influencing the appearance, nature and use of the landscape in modern times.
Website mentioned in this podcast
Website of MSc in Landscape, Environment and History - University of Edinburgh
Music credit
"Piano Sketch 01" by Mario Mattioli
Available from ccMixter
Podcast 32: Empire and Environmental Anxiety
Saturday, 6 March 2010
At present there are many environmental anxieties related to pollution, species extinction, climate change, acid deposition and many others. However, environmental anxieties are nothing new and were also experienced during the colonial period of the 19th and early 20th century. Colonial authorities and settlers in the British Empire encountered unfamiliar environments and the combination with environmental changes caused by their activities led to widespread environmental anxieties. The most important concern was anxiety over climate change. In 19th century debates surrounding this issue, highly emotive, highly alarmist arguments were made that are very similar to the ones used today. In this episode, James Beattie, Senior Lecturer at the Department of History of the University of Waikato in New Zealand explores these anxieties of settlers, scientist and colonial officials in India, Australia and New Zealand.
Music credit
"Terra Incognita" by ditto ditto
Available from ccMixter
Podcast 31: Environmental History of the 2012 Olympic site: the Lower River Lea
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Former industrial sites worldwide are constantly reinvented and redeveloped reflecting changes in economies and societies over time. Nowhere else in Europe is regeneration of a former industrial site more spectacular than the 2012 Olympic site on the banks of the River Lea in West Ham, East London. The creation of the Olympic park promises the rehabilitation of the Lower Lea Valley by restoring its eco-system and revitalising the community of the area.
But the Lower River Lea has a long history, going as far back as the 11th century, of industrial development and associated environmental degeneration. Jim Clifford, a doctoral student at York University in Toronto, talks in this episode of the podcast about the environmental and social history of West Ham and the Lower Lea River. He highlights that there have been attempts in the earlier 20th century to improve the Lea River’s environmental and social conditions but that the high expectations of these schemes were not always met.
Blog mentioned in this podcast
Westham and the Lower Lea River - Blog by Jim Clifford
Music credit
"Trawnicing" by Pitx
Available from ccMixter
Podcast 30: Green Colonialism in Zimbabwe
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Environmental history of the British Empire seems to revolve around the theme of imperial forestry and Zimbabwe is no exception. In this edition of the podcast Vimbai Kwashirai, Lecturer in African History at Durham University, examines the debates and processes of woodland exploitation in Zimbabwe during the colonial period (1890-1980). He is doing this along the lines of Richard Grove’s thesis of Green Imperialism, but he goes beyond that by placing conservation and forest history into the broader social, political and economic history of Zimbabwe and the wider British Empire.
More information on Book Green Colonialism in Zimbabwe
Cambria Press website
Music credit
"Soon, this is it!" by DrGoldklang
Available from ccMixter
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