Arcadia

Arcadia, 2012, no. 20

The Nuclear Disaster of Kyshtym 1957 and the Politics of the Cold War

Thomas Rabl

In 1957 the third most severe nuclear accident in history happened in the Southern Urals, at the Soviet nuclear site “Mayak” near Kyshtym. For decades, almost no information about this incident reached the Western press—thanks to the CIA’s secrecy.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 19

The Struggle with the River: Vienna and the Danube from 1500 to the Present

Severin Hohensinner

Numerous cartographic and written historical sources tell the story of the measures Vienna’s dynamic Danube riverscape underwent in an extensive effort to secure navigation between the main river arm and the city within the last 500 years.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 18

Burning Cultivation of Peatlands in Finland

Jan Kunnas

Burning cultivation of peatlands was by far the greatest source of carbon dioxide in Finland during the whole of nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 17

The Culture of Landscape Transformation: From an Off-Limits, Open Sewer to the New Emscher Valley

Ben Tendler

The arrival in 2010 of a major international public art exhibition in the heart of the Emscher valley marked a new chapter in the regeneration of an area, where infrastructure, environmental, and art history continue to become entangled in new and fascinating ways.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 16

Bold State Effort Fails to Control Floods in Fourteenth-century Roussillon

Richard Hoffmann

Late medieval efforts at river management to control floods in the county of Roussillon reveal environmental awareness and responsibility in an emerging state and also the grounds and strength of local resistance.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 15

The Ecovillage of Sieben Linden

Marcus Andreas

Founded in 1997 and located in the Altmark region of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, Sieben Linden is considered a classical example of an ecovillage as it tries to present a special “Culture of Sustainability” whose inhabitants aim to maintain an ecologically sustainable lifestyle without reducing their own quality of life.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 12

Nordenskiöld, an Early Pioneer of Nordic Conservation

Seija A. Niemi

The Finnish-Swedish explorer and scientist Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832–1901) became in 1878—1879 the first European explorer to sail the Northeast Passage. He was also one of the pioneers of the Nordic conservation movement, proposing the creation of national parks and the protection of endangered species.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 11

Nordenskiöld, an Explorer and Scientist from the North

Seija A. Niemi

The Finnish-Swedish scientist Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832–1901) conducted ten Arctic expeditions over the course of 25 years, from 1858 to 1883. He covered a considerably vast area: from Greenland and Spitsbergen to the Bering Strait. It is quite exceptional that a scientist of his time participated in such a number of Arctic expeditions in such a large area. His reports on the explorations, written in several languages, considerably expanded knowledge of the polar regions.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 10

Only One Earth: Stockholm and the Beginning of Modern Environmental Diplomacy

Andreas Grieger

The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm marked a watershed in the evolution of humanity’s relationship with the earth and global concern about the environment. While most of the conference’s accomplishments were mainly rhetorical, its ultimate success was that environmental policy became a universal concern within international diplomacy. Sweden, as the host country, played no minor role in achieving this outcome.

Arcadia, 2012, no. 9

Atlantropa – Endless Energy from the Mediterranean Sea

Felix Mauch

The construction of a giant dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, proposed by the Munich architect Hermann Sörgel (1885–1952), would have created the largest hydroelectric facility in the world.

Explorations in Environmental History