Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins hundreds of millions of years ago and spans the globe. Coal is a captivating narrative about an ordinary substance with an extraordinary impact on human civilization.
Vaclav Smil shows why energy transitions are inherently complex and prolonged affairs, and how ignoring this raises unrealistic expectations that the United States and other global economies can be weaned quickly from a primary dependency on fossil fuels.
Through interdisciplinary work in the circumpolar north, About the Hearth refocuses on issues of material culture and social organization in indigenous and local communities. In the process, it makes some compelling ethnographic and theoretical arguments.
This collection highlights three quintessentially Canadian themes: seasonality, links between mobility and natural resource development, and urbanites’ experiences of the environment through mobility. It divides the intersection of environmental and mobility history into two approaches. The chapters in the first section deal primarily with the construction and productive use of mobility technologies and infrastructure, as well as their environmental constraints and consequences. The chapters in the second section focus on consumers’ uses of those vehicles and pathways: on pleasure travel, tourism, and recreational mobility.
In this Springs article, historian Melanie Arndt examines how the foundations for production, perception, and consumption of heating were laid at the turn of the twentieth century.
Joseph Adeniran Adedeji shows how the cultural meaning of Yoruba heritage sites signify hope for a harmonious coexistence between society and the nonhuman world.
Daniel Dumas interviews Elspeth Oppermann on handling heat in a changing climate, with a focus on how heat affects work environments.
