Epidemics and ecology

In “Another Silent Spring,” historian Donald Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, is at the core of a majority of epidemics.

Another Silent Spring

In this virtual exhibition, historian Donald Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, are at the core of a majority of epidemics. In the face of the current coronavirus crisis, he argues that an exclusive focus on human life and economy will keep neither the planet nor ourselves healthy. We must decide “whether we humans can or want to restore and protect the health, not just of ourselves, but also of the planet.”

by Donald Worster

About the author

Worster, Donald

Renmin University of China

Donald Worster is one of the founders of, and leading figures in, the field of environmental history. He is currently Distinguished Foreign Expert and senior professor in the School of History of Renmin University of China.

Browse the exhibition

“The people had done it themselves”

In “Another Silent Spring,” historian Donald Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, is at the core of a majority of epidemics.

Another Silent Spring

In this virtual exhibition, historian Donald Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, are at the core of a majority of epidemics. In the face of the current coronavirus crisis, he argues that an exclusive focus on human life and economy will keep neither the planet nor ourselves healthy. We must decide “whether we humans can or want to restore and protect the health, not just of ourselves, but also of the planet.”

by Donald Worster

About the author

Worster, Donald

Renmin University of China

Donald Worster is one of the founders of, and leading figures in, the field of environmental history. He is currently Distinguished Foreign Expert and senior professor in the School of History of Renmin University of China.

Browse the exhibition

Copyright information

In “Another Silent Spring,” historian Donald Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, is at the core of a majority of epidemics.

Another Silent Spring

In this virtual exhibition, historian Donald Worster explains how human relations with other animals, wild and domestic, are at the core of a majority of epidemics. In the face of the current coronavirus crisis, he argues that an exclusive focus on human life and economy will keep neither the planet nor ourselves healthy. We must decide “whether we humans can or want to restore and protect the health, not just of ourselves, but also of the planet.”

by Donald Worster

About the author

Worster, Donald

Renmin University of China

Donald Worster is one of the founders of, and leading figures in, the field of environmental history. He is currently Distinguished Foreign Expert and senior professor in the School of History of Renmin University of China.

Browse the exhibition

Pandemics in Context

What can we learn from human responses to epidemics and pandemics in history? What insights can ecological and environmental humanities perspectives provide? This new and growing collection of annotated links to open-access media (analyses, primary sources, and digital resources) helps put pandemics in context.

Read more about Pandemics in Context

"Making Live and Letting Die: Cancerous Bodies between Anthropocene Necropolitics and Chthulucene Kinship"

With a focus on global cancer epidemics, Nina Lykke discusses biopolitics in the Anthropocene against the background of a notion of dual governmentality, implying that efforts to make populations live and tendencies to let them die are intertwined.

Read more about "Making Live and Letting Die: Cancerous Bodies between Anthropocene Necropolitics and Chthulucene Kinship"

A Killer Air: Delineating Disaster in Mexico City

by Ela Miljkovic

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Arcadia, Autumn 2019, no. 45

Read more about A Killer Air: Delineating Disaster in Mexico City

"Toxic Bodies: Ticks, Trans Bodies, and the Ethics of Response-Ability in Art and Activist Writing"

Tracing ticks in two different artworks and Leslie Feinberg’s activist writing, Wibke Straube takes their lead in this article from philosopher Donna Haraway and her suggestion to think about engagement with the environment through an “ethics of response-ability.”

Read more about "Toxic Bodies: Ticks, Trans Bodies, and the Ethics of Response-Ability in Art and Activist Writing"

"Disabilities"

In a special section entitled “Living Lexicon for the Environmental Humanities,” Sara J. Grossman reflects on the definition of disability and disabled communities within environmental humanities.