The Subterranean Forest: Energy Systems and the Industrial Revolution
The author argues that the analysis of historical energy systems can provide an explanation for the basic patterns of different social formations.
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Martin Schmid on "An Environmental History of the Danube"
Martin Schmid, Carson Fellow from March to August 2011, speaks about his research project, “An Environmental History of the Danube.”
Melinda Laituri on "Integrated Environmental History of Watersheds"
Melinda Laituri, Carson fellow from February to May 2011, talks about her research project, “Integrated Environmental History of Watersheds,” a comparative, historical-geographical analysis of the Danube and the Colorado rivers.
Transforming Rivers into Streets: How the Nineteenth Century Scheme to Improve Shipping on the Vitava, Elbe and Danube Failed
"'When The Well's Dry:' Water and the Promise of Sustainability in the American Southwest"
This article argues that it is more accurate to combine the categories of nature and culture, to see humans as inextricably and deeply entwined with the natural world, and to recognise all environmental issues as characterised by the contradictory relationships humans have developed with the world they inhabit.
"Population, Land Use and Environmental Impacts in Shucheng County, Anhui Province, China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties"
The authors take Shucheng County as a case study to reconstruct the variations of population and land use in the last 500 years, and to examine their influence on the environmental changes in this region.
"A 'Sportsman's Paradise:' The Effects of Hunting on the Avifauna of the Gippsland Lakes"
This paper examines hunting in the colonial era and attempts to evaluate its role in avifaunal decline on the Gippsland Lakes.
"Accepting Father Rhine? Technological Fixes, Vigilance, and Transnational Lobbies as 'European' Strategies of Dutch Municipal Water Supplies 1900–1975"
In this article Disco describes the repertoires developed by the municipal waterworks of two large Dutch cities, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Two main repertoires are visible: 1) ‘coping’ by means of technical fixes and vigilance and 2) ‘transnational technopolitics’ aimed at institutionalising regulatory regimes to curb pollution.
"Enclosing the River: Industrialisation and the 'Property Rights' Discourse in the Liri Valley (South of Italy), 1806–1916"
The Liri valley story, located at the periphery of the industrial revolution, provides an excellent opportunity for investigating the environmental impact of privatisation in water resources, and its social costs.
"'Forsaken Spot' to 'Classic Ground': Geological Heritage in Australia and the Recuperative Power of the Deep Past"
This study seeks to construct a theory of geological heritage and the redemptive or recuperative power of material remains of the deep past, concentrating on three landscapes.