Environmental history in a changing world: evolution, environmental health, and climate change

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2013

Abstract

As environmental history matures as a discipline,it is crucial for environmental historians to take nature seriously. Human and non-human natures are in constant negotiation,shaping each other's histories. Three aspects of this interrelationship offer fertile ground for future research: evolutionary environmental histories; histories of environmental health and society; and the study of climate change and the past. Indeterminacy and change are always central features of a world still in the making. There are no innate givens upon which our knowledge is built, no moral absolutes that place humans at the center of a static world. We live in a world of relationships,connections,and entanglements. Humans,like other animals,are embedded at every point in the environment. Our own human histories emerge not in isolation from other species, but in the ongoing negotiations between humans and the rest of nature.

Publisher's Statement

Publisher's version of record: http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-ZRDX201303004.htm

Publication Title

Journal of Renmin University of China

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