bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ghosts of the Past: Where does Environmental History Begin?
Authors: Main A.R. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The present environment of Australia represents a palimpsest which records a history of past climates, nutrient poor soils, burning, and increasing aridity. The details of the history are not readily disentangled. The weathering profiles and the nutrient-poor soils associated with their surficial expression may be of great age. Adaptive responses of plants to the nutrient status of the soils may be contemporaneous with and of the same age as the weathering, leaching and initial leached soil formation. Adaptations that developed initially in response to one selective force, e.g., nutrient-poor soils, may subsequently have been co-opted to another purpose such as sclerophylly in resisting wilting during drought, or lignotubers in surviving drought, grazing and burning. The sclerophylly developed by plants in response to nutrient-poor soils makes them fire-prone in the sense of Mutch (1970) which is an adaptation in so far as it promotes sterile ash beds on which seeds germinate free from fungal attack. Present observations cannot readily be used to interpret past environments. In order to infer the nature of past environments it is necessary to consider geological, climatic and weathering histories as well as the physiological development of the structures being used as evidence to infer past environmental conditions. It is argued that the origins of fire adaptations may pre-date the arrival of Aborigines, whose influence on the biota may then have been to produce the patterns observed by the early settlers and to eliminate or winnow out those fire sensitive species unable to cope with their cultural practices. Aboriginal use of fire in cultural and hunting practices has only influenced the biota for about 50,000 years which is too short a time to have influenced the biota other than to eliminate, or winnow out, those elements unable to cope with the fire regimes imposed by their cultural practices.
Environmental History and the Construction of Nature and Landscape: The Case of the 'Landscaping' of the Jutland heath
Authors: Olwig Kenneth R. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
It is my thesis that the discipline we now know as environmental history owes a great deal of its impetus to the emergence at the beginning of the 19th century of a socially engaged and environmentally committed interdisciplinary 'proto-discipline'. A material conception of nature was of key importance to this environmental history, and thereby to the historically conscious conservation movement which it set in motion. This concept of nature as thing could, however, be (mis)construed to represent a reification which separates humanity from nature. This reification, as will be seen, was problematic because it bore concealed within it older normative concepts of nature, which came to imply environmental determinism as a natural ideal and the alienation from nature of any form of humanity which violated this ideal. This meant that humanity tended to be counterpoised to nature. There is a consequent need today to 'deconstruct' this concept of nature in order to 're-invent', as it were, a conception of nature which maintains the conservation imperative, but which shifts its focus from things to the dynamics of a society-environment relation in which humanity can take a positive and active role. I exemplify my argument by drawing upon a classic case of the intertwining of environmental transformations and changing conceptions of nature: that of the 'landscaping' of the Jutland heath. Even though this analysis is not about Transylvania, a key factor in it proves to be an arcane bond between bats, vampires and the concept of landscape.
Wood and Forestry in German History: In Quest of an Environmental Approach
Authors: Radkau Joachim 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Environmental history is mostly human history, but, at the same time, should be more than it; that ambiguity causes much theoretical confusion. The author discusses some conceptual problems of environmental history and their effect upon historiographical practice. In connection with that, he comments on several open questions of German forest history: the environmental significance of the many cries of alarm about 'wood famine'; the idea of nature in the course of the history of forestry; the complicated relations between forestry ideas and practice, and the different paths of French and German forestry.
Gender and Environmental History: From Representation of Women and Nature to Gender Analysis of Ecology and Politics
Authors: Leach Melissa , Green Cathy 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
While gender-blindness has characterised much writing on colonial environmental history, women have assumed centre-stage in the historical narratives produced by two linked contemporary policy discourses: ecofeminism, and 'women, environment and development'. Yet the latter's representations are highly problematic, both in simplifying and obscuring important relationships and processes, and in supporting potentially regressive policy agendas. The paper outlines an alternative approach to environmental history grounded in gender analysis. Drawing on well-documented case studies from Africa and India, it shows how a gender approach reveals linkages between ecological processes and relations of labour, property and power critical to understanding environmental change and assessing policy options.
Historical Evidence on the Incidence and Role of Common Property Regimes in the Indian Himalayas
Authors: Baumann P. C. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Historical evidence is often used in contemporary debates about future policy to promote particular ideological positions on the role that common property regimes should play. This paper examines these positions and argues that common property regimes in the Indian Himalayas historically provided only one of an interdependent set of production strategies.
The Kwagh-hir of the People of Tiv: a Note on Dramatised History Telling and Constructions of Nature among the Tiv of Southern Nigeria
Authors: Harper Peggy 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Four million Tiv people form the major culture of the Benue state of southern Nigeria. They are popularly known as the greatest democrats in Africa as their society is based on fraternal cooperation between age mates rather than on authoritative chieftaincy. Men of an age work together on communal farming and house building and celebrate their achievements with feasts famed for the excellence of their music and dance. Their women create amongst the greatest dances in Nigeria within their extended family compounds. Each year, during the dry season, when there is little farm work, the leaders of the dance teams compose songs to record recent experiences and new features in their lives which they express in the rhythms and gestures of their dance. This flare for continuous invention reached great heights of creativity in the Tiv story -telling drama known as the Kwagh-hir.
Environment, Ethnicity and History in Chotanagpur, India, 1850-1970
Authors: Damodaran Vinita 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The paper has attempted to show the ways in which the recurring image of an older landscape has served as a powerful metaphor in Chotanagpur's resurgence. It directly fuelled protest movements in the late nineteenth century and was part of a new emotive language as a modern political idiom came to be developed by the Jharkhand parties in the twentieth century. The cultural revival signalled by the Janata Mukti Morcha in the 1970s found expression in the festival of the sacred grove which was to become one of the most important markers of Chotanagpuri identity and the site where larger and more powerful hegemonies were constituted, contested and transformed. The paper is also an illustration of the more general problem of historical research and demonstrates the ways in which a post-modern analysis of cultural categories such as ethnicity can be related to the old realities of power politics.
'Potatoes Made of Oil': Eugene and Howard Odum and the Origins and Limits of American Agroecology
Authors: Glen Madison Mark 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Eugene P. Odum (b. 1913) and Howard T. Odum (b.1924) were at the forefront of the 'new ecology' of ecosystems, in the 1950s and 1960s. As part of their programme the Odums were firmly committed to bringing both natural and human ecosystems into accord with the laws of ecoenergetics (the flow of energy through a system). American agriculture struck the Odums as a particularly egregious violator of all the laws of ecoenergetics and hence a dangerous paradigm for world development. By diagramming American agriculture as a simplified circuit of energy inputs and outputs, the Odums concluded that energy subsidies had created a dangerously unstable system. As a remedy they suggested an end to the Green Revolution and a modification of human society so as to better approach the steady-state of a mature natural ecosystem. To achieve their programme goals the Odums needed to enlist the support of their fellow ecologists and the government. In this attempt the Odums were largely unsuccessful, as the ecological community and the US government largely ignored their attempt to reform agriculture. While the Odums' agroecological language and theories have persisted until the present, they have largely been divested of the brothers' broader programme of bringing the entire human ecosystem into accord with natural laws. By re-examining the social and scientific context of the Odums' early agroecology it may be possible to better evaluate agroecology as both a tool and a social programme.
The Cunning of Unreason and Nature's Revolt: Max Horkheimer and William Leiss on the Domination of Nature
Authors: Denham Helen 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The domination of nature is a concept now fraught with negative connotations; however, it was not always thus. In this article I explore the positive, neutral, and negative meanings attached to the idea of mastery and domination of nature as it was used by Max Horkheimer, director of the Institute of Social Research from 1931-1959, and by a second generation of the Frankfurt School, William Leiss. At issue are two questions. First, what were the social conditions considered by Horkheimer and Leiss that turned human interaction with and control of non-human nature into an exploitative relationship? And second, what did it mean for them to conceive of non-human nature as an active agent in its own right?
Nature Mastered by Man: Ideology and Water in the Soviet Union
Authors: Stevens Richter Bernd 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The former Soviet Union suffers from environmental degradation of huge areas and the plundering and misuse of natural resources. Its unfavourable natural geological and climatic preconditions are not the only cause for the frequent environmental catastrophes. Neither can the Marxist ideology nor the lack of competent administrative and technological personnel be solely blamed. Yet the vision of a new kind of society without private ownership, and thus profit interests, of natural resources had promised a utopia of man and nature in harmony. What went wrong? I focus on the complexities of reasons and highlight the intertwining and interdependence of economic, historical, political, ideological, and aesthetic aspects.
The Environmental Crisis and the Tasks of History in Latin America
Authors: Castro Herrera Guillermo 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The study of history in a sense that can be called 'environmental' is a discipline yet to be created in Latin America. This has become an obstacle that must be overcome if we are to understand better the serious social and environmental deterioration of the region. To this end, Latin American historians must engage in dialogue simultaneously with their own societies and with environmental historians from the North Atlantic world. Collaboration between our societies - so different in so many ways - is essential if we want to survive the global environmental problems created by the world system of which we are both part.
Coping with the Past: Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford and the Regional Museum
Authors: Thomas John L. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The pioneer urban and environmental planner, Patrick Geddes, and his American disciple, Lewis Mumford, dismissed the monumental art museum as an outsized emblem of the garrison state, corporate consolidation, and imperial ambition. In its place they proposed the scaled regional museum serving citizens as a 'civic gallery', and teaching them about their history with its roots in the environment. That environment took the shape of the valley section, a middle-ground home to the folk and a bedrock of 'enduring factors' lying deep in their 'vital past'. Geddes and Mumford's legacy at the end of the 20th century is thus one of regional reconstruction, historic preservation, and heightened environmental awareness.
Science and the Desiccationist Discourse of the 20th Century
Authors: Saberwal Vasant K. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Recent ecological research has questioned the scientific validity of a number of environmental disaster scenarios, particularly those centred on the causal linkages between deforestation and desertification and intensified flooding. This essay explores the progression of theoretical models and empirical research linked to the understanding of the capacity of forested systems to regulate the hydrological regimes of a given area. Drawing upon writings of American and Indian foresters, I suggest that a diversity of viewpoints with regard to the climatic and protective capabilities of forests, expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries gradually gave way to a more unified - and highly alarmist - 'desiccationist' discourse by the middle of the 20th century. This position has been sustained within much of the popular press as well as in the publications of numerous conservation agencies, despite being based on models of forest functioning discredited in the ecological literature since the 1920s. This essay documents this transformation, and explores some of the factors that may have helped in the production of this powerful and lasting discourse on degradation.
Human Factors, Extreme Events and Floods in the Lower Po Plain (Northern Italy) in the 16th Century
Authors: Guidoboni Emanuela 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Researches on climatic variations in the 16th century have stressed the exceptionality of extreme events, such as large and frequent floods, which are used as indicators of increased rainfall. The case of the lower Po basin, where lack of instrumental data renders the concept of exceptionality complex and relative, shows that this is not necessarily valid. There, various human factors determined a high environmental vulnerability. Since the lower Po Plain was a 'man-made' environment, past extreme events must be evaluated in strict relation with the territory's character. Thus the increase in floods constitutes a 'weak' indicator for an increase in rainfall.
The Politics of Conservation in France in the 19th Century
Authors: Matagne Patrick 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Everything concerning the domain of nature conservation is rich in paradoxes and contradictory interests: the romantic ideal; the established scientific facts; economical and colonial interests; patriotic feelings; moral, ethical and asthetic arguments. I will endeavour to show how French conservation policies in the 19th century interpreted these conflicts and paradoxes through three important issues: i) the protection of landscapes; ii) the protection of animal and vegetable species; and iii) nature conservation in the colonies.
Potash Production in Northern Sweden: History and Ecological Effects of a Pre-industrial Forest Exploitation
Authors: Östlund L. , Zackrisson O. , Strotz H. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Potash (potassium carbonate; K2CO3) was one of the most important industrial chemicals in Europe prior to the 20th century. It was obtained from wood-ash from broadleaved trees, which was refined in several steps into the pure chemical. The production primarily took place in the periphery of Europe, in Russia and in the United states. In Sweden, potash was produced in the southern parts on a larger scale from the 17th century. In northern Sweden the production started in the early 19th century, reached considerable proportions within a few decades, and then ceased completely in the 1860s. The trees used were primarily birches ( Betula pubescens and B. pendula ). Previous research on the subject of Swedish potash production has concluded that the production ceased due to shortage of raw material. Through studies of historical records and experimental potash production we challenge these conclusions. In our opinion potash production in northern Sweden lost out to German producers who started to produce potash industrially at the same time that production in northern Sweden ceased. The ecological significance of the potash production is difficult to estimate, primarily because the impact caused by this form of forest exploitation is obscured by subsequent logging and other human activities. Nevertheless, the removal of large old broadleaved trees was one important step in the large-scale transformation of the forest landscape which has influenced the structure and function of north Swedish forest ecosystems.
Land Improvement or Institutionalised Destruction? The Ringbarking Controversy, 1879-1884, and the Emergence of a Conservation Ethic in New South Wales
Authors: Stubbs Brett J. 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Ringbarking, as a means of destroying trees, was known and practised from the earliest years of British settlement in New South Wales. The practice became controversial as it accelerated across the pastoral lands of the colony from the 1870s. This controversy was mainly the result of fears that ringbarking, carried out speculatively by pastoral lessees, might defeat the object of the land settlement policy of the colony. Parliament responded by enacting legislation to regulate the ringbarking of trees on Crown lands, and in so doing provided a forum for the expression of a wide range of contemporary attitudes towards deforestation. These ranged from the mundane questions of pasture improvement and timber destruction, to the loftier issue of climate deterioration. Examination of these attitudes, as expressed principally in the parliamentary debates in connection with the Ringbarking on Crown Lands Regulation Act 1881, reveals the emergence in late-nineteenth century New South Wales of a vibrant conservation ethic. This opposed, albeit unequally, the environmental exploitation or 'development' ethic which continued for many decades thereafter to dominate the relationship between nature and human culture in the colony.
On the Margins of the Littoral Society: The New South Wales South Coast since 1945
Authors: Brown Nicholas 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Since the end of World War II the south coast of New South Wales has moved from relative isolation and a declining pastoral economy to being an area of rapid growth, registering the changing social and cultural patterns of urban Australia and becoming the site for a range of national environmental and indigenous rights controversies. This article focuses on the dynamics of this centre-margin relationship, with particular attention to the overlaying of successive histories and sensibilities, and the forms of environmental advocacy these processes have produced.
Kafka in the Forest: A Personal Note on Monga Forest and Contemporary History in New South Wales
Authors: Herbst Peter 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
After some years of absence, I found myself again active in the Australian conservation movement. A forest was to be razed, not far from where this is being written, for a relatively small yield of saw-planks. Not many species were needed; the rest simply got into the way. Access could only be vouchsafed by destroying some relatively rare and ecologically significant plants and damaging the soils and waterways. It is true that the foresters promised to respect the pockets of temperate rainforest which survive in that region. But past experience made us chary to accept their word. Besides, protection was offered only to patches of forest which exceeded a certain size. Under this rule, much of what seemed precious was likely to disappear. As an environmental group we also sought to protect the headwaters of the Mongarlowe River from pollution and siltation. The problems which I should like to discuss have arisen in the context of a conservation battle. There are many such battles; ours is not unique. But here we are concerned with politics and administration rather than with forest ecology. The problems arising out of the daily tasks of a campaign committee are here interwoven with some personal reflections about the state.
The Coming of Age to Australian Forests
Authors: Dargavel John 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
The concept of 'old-growth' has gained public recognition and political force in Australia where government agencies are engaged in mapping its distribution. Its curious definition has stimulated an examination of how forest age has come to be constructed over the period since the white invasion in 1788. The paper examines age as a parameter in colonial and recent science. It then recounts attempts to impose an ordered progression of age classes on the forests of Victoria and Queensland according to the classical principles of forestry transmuted through an imperial model. Forest age is discussed first during the boom period of the 1950s and 1960s, and then as an indicator during the environmental era of the 1970s to the present. Old-growth became an icon of environmental campaigns which had to be defined before it could be delineated. The final part of the paper reports the varying perceptions and values held in Australia about forest age.
European Farming, Australian Pests: Agricultural Settlement and Environmental Disruption in Australia, 1800-1920
Authors: Frost Warwick 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Generally studies of European settlement in Australia have focused on exotic pests. Such an approach has tended to characterise Australian flora and fauna as weak and unable to cope with the environmental disruption resulting from the introduction of European farming. However, in this article, which considers the settlement of the high-rainfall forests of Eastern Australia, it is argued that the main pests were indigenous not exotic. In the crucial first few years the settlers encountered unexpected higher costs due to forest regrowth, insect plagues, crop-eating birds and marsupials and native predators.
Radical Ecology and Conservation Science: An Australian Perspective
Authors: Robin Libby 
Published: June 2007

Abstract
Histories of environmentalism in Australia often overlook the 1950s, an era when scientific ecology dominated environmental activism. The political work of A.B. Costin in the CSIRO Alpine Ecology Unit in the Snowy Mountains, New South Wales, is examined closely as an example of how a scientist working within the limited institutional structures available to ecologists was able to defend natural areas against formidable odds. The successes of the 1950s established the credibility of science and scientists in conservation matters in the 1960s and later. When radical environmentalism emerged in the late 1970s, many scientific ecologists were angry or hurt about the fact that they became distanced from political power, and some have adopted backlash positions as a result. The history of the involvement of scientific ecologists in political activism in the 1950s sheds light on their reactions to radical environmentalism as it emerged later.