In this blog Kristan M. Hanson, reviews editor of Plant Perspectives, reflects on her participation in an expedition to California’s elder- and megaflora in relation to her research on the botanical artist Marianne North. In August, I went on an incredible journey through California to learn how to read what can only be described as … More Retracing Marianne North’s Footsteps at the Mariposa Grove
A note from Andrew Johnson, Partner, The White Horse Press. We are sad to report the death of Professor John M. MacKenzie on 18 September 2026. I first met John 35 years ago to discuss the feasibility of a new environmental history journal, and he was a member of the editorial board when Environment and … More Professor John M. Mackenzie (2 October 1943 – 18 September 2026)
In this blog, George Martine and Igor Cavallini Johansen introduce their new article in The Journal of Population and Sustainability, ‘Contrasting Stances on Sustainability by the USA and China: Political Economy and Demographic Paradoxes in the Two Main Agents of Climate Change‘, (online first 29 September 2026). The future of the planet depends heavily on … More The Climate Paradox of the World’s Two Biggest Powers
Blake Johnson’s blog, originally published as a Snapshot in Environment and History (May 206) posits the Great Plains of North America in the 1870s as a ‘Bioregional Warzone’ where a complex of environmental and socio-political issues ‘highlight the intersectionality between colonisation, environmental change and the nature of conflict itself’. Environmental histories of war are not … More The Great Plains as A Bioregional Warzone
In this blog, originally polished as a ‘Snapshot’ in Environment and History (May 2026), J. Jacob Jones traces the small beginnings of the soybean agro-industry and the profound change that came with agricultural mechanisation in Indiana. On a late summer day in l921, Benton County, Indiana Agricultural Extension Agent P.T. Brown photographed an attentive but … More Soybeans, Combines and Agricultural ‘Industrialisation’ in Benton County, Indiana (and well beyond), 1920–1945
This blog republishes an essay from the latest issue of The Journal of Population and Sustainability in which a collective of high-profile scholars argues against pronatalism. The authors are Céline Delacroix, Marleen Temmerman, Nandita Bajaj, Ann M. Moore, Phoebe Barnard, William J. Ripple, William E. Rees, Michael B. Gerrard, Diana Coole, Robert Engelman, Helen Kopnina, … More Why pronatalism fails the planetary health test
In this blog Isis Brook, deputy editor of Plant Perspectives, reports on the exhibition ‘In Bloom: how plants changed our world‘, at Oxford’s Ashmolean museum (until 16 August). I was in Oxford recently for an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum. ‘In Bloom: how plants changed our world’, was the title. (It is running until 16 August 2026.) … More Exhibition review: ‘In Bloom: how plants changed our world’
In this blog Harrison Croft dons his ‘stout pair of boots’ and takes environmental history out of the office’ in a second response to Libby Robin’s essay in Global Environment’s new ICEHO series ‘Building Environmental History Around the World’. Margaret Cook’s response was published on 9 June 2026. The long and scorching summer is finally over. It’s March 2022 and I … More Encounters with the Sublime: On Doing Environmental History Outside the Office
In this blog, the first of two responding to Libby Robin’s essay in Global Environment’s new ICEHO series ‘Building Environmental History Around the World’, Margaret Cook describes her trajectory to becoming an ‘environmental-history pracademic’. A second essay by Harry Croft will be published in the coming days. There is something about being in a different … More An Environmental-History Pracademic: Starting to paddle in flooded waters
In this blog Milja van Tielhof introduces the subjects covered in more detail in her just-published Open Access paper in Environment and History, ‘Building Cisterns to Buffer Water Scarcity. The Road to Public Responsibility for Drinking Water in Amsterdam, 1670–1790’ (online first May 2026). Amsterdam, with its elegant patrician houses, beautiful churches and tree-lined canals, … More Amsterdam, a city with two water problems
