The Great Plains as A Bioregional Warzone

August 12, 2026

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

Soybeans, Combines and Agricultural ‘Industrialisation’ in Benton County, Indiana (and well beyond), 1920–1945

August 6, 2026

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

Why pronatalism fails the planetary health test

July 31, 2026

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

Exhibition review: ‘In Bloom: how plants changed our world’

June 24, 2026

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’

Encounters with the Sublime: On Doing Environmental History Outside the Office

June 12, 2026

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

An Environmental-History Pracademic: Starting to paddle in flooded waters

June 9, 2026

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

Amsterdam, a city with two water problems

June 1, 2026

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

From Trenches to Trees: Rebuilding Madrid’s War-Torn University

May 26, 2026

In this blog Santiago Gorostiza, Alejandro Pérez-Olivares, Daniel Oviedo Silva and José María Sánchez Laforet synthesise the contribution of their recent Open Access article in Environment and History (online first May 2025), The Long Shadow of the Pines: Vegetation in the Birth, Destruction and Reconstruction of Madrid’s University City (1927–1956). Upon entering the hall of the Faculty of … More From Trenches to Trees: Rebuilding Madrid’s War-Torn University

Embodied perspectives from red mangrove territory

May 20, 2026

In this blog Shelley Kolstad evokes the sensory and embodied experience of the fieldwork site that inspired her article in Plant Perspectives (online first May 2026), ‘Between the “Outlier” and “the Dead”: Ethnographic and Phenomenological Encounters with a Mangrove Community’. In January this year I returned to the Daintree to visit the mangroves that are … More Embodied perspectives from red mangrove territory

What Can a Small Herb Do? Huacatay and the Quiet Redesign of a Chilean Hospital

April 22, 2026

In today’s blog, Pedro Pablo Achondo Moya introduces his article just published in Plant Perspectives (21 April 2026, online first) ‘The Power of a Small Herb: The Case of Huacatay in the Community Garden of the Limache Hospital’, encouraging us to look more closely at, think more carefully about, the seemingly insignificant ‘small plants’ that … More What Can a Small Herb Do? Huacatay and the Quiet Redesign of a Chilean Hospital