THE PLASTIC BAG: FROM A MUNDANE SWEDISH INNOVATION TO THE WORLD’S OCEANS

This blog, exploring ‘how the plastic bag became an iconic symbol of environmental degradation’, republishes a Snapshot by Nils Johansson, originally published in Environment and History (August 2025). The plastic bag is a mundane consumer product. It consists of just one inexpensive material, intended to carry other, more important, items. It is one of those … More THE PLASTIC BAG: FROM A MUNDANE SWEDISH INNOVATION TO THE WORLD’S OCEANS

SHAPING CHANGE FOR DESIRABLE FUTURES

In this blog, originally published as the ICEHO pages in Global Environment (June 2025), Alexandra Vlachos introduces the University of Bern’s Master’s programme in Sustainability Transformations: Shaping the change for desirable futures which seeks to open creative space for thoughtful experimentation fostering sustainability transformations.Vlachos concludes ‘We need solid and brave ideas to achieve a more sustainable … More SHAPING CHANGE FOR DESIRABLE FUTURES

THE EXTRA-PLANETARY MINE: SPACE MINING AS CONTINUITY

This blog reproduces the Environment and History ‘Snapshot’ on space expansionism by Thomas Cheney first published in August 2024. Snapshots is now open for a new round of submissions. Please contact Deputy Editor Tyson Luneau with your pitches for 200 word essays that push the boundaries of environmental history. Space expansionists argue that outer space … More THE EXTRA-PLANETARY MINE: SPACE MINING AS CONTINUITY

Visions of Sustainability: Global Environment Special Issue

In this blog, Laura Meneghello introduces the latest, fully Open Access, issue of Global Environment, which she guest-edited – a Special Issue on ‘Visions of Sustainability’. Visions of sustainability have substantially shaped relations between humans and the environment. Besides being a reaction to economic issues and environmental problems, they were also linked with ideas of … More Visions of Sustainability: Global Environment Special Issue

Enough is Enough: A View from Tonga on Biodiversity

In this blog Tom Greaves, Editor of Environmental Values introduces a discourse on sustainability delivered by Elisiva Sunia at COP16 in Colombia. The following discourse was delivered by Elisiva Sunia at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16) in Cali, Colombia, October–November 2024. Elisiva attended the … More Enough is Enough: A View from Tonga on Biodiversity

Entire of Itself? Towards an Environmental History of Islands

In this blog, Milica Prokić and Pavla Šimková introduce their just published edited volume Entire of Itself? Towards an Environmental History of Islands, which is available in both print and Open Access digital format. What role has the environment played in the history of islands? Is there even such a thing as environmental history of islands? … More Entire of Itself? Towards an Environmental History of Islands

THE EMERGENCY HAS ALREADY HAPPENED

In this blog, originally published as a ‘Snapshot’ in Environment and History, Rebecca Duncan, Eleonor Marcussen, Mike Classon Frangos and Emily Hanscam critically interrogate the semantics and usefulness of the concept climate ’emergency’. The sense of emergency is palpable and real. But instead of naming this moment a ‘state of exception’, we should see it … More THE EMERGENCY HAS ALREADY HAPPENED

The environmental impact of mass tourism: A case study of Negril, Jamaica, 1970s-2023 

In today’s blog, Henrice Altink introduces her new article in Environment and History (online first February 2024), ‘Making Tourism Sustainable? Environment and Resort Tourism in Negril, Jamaica, 1970s–2002’. Mass tourism has had severe environmental impacts but there are hopeful signs that sustainability is becoming central to the development agenda in the 2020s. Mass tourism generates … More The environmental impact of mass tourism: A case study of Negril, Jamaica, 1970s-2023