Episode 46: Historical GIS Research in Canada, 26 January 2015 [38:27] Download Audio In recent years, environmental historians and other historians have been working with maps in new ways. Specifically, they have been using HGIS software, that is, historical geographic information systems. You may have heard a bit about this […]
Nature's Past
58 posts
Episode 45: The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project, 29 October 2014 [56:00] Download Audio It cuts through the centre of the continent linking all of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Long the ambition of governments, industry, and continentalist visionaries, the St. Lawrence Seaway fulfilled the mid-century modernist dream of […]
Episode 44: The Second World Congress for Environmental History, 24 September 2014 [48:01] Download Audio For five days this past July, environmental historians from around the world convened in Guimarães, Portugal for the Second World Congress for Environmental History. This is the main event for the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations. […]
Episode 43: Environmental Scholarship and Environmental Advocacy, 2 July 2014 [47:04] Download Audio Environmental history has been both friend and foe to environmentalism. Historians can provide important context for understanding contemporary environmental issues, but they can also offer a critique of environmentalism that could undermine the political and social goals of activists. […]
Episode 42: The Right to a Healthy Environment, 17 March 2014Â [34:41] Download Audio Canadians value their natural environment. Nine out of ten worry about the impacts of environmental degradation on their health. Nine out of ten are concerned about climate change. Eight out of ten believe that Canada needs stricter […]
Episode 41: Closing Federal Libraries, 3 February 2014Â [45:45] Download Audio In 2012, the Canadian federal government began closing and consolidating many of its departmental libraries. More than a dozen research libraries have closed at Parks Canada, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Foreign Affairs, Citizenship and Immigration, Human Resources and Skills […]
By Stacy Nation-Knapper, Andrew Watson, and Sean Kheraj Last year, Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, published a special series called, “Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues”. Each episode focused on a different contemporary environmental issue and featured interviews and discussions with historians whose research explains the context and background. […]
Episode 40: Environmental History of Atlantic Canada, 5 November 2013 [55:30] Canada is a country of regions and from a biogeographic perspective, it can be useful to take a regional approach to exploring its environmental history. In 2004, BC Studies published a special issue on the environment of Canada’s Pacific […]
By Stacy Nation-Knapper, Andrew Watson, and Sean Kheraj Last year, Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, published a special series called, “Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues”. Each episode focused on a different contemporary environmental issue and featured interviews and discussions with historians whose research explains the context and background. […]
Episode 39: The Environmental History of Stanley Park, 30 September 2013 [39:20] In 1888, the City of Vancouver officially opened its first urban park to the public, Stanley Park. The park lies adjacent to downtown Vancouver, encompassing a nearly 1,000-acre peninsula. It is one of the best-known parks in Canada […]
Episode 38 Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues, Part 8 – Tar Sands: 29 May 2013 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past38.mp3][01:38:37] The northern Alberta tar sands (or bitumen) resource is the most well-known environmental issue in Canada today. Representing both a significant component of the nation’s resource economy, and the single greatest threat to […]
Episode 37 Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues, Part 7 – Agri-Food Systems, II: 5 May 2013 [audio: http://niche-canada.org/files/sound/naturespast/natures-past37.mp3][55:25] The history of Canadian food and agriculture is an enormous topic with both a global and deeply personal scope. All humans require food to live and agricultural products become food for our […]