Routledge Environmental History – serie

This book provides a holistic perspective on coastal dunes, highlighting new insights into present-day challenges to show that narratives, along with numbers, graphics, and computer models, have a role to play in climate change science, policymaking, and citizenship awareness.Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, this book combines fiction, history, and science, to discuss past, present, and future ways of living in coastal areas. Dunes are hybrid environments, a combination of natural elements and human agency; they tell stories of values, traditional wisdom, institutions, empires, technology, vulnerabilities, coastal management, adaptation, andsustainability. Drawing on the past, Joana Gaspar de Freitas unpacks a diverse and fascinating history of dunes, linking knowledge, methods, and approaches from several case studies across the world, including France, Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, New Zealand, USA, and the UK. The book connects the bio geophysics of global change with the main driver of transformation— human agency—to integrate and address nature-society issues, taking human and nonhuman agents into account. In following the choices, paths, and strategies that created today’s coastal landscapes, the book generates greater awareness and understanding of how to shape coastal futures.This is an engaging, original, and, fundamentally, important book that fills a gap in our knowledge of cities, infrastructure, economies, and cultures built on shorelines. A key read for scholars, researchers, and students in environmental history, environmental science, sustainability, coastal land management, and climate change.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license.

This book offers a historical analysis of landfill sites in New York City, Greater Toronto, and Greater Tel Aviv, and uses them as case studies to emphasize the international and global scale of issues concerning waste disposal and park redevelopments.New York, Toronto, and Tel Aviv are currently redeveloping giant landfills into parks to much fanfare. The park redevelopments may be seen as an attempt to erase or assuage the decades of problematic waste-disposal policy that led to the creation of such large landfills. Booster rhetoric underscores this point, such as promoting how the parks will be a “green lung” for the city. This book contextualizes these redevelopments by offering a historical analysis, providing a greater understanding of the past, current, and future potential issues. It goes on to analyze the language and media coverage surrounding former waste sites becoming park redevelopments, including how cities use art to promote their image and gain cultural relevance. By engaging with both the works of waste historians and literature on waste and discard studies, the book provides theoretical models for analyzing the role of power in municipal systems, as well as human and ecological impacts on waste. It concludes with an analysis of the features necessary for landfill parks to be successful.This book will be useful for scholars, researchers, and academics studying waste studies, the environment, cities, and sustainable development, as well as for policymakers and environmental/eco artists.Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book offers a historical analysis of landfill sites in New York City, Greater Toronto, and Greater Tel Aviv, and uses them as case studies to emphasize the international and global scale of issues concerning waste disposal and park redevelopments.New York, Toronto, and Tel Aviv are currently redeveloping giant landfills into parks to much fanfare. The park redevelopments may be seen as an attempt to erase or assuage the decades of problematic waste-disposal policy that led to the creation of such large landfills. Booster rhetoric underscores this point, such as promoting how the parks will be a “green lung” for the city. This book contextualizes these redevelopments by offering a historical analysis, providing a greater understanding of the past, current, and future potential issues. It goes on to analyze the language and media coverage surrounding former waste sites becoming park redevelopments, including how cities use art to promote their image and gain cultural relevance. By engaging with both the works of waste historians and literature on waste and discard studies, the book provides theoretical models for analyzing the role of power in municipal systems, as well as human and ecological impacts on waste. It concludes with an analysis of the features necessary for landfill parks to be successful.This book will be useful for scholars, researchers, and academics studying waste studies, the environment, cities, and sustainable development, as well as for policymakers and environmental/eco artists.Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Bringing together a broad range of case studies from across Europe, this book explores practices implemented to promote the sustainable use of environmental resources from the 16th century until the turn of the 21st century.How and with what results environmental resources were managed in the past is one of the main topics of debate in rural and environmental history and archaeology. This book explores the dialogue between these fields, drawing upon new studies and comparisons between ‘grammars’, concepts, and research practices from both fields to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment. The book provides a comprehensive overview and comparison of the different practices of environmental resources management in Europe from the early modern period to contemporaneity, shedding light on a range of sustainability issues including land management, water supply, farming systems, and forestry. The interdisciplinary contributions in this volume provide original insight based on an analysis of written and material sources examining a range of different regions, including northern Italy, Slovenia, northern Spain, southern Spain, south-western France, and northern Romania.This book will be of interest to students and scholars of history and archaeology, as well as to those in research fields related to anthropology, sociology, environmental and agricultural sciences, and economics.

This book offers a multidisciplinary analysis of the degradation process of an ecosystem, drawing upon the Mar Menor as a case study to highlight the damage human pressure causes to the environment.All ecosystems change over time, although in some cases, this variation is more dynamic and evident. The Mar Menor is a clear example of this “ecological transition”, as it is the largest coastal lagoon in the western Mediterranean and the first ecosystem in Europe to be granted legal personhood rights. This book provides an extensive overview of the history of its environmental degradation over the past 100 years, highlighting the subsequent succession of environmental crises including phytoplankton explosions, the disappearance of large areas of submerged meadows due to eutrophication, and episodes of mass mortality of aquatic fauna. Split into three sections to reflect thematic blocks, the book begins with a comprehensive description of the Mar Menor and its marine ecosystems, emphasizing its ecological value and unique space in Spain and Europe. It discusses intensive and globalized agriculture, surrounding agro‑export, and the laws that legislate it. In the second part, the book draws on a series of cultural concepts, theoretical frameworks, and participatory arts‑based research to enrich our understanding of the environment from multiple perspectives. Finally, in the third part, the book uses analysis gathered from the Mar Menor case study to discuss wider conclusions about the ways in which we can begin to undo our damage to the environment and restore ecosystems.This book will be useful for students, academics, and researchers interested in environmental justice, environmental history and anthropology, sustainable development, and environmental studies more broadly.

This book offers a multidisciplinary analysis of the degradation process of an ecosystem, drawing upon the Mar Menor as a case study to highlight the damage human pressure causes to the environment.All ecosystems change over time, although in some cases, this variation is more dynamic and evident. The Mar Menor is a clear example of this “ecological transition”, as it is the largest coastal lagoon in the western Mediterranean and the first ecosystem in Europe to be granted legal personhood rights. This book provides an extensive overview of the history of its environmental degradation over the past 100 years, highlighting the subsequent succession of environmental crises including phytoplankton explosions, the disappearance of large areas of submerged meadows due to eutrophication, and episodes of mass mortality of aquatic fauna. Split into three sections to reflect thematic blocks, the book begins with a comprehensive description of the Mar Menor and its marine ecosystems, emphasizing its ecological value and unique space in Spain and Europe. It discusses intensive and globalized agriculture, surrounding agro‑export, and the laws that legislate it. In the second part, the book draws on a series of cultural concepts, theoretical frameworks, and participatory arts‑based research to enrich our understanding of the environment from multiple perspectives. Finally, in the third part, the book uses analysis gathered from the Mar Menor case study to discuss wider conclusions about the ways in which we can begin to undo our damage to the environment and restore ecosystems.This book will be useful for students, academics, and researchers interested in environmental justice, environmental history and anthropology, sustainable development, and environmental studies more broadly.

This book provides the definitive account of a decade-long transformation of energy policy in California with rippling consequences. The author, a state government “insider” during much of this period, tells a story informed by personal experience, access to the key actors of the time (both then and now), and extensive research.California’s risky experiment in deregulating the state’s electricity market in the 1990s, resulting in manipulation from unscrupulous energy providers and necessitating government action, laid the foundation for a greener grid and greater energy efficiency in the early 2000s and beyond. The book follows the state’s energy journey through Democratic Governor Gray Davis’s administration and his Republican successor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time in office, providing a detailed behind-the-scenes account. It highlights how this period influenced broader discussions of energy policy in the U.S., culminating in President Barack Obama pledging bold action and securing $90 billion for clean energy programs in the 2009 “stimulus” bill, the largest single “green” investment in history at that point in time. The energy crisis provided a springboard for green growth by discrediting deregulation, elevating public support, and establishing a political pathway for a growing array of sustainable energy advocates.This book engagingly balances policy considerations and political drama to reveal the untold details of how the electricity crisis paved the way for key climate and clean energy policies and offers unprecedented access to archival material from the Davis administration era. It will be a must-read for energy policymakers, researchers, and environmental historians.

This book provides the definitive account of a decade-long transformation of energy policy in California with rippling consequences. The author, a state government “insider” during much of this period, tells a story informed by personal experience, access to the key actors of the time (both then and now), and extensive research.California’s risky experiment in deregulating the state’s electricity market in the 1990s, resulting in manipulation from unscrupulous energy providers and necessitating government action, laid the foundation for a greener grid and greater energy efficiency in the early 2000s and beyond. The book follows the state’s energy journey through Democratic Governor Gray Davis’s administration and his Republican successor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s time in office, providing a detailed behind-the-scenes account. It highlights how this period influenced broader discussions of energy policy in the U.S., culminating in President Barack Obama pledging bold action and securing $90 billion for clean energy programs in the 2009 “stimulus” bill, the largest single “green” investment in history at that point in time. The energy crisis provided a springboard for green growth by discrediting deregulation, elevating public support, and establishing a political pathway for a growing array of sustainable energy advocates.This book engagingly balances policy considerations and political drama to reveal the untold details of how the electricity crisis paved the way for key climate and clean energy policies and offers unprecedented access to archival material from the Davis administration era. It will be a must-read for energy policymakers, researchers, and environmental historians.

This book brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and scholars to explore how environmental changes in the Arctic are being experienced, understood, and represented. As climate change unfolds across vast geographies and long timescales, its impacts—on identity, wellbeing, cultural resources, and ways of life—are intimate, abrupt, and deeply felt.Across the thirteen chapters, authors from diverse regions, disciplines, and artistic practices document and respond to these shifts, offering nuanced insights into the lived realities of a warming North. From ephemeral transformations in the land to the erosion of shared memory and subsistence traditions, these creative and scholarly responses serve as powerful forms of witnessing and response. Rather than relying solely on metrics or models, this volume emphasizes sensory, emotional, and cultural knowledge, foregrounding how individuals and communities are making sense of, and responding to, ecological disruption. It offers a vital perspective on the disproportionate and uneven impacts of climate change, and the urgent need to attend to its effects at both personal and planetary scales.This is an essential resource for scholars, students, and practitioners in environmental history, Indigenous studies, climate policy, art and visual culture, and global development, and for anyone seeking new ways to engage with environmental change through art, experience, and collaboration.