Environmental History

• Environmental History


  The mutual relationships of humans and nature through the time
• Environmental History is an object of ever-increasing interest in the international historiographical panorama during the last sixty years
• The task of Environmental History

  Finding answers to the pressing questions of contemporary people for whom environmental issues has become crucial
• Environmental History


  • An autonomous discipline
  • High number of connoisseurs
  • Large target audience
• Environmental History


  • Strong inter-disciplinarity
  • Variety of topics
  • Variety of sources
  • Variety of methods/approaches
• Earliest roots of Environmental History

  Late eighteenth century – nineteenth century
• The ecological movement in the US


  (1960s and 1970s)
• The Annales School of History


  (1939s ->)
• F. Braudel, La Méditerranéè [The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II] (1949)

  
• E. Le Roy Ladurie, Histoire du Climat (1967)

  
• ASEH, American Society for Environmental History (1976)
• Environmental Review (1976-1989) Environmental History Review (1990-1995)Environmental History (1996 -)
• ESEH, European Society of Environmental History (1999)
• Environment and History (1995)
• Environmental History


  • Analyses the 'role and place of nature in human life'
  • Its primary goal is to reveal how human action and environmental change are intertwined
• Environmental History


  Seeks understanding of human beings as they have lived, worked, and thought in relationship to the rest of nature through the changes brought by time
• The themes of Environmental History

  • Environmental influences and adaptation processes of human beings
  • Environmental changes induced by human beings in order to satisfy needs/desires
  • The history of human thought about the environment; patterns of human attitudes and actions that affect the environment
• Time scales in Environmental History

  • 'long (deep)'/'medium'/ 'short'
  • 'almost still'/ 'slow'/ 'quick'
• Geographical coordinates in Environmental History

  • Environment and global dimension
  • Ecological issues and cross border dimensions
  • Scientific contributions and national/regional dimension
  • Nature, or better, landscapes and their national connotation (identity, collective memory, high intensive labor landscapes and sedimentation)
• Environmental History gathers information from widespread specialties and the great contribution of authors from other disciplines
• Environmental History is useful because it can add grounding and perspective to the more traditional concerns of historians
• Environmental History has the merit of broadening the view of historical reflection and exploring other methods of knowledge
• There is a great variety of scientific products conceiving Environmental History and its issues, and a great variety of authors coming from a vast range of disciplines
• Sustainability is a property that derives from the capability of being 'sustainable', capable of being sustained or maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage
• Sustainable Development


  A compromise between the notions of 'development' and 'conservation' (1970)
• Forms of Sustainability


  • Sustainable yield
  • Sustainable society
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Social Sustainability
  • Economic Sustainability
  • Cultural Sustainability
  • Local sustainability
  • Corporate sustainability
• Sustainability is a form of intergenerational ethics, an alternative to short-term, myopic and wasteful behaviors, and a standard against which existing institutions are to be judged and as an objective toward which society should move
• Sustainability in Agriculture


  Not only productivity, but also a wider perspective based on three dimensions: the economical, the social and the environmental one
• The five pillars of Sustainable Agriculture

  • Increase productivity, employment and value addition in food systems
  • Protect and enhance natural resources
  • Improve livelihoods and foster inclusive economic growth
  • Enhance the resilience of people, communities and ecosystems
  • Adapt governance to the new challenge
• Climate-smart agriculture


  Builds on sustainable agriculture approaches, using principles of ecosystem and sustainable land and water management and landscape analysis, and assessments of the use of resources and energy in agricultural production systems and food systems
• Agroecology


  An ecological approach to agriculture that views agricultural areas as ecosystems and is concerned with the ecological impact of agricultural practices
• Organic Agriculture


  A holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity
• Objectives of the ecosystem and landscape dimension in Sustainable Agriculture

  • Respect natural resources (soil, water) that are available in limited quantity
  • Respect biodiversity
  • Increase agricultural production
  • Increase income
  • Increase environmental sustainability of the farm
• Organic agriculture


  A holistic production management system which promotes and enhances agro-ecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It emphasises the use of management practices in preference to the use of off-farm inputs, taking into account that regional conditions require locally adapted systems. This is accomplished by using, where possible, agronomic, biological, and mechanical methods, as opposed to using synthetic materials, to fulfil any specific function within the system
• Causes of soil degradation in Europe today

  • Decline of organic matter
  • Loss of biodiversity
  • Compaction (overgrazing and heavy machinery)
  • Erosion
  • Salinization (also linked to an erroneous use of irrigation techniques)
  • Sealing
  • Pollution
  • Landslides (also linked to terraces abandonment)
• Sustainable Agriculture does not conflict with ecosystem services of the soil, but enhances their relationships
• Sustainable Agriculture has a positive impact on all ecosystems services, as defined by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
• Sustainable Agriculture is based on traditional agriculture and practices (the importance of cultural heritage)
• Sustainable Agriculture stimulates the enrichment of organic content in soils


  This is useful in order to store greenhouse gases (GHGs)
• Sustainable agriculture can contribute to climate change mitigation