Tag Archives: environmental history

Activehistory.ca Repost – An (Ice) Bridge to the Past: Niagara Falls has Frozen

ActiveHistory.ca is on a hiatus for the winter break, and will return to daily posts in early January.  During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite holiday and winter themed posts. Thank you to all our contributors, guest editors, and readers for making 2018 a very successful year. Happy holidays to all and we look forward to continuing our work… Read more »

The Dark Side of Disarmament: Ocean Pollution, Peace, and the World Wars

Alex Souchen On 11 November 2018 the world paused for a moment of silence to commemorate the end of the First World War. The solemn occasion offered people around the world an opportunity to honour the dead and pay homage to peace, freedom, and reconciliation. The theme of peace will likely continue as a prominent feature at future Remembrance Day… Read more »

History Slam Episode 117: Breaching the Peace

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https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/History-Slam-117-Sarah-Cox.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham There are a couple things that are universal in political campaigns. Candidates will talk about creating new jobs and stress the need to leave a legacy for our kids and grand-kids (we do all for the kids, after all). In recent years, with environmentalism becoming increasingly popular politically, politicians have combined… Read more »

Repurposing a Map of Greater London’s Industry (1893-5)

A few years ago, I worked with some students to develop a database of all the factories we could find on very detailed 5 feet to the mile maps of London from the second half of the nineteenth century. This database is central to my academic research on the environmental history of industrialization in Greater London. I created maps using… Read more »

Podcast: The 1860s and the Origins of Canada’s Transitions to Fossil Fuels

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Episode-04-Ruth-Sandwell.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadOn April 22, 2017, Ruth Sandwell delivered her talk “The 1860s and the Origins of Canada’s Transition to Fossil Fuels.” The talk was part of ‘The Other 60s: A Decade that Shaped Canada and the World,” a symposium hosted by the Department of History at the University of Toronto as part of its Canada… Read more »

History Slam Episode 108: The Magnificent Nahanni

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https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/History-Slam-108.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham This year, Parks Canada offered free admission to parks across the country to commemorate Canada 150. As visitors flocked to take advantage of the opportunity, however, there was not much reflection in the media about the process through which national parks are determined and operated. In his recent book The Magnificent… Read more »

“The great climate silence” and Historians

By Jim Clifford The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it | Clive Hamilton https://t.co/QYjeWzpjyh — Clive Hamilton (@CliveCHamilton) May 5, 2017 Are historians contributing to downplaying the dangers of climate change by our silence? Clive Hamilton published a provocative extract from his new book in the Guardian titled “The great climate silence:… Read more »

History Slam Episode Ninety-Seven: Using & Managing Water

https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Water.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham In the search for life on other planets, the focus is always on water. If there is water, there is a chance that life, as we know it, could exist elsewhere. In all that excitement and speculation, though, we sometimes lose sight of the way we use and manage water on… Read more »

Genealogical Entanglements of Animal Rights and Feminist Movements

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of posts from contributors to Animal Metropolis: Histories of Human-Animal Relations in Urban Canada (University of Calgary Press, 2017). In each entry, the contributors use their own chapters as the basis for wider discussions about contemporary developments that highlight the complex interactions between humans and animals. The editors of ActiveHistory.ca are pleased… Read more »

More than a Few Acres of Snow

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By Elizabeth Jewett and Andrew Nurse This past weekend, Mount Allison University hosted Quelques Arpents de Neige for the first time. Arpents is a conference that takes a workshop-like feel. Its goal is to bring people together to discuss different trends in Canadian environmental history. And, in so doing, it provides an opportunity to think about the development and direction… Read more »