Environmental history on Notably News

Environmental history

Specialisation of history

Follow Environmental history on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!

We include updates on Great Smog of London, Cedrus libani, Dutch elm disease, Frederick Jackson Turner, Ancient woodland, 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests, Lucien Febvre, William Cronon, J. R. McNeill, Bioregion, Historical ecology, Historic desertification, Plutopia, Deforestation in Myanmar, The Columbian Exchange, German Forest ... and more.

October 16 2025	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia Aamjiwnaang First Nations signed a joint committee agreement with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to address environmental issues including air, water, and infrastructure, following the passing of Bill C-226 to combat environmental racism.
2024	Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal Ameer Shahul's 'Heavy Metal' wins the 'Book of the Year' award at the Green Literature Festival in the 'Green Business' category.
2024	Paper and pulp industry in Dryden, Ontario A research team led by Western biology professor Brian Branfireun discovered elevated levels of methylmercury in the English-Wabigoon River system, attributed to sulphate and organic matter from the mill, which was found to be increasing the production of toxic methylmercury in the river.
June 11 2024	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia INEOS Styrolution announced the permanent closure of its Sarnia facility by June 2026 in response to environmental and health concerns.
May 17 2024	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault issued an interim order requiring Sarnia's petrochemical facilities to implement vapour control measures to address benzene emissions.
April 2024	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia Aamjiwnaang First Nation council declared a state of emergency due to increased benzene levels from the INEOS Styrolution plant, with community members experiencing headaches and nausea.
April 6 2024	Environmental history of the United States The Washington Post publishes an editorial discussing environmental activist lawsuits blocking clean energy infrastructure projects, specifically highlighting the Cardinal-Hickory Creek high-voltage transmission line lawsuit that halts a project connecting 160 renewable energy facilities.
2023	Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal The book is longlisted for the Tata Literature Live! Literary Awards in the Best Non-Fiction First Book category.
August 2023	Paper and pulp industry in Dryden, Ontario First Quality completed the acquisition of Domtar's Dryden pulp mill, officially taking ownership of the facility.
March 25 2023	Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal Book 'Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal' was launched in Chennai by Erik Solheim, former executive director of United Nations Environment Programme and former Norway Environment Minister.
February 2023	Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal Ameer Shahul publishes 'Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal', a non-fiction book by Pan Macmillan detailing the mercury poisoning incident in Kodaikanal and Unilever's environmental impact.
February 2023	Paper and pulp industry in Dryden, Ontario Domtar announced an agreement to sell the Dryden pulp mill to First Quality, a diversified manufacturing company specializing in hygiene, paper, and packaging products.
2021	Deforestation in Myanmar Military coup d'état leads to restoration of military rule and escalation of civil war, resulting in increased illegal logging and decline of conservation activities in Myanmar.
2021	Deforestation in Myanmar Civil war escalation following the military coup d'état leads to increased rates of deforestation in the country.
2021	Deforestation in Myanmar Military coup d'état leads to increased illegal logging, mining, and forest product exports, while curtailing conservation efforts by civil society groups.
2021	Paper and pulp industry in Dryden, Ontario W5 investigative report published, highlighting claims of intentional worker exposure to toxic fumes during the RB4 project between 2002 and 2004.
2020	Carolyn Merchant A 3rd edition of 'The Death of Nature' was published, with translations emerging in multiple languages including German, Spanish, French, and a CD collection read by Juliet Jones for HarperAudio.
2020	Carolyn Merchant Carolyn Merchant published 'The Anthropocene and the Humanities', a book exploring key figures and developments in humanities disciplines throughout the Anthropocene era and their potential influence on sustainability.
2019	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia A study revealed that parts of Sarnia had an acute myeloid leukemia incidence rate three times higher than the national average, covering the period from 1992 to 2010.
2019	Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal The legal efforts to cleanup the factory site concluded with a final order from the Supreme Court of India, marking the end of a prolonged environmental and legal dispute.
2019	Paper and pulp industry in Dryden, Ontario The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Weyerhaeuser Company and Resolute Forest Products are responsible for remediating the mercury contamination caused by the mill.
2019	Environmental policy of the Stephen Harper government Canada's greenhouse gas emissions were 730 Mt, representing only a 5% reduction from 739 Mt in 2005, falling short of previously set environmental targets.
2019	Mountain caribou conservation New timber permits designated, continuing logging in native mountain caribou habitat and further threatening their survival.
January 2019	Mountain caribou conservation The South Selkirk and South Purcell mountain caribou subpopulations were declared extinct. The last three survivors were captured and relocated to a breeding pen near Revelstoke, British Columbia.
2018	Carolyn Merchant Retired from active professorship and became Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley.
2018	Carolyn Merchant Carolyn Merchant published 'Science and Nature: Past, Present and Future', a book that synthesizes her academic work on science, environmental history, and ethics, bringing together her insights from her lifetime of scholarly research.
2018	Carolyn Merchant A festschrift honoring Carolyn Merchant's work, 'After the Death of Nature', was published, edited by Kenneth Worthy, Elizabeth Allison, and Whitney A. Bauman. The book examines and builds on Merchant's legacy of environmental thought and critical responses to mechanistic and patriarchal conceptions of nature and women.
2018	Carolyn Merchant A symposium was held to honor Carolyn Merchant's scholarly contributions and work in environmental thought.
2018	Peter Brimblecombe Became Distinguished Research Chair Professor at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan.
2018	Peter Brimblecombe Concluded role as chair professor at the City University of Hong Kong.
2017	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia Lockridge and Plain v. Director, Ministry of the Environment et al. legal challenge was discontinued, which was a notable charter-based environmental justice claim by Ada Lockridge and Ron Plain against the Ontario Ministry of Environment.
2017	Cedrus libani Cedrus libani confirmed to have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
2016	Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal A long legal battle pursued by ex-workers of the Unilever factory concluded with a sealed out-of-court settlement.
2016	Carolyn Merchant Published 'Spare the Birds! George Bird Grinnell and the First Audubon Society', a work focusing on early environmental conservation efforts.
2015	Carolyn Merchant Released 'Autonomous Nature: Problems of Prediction and Control from Ancient Times to the Scientific Revolution', exploring historical perspectives on nature and scientific understanding.
2014	Deforestation in Myanmar Forest cover in Myanmar has reduced to 48% of the country's total land area, a significant decline from the 1948 level.
2013	Peter Brimblecombe Became chair professor of environmental chemistry at the School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong.
2011	Mountain caribou conservation The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada designated mountain caribou as a threatened species, highlighting their critical conservation status.
2011	Mountain caribou conservation US Fish and Wildlife Service initially recommended 375,000 acres for critical mountain caribou habitat protection, which was later scaled back to 30,000 acres due to opposition from recreational groups.
2011	Peter Brimblecombe Completed term as associate dean at the University of East Anglia.
September 2011	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia World Health Organization ranked Sarnia as the worst city in Canada for particulate matter per cubic metre of air.
January 2011	Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia Sarnia Observer reported the highest levels of fine particulate matter among Ontario's 40 monitoring stations, with significantly sootier air compared to other cities.
2010	Deforestation in Myanmar By this year, Myanmar has lost 7,445,000 hectares of forest, equivalent to 28,750 square miles of forest area.
2010	Deforestation in Myanmar Forest cover in Myanmar reduced to approximately 48% of the country's total land area.

This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Carolyn Merchant, Deforestation in Myanmar, Environmental impact of the chemical industry in Sarnia, Environmental history of the United States, Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal, Peter Brimblecombe, Paper and pulp industry in Dryden, Ontario, Cedrus libani, Mountain caribou conservation & Environmental policy of the Stephen Harper government, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Environmental history

See Also

Inca Empire

Human impact on the environment

Human settlement