The Nature of Historical Research
The way the environment has been shaped and exploited is now a major field of historical study. A conference in London this month gathers leading experts in the field, writes Miles Taylor.
It is hard to avoid environmental issues these days. With the ash from Eyjafjallajökull lingering unpredictably in European airspace and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico set to run up the largest cleaning bill in history, we face daily reminders of a planet in peril. Slowly but surely governments are going green.
Although late last year the Copenhagen summit of world leaders failed to agree on measures to deal with global warming, there are signs of political advance nearer to home. In the May general election the UK Green Party won its first seat at Westminster, with Caroline Lucas snatching Brighton Pavilion from the Labour Party and the ecologist Zac Goldsmith being successful in Richmond-upon-Thames.
In Britain’s universities scientists have swung into action – sometimes with controversy – and publicly funded programmes running into billions of pounds are now researching the impact of environmental change on human health and lifestyle.
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