Environmental History Reader

January 19, 2015

The understanding of our ecosystem would be incomplete without understanding its past. Hence CSE’s latest book is invaluable as it helps you figure out some present day environmental concerns from a historical perspective. The past bears heavily on our forests, villages, cities, even air, water and the atmosphere. Current environmental concerns — climate change, conservation and pollution — bear the imprint of the past. It takes us to early debates on pollution, patents and industrialisation. It highlights instances of biopiracy and bioterrorism when these words had not found a place in the English dictionary and shows how ecology played a role in the rise and fall of ancient civilisations. It reveals the environmental underpinnings of warfare, diplomacy, even music and celebration.