Welcome | Environmental Humanities

In this time of profound environmental transformation and human dominance of most aspects of planetary life, humanities perspectives are urgently needed to help interpret and give meaning to the rapidly changing world around us. Humanities scholars have an opportunity to reshape how we think about environmental problems and “the environment” itself. In turn, interdisciplinary dialogue with scientists and social scientists can stimulate the humanities in productive ways, raising new research questions and providing fresh ways to approach longstanding issues.

Yale Environmental Humanities aims to deepen our understanding of the ways that culture is intertwined with nature. How can humanities disciplines contribute to a broad interdisciplinary conversation about humanity and the fate of the planet? How can the study of environmental topics, in turn, reshape teaching and research in the humanities? What can humanities scholars learn through greater collaboration with social and natural scientists, and what can the sciences learn from the humanities?

Yale Environmental Humanities gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the inaugural 320 York Humanities Grant Program and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

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Climate and History Initiative | Environmental History At Yale

Yale’s Climate and History Initiative is a collaborative effort to explore the relationship between climate, ecology, and the historical evolution of societies, institutions, and economies. Launched during the 2014-2015 academic year with support from Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center and the Yale Climate and Energy Institute, the Climate and History Initiative encourages collaborative research and learning among historians, social scientists, and natural scientists to examine the relationship between history and climate.

Key questions being explored by faculty members in the group include: How can academics in the humanities and social sciences sort through the enormous amount of climate science that has been generated in the last ten years? How does this data map onto the historical record? How has human society adapted and responded to climate and ecological change in the past, and how might it in the present and future?

On October 21-22, 2017, Yale hosted a faculty seminar on abrupt climate change and societal collapse, “Collapse! What Collapse?.”

• Collapse! What Collapse? A workshop at Yale October 20-22, 2017 | Yale Initiative For The Study Of Antiquity And The Premodern World

Faculty involved include:

and

Spring 2015 Poster

Joe Manning  (Classics & History)  *Climate and History Initiative Faculty Coordinator*

Harvey Weiss (Environmental Studies)

Alan Mikhail (History)

Stuart Schwartz (History)

Paul Sabin  (History)

Fabian Drixler (History)

Michael Dove (Forestry and Environmental Studies)

Rod Mcintosh (Anthropology)

Anne Underhill (Anthropology)

Ben Kiernan (History)

Michael Oristaglio (Geology and Geophysics)

See:

• Climate and History News
• News & Publications
• Public Events

Faculty Coordinator: Paul Sabin

Environmental History at Yale
c/o Department of History
P.O. Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324
environmentalhistory@yale.edu

The View from Space – Earth’s Countries and Coastlines

Understanding Climate Change

Understanding Climate Change

A single channel dedicated to providing informative, accurate and updated information on the science of anthropogenic climate change.

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Early Anthropogenic Transformations of Earth’s Climate: Prof William Ruddiman

Understanding Climate Change
Published on Jun 17, 2016

Fair Use: Educational (2015 Lecture)

She Left Harvard. He Got to Stay. – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Terry Karl lost count of how many times he tried to kiss her. In his office, in her office, at a hotel during a conference. She remembers the night in her car when he confided that he would be the next department chairman, and that he would review the book she was writing. It was unfortunate, he said, that he had to decide the fates of people he liked. He moved his hand to her thigh, beneath her skirt, and leaned in for a kiss.

It was November 5, 1981. Karl had been at Harvard University for less than a year. She was an assistant professor of government, and Jorge Domínguez was her senior colleague. He had tenure; she didn’t. Domínguez would soon be president of the Latin American Studies Association; she studied Latin America. He sat on the editorial boards of prestigious journals like American Political Science Review and Social Science Quarterly. He was already a name in the field, while she was still establishing hers. He could be helpful to her — or not.

For two years, according to Karl, Domínguez made numerous sexual advances, disregarding both verbal and written pleas to stop. It eventually led her to file a complaint, and Domínguez was found guilty by the university of “serious misconduct.” Domínguez was removed from administrative responsibilities for three years and told that any future misconduct could trigger his dismissal. Karl considered his punishment a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, she decided that she couldn’t remain at the same university as Domínguez considering what he’d done, and what she feared he might do.

She left. He stayed.

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Where did the Republican Trump-haters go? – BBC News

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43220700

• 28 February 2018

Anthony Zurcher North America reporter @awzurcher

Once upon a time there was an active, vocal resistance among conservatives to the prospect of Donald Trump’s presidency. One year in, and the signs of dissent are rapidly fading.

On Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington, DC, Donald Trump took the stage and reminded the packed hall just how far he’d come.

“Remember when I first started running?” the president asked. “People said, ‘Are you sure he’s a conservative?’ I think I proved I’m a conservative.”

Mr Trump then launched into nearly an hour and a half of his trademark campaign-style oratory, often acknowledging that he was deviating from his “boring” speech text. On script and off, however, it was clear his intended objective was to drive home the point that he has governed as a true conservative.

He boasted of his tax cuts, right-wing judicial nominations, regulatory rollbacks and defence of religious liberty.

Those are the sort of accomplishments attendees of this annual conference of young Republicans, grassroots activists, party functionaries, conservative media pundits, assorted merchants and special interests longed for through eight years of the Obama presidency, and now they’re getting. That’s got to make them thrilled, right?

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Treasury Department Slashes Puerto Rico’s Disaster Relief Loan Fund

Published on Feb 28, 2018

Democracy Now!
Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosselló said the U.S. Treasury Department has unexpectedly slashed the disaster relief loan for the island after Hurricane Maria. The loan has been cut to $2 billion—down from $4.7 billion. This comes as the Army Corps of Engineers says parts of Puerto Rico will not have electricity restored until the end of late May—eight months after the hurricane hit the island.

Climate News: Temps Surge at North Pole; Sea Rise Floods U.S. Bases; Shrinking Lake Chad Causes Hunger Crisis

Published on Feb 28, 2018

Democracy Now!

In news on the environment and climate change, scientists have been stunned by the unprecedented warm temperatures in the North Pole, which has surged above freezing temperatures in the middle of the winter. Meanwhile, a number of retired U.S. military generals and admirals say rising sea levels are flooding an increasing number of U.S. military bases around the world. In Nigeria, leaders from across Africa are gathering to discuss the escalating hunger crisis of 17 million people who depend on Lake Chad, which is shrinking due to climate change. And in China, more than a quarter of a million companies that discharge air and water pollution will have to start paying an environmental tax beginning in April, under China’s new Environmental Protection Tax Law.

Topics:

• Climate Change

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 with Frank Snowden

YaleCourses
Published on Mar 16, 2011

Epidemics in Western Society Since 1600 (HIST 234)

Epidemics, or high-impact infectious diseases, have had an historical impact equal to that of wars, revolutions and economic crises. This course looks at the various ways in which these diseases have affected societies in Europe and North America from 1600 to the present. Contrary to optimistic mid-twentieth-century predictions, epidemic diseases still pose a major threat to human well-being. Diseases will be considered not only in their biological effects, but also as social, political and cultural phenomena. Attention will therefore be given to the different forms of human response to epidemics, from medical science to artistic representations.

00:00 – Chapter 1. The Historical Importance of Epidemics
09:28 – Chapter 2. Themes of the Course
18:48 – Chapter 3. Humoralism and Bubonic Plague

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2010.