Environmental History

Environment has a history!

Programme coordinator

Mr Bo Persson
Ekbackeskolan,
Västra Storgatan 15,
28300 Osby

Home: Abborrvägen 15, 28135 Hässleholm
e-mail: bo.persson@lut.mah.se

Programme details

Environment has a history!

For some time environmental history has been developing inside the BSP. It is a new subject even from the point of view of academic research and still more as a teaching subject. It is usually defined as the study of the historical relation between nature and society in a broad sense. More specifically it can be divided into the examination of changes in nature, the view of nature in society and the influence from society upon nature and vice versa.

In 1994 some results of environmental history were presented at the Karlskrona conference 'Save the Baltic Sea' as two upper secondary schools had dealt with the river Helgeå (northern Skåne in Sweden) and its use since medieval times.

In 1995 some teachers met and decided to start a network for environmental history inside the BSP. The first result was an international course in Visby, Gotland, in September 1996.
(See Newsletter 2/1996).

In September 1997 there was a second meeting for environmental history in Sweden. About 40 teachers from Denmark, Finland and Sweden met in Lund and exchanged experiences and had lectures about views of nature, agriculture and ethics.

Many teachers work with environmental history:

• One example is De Geergymnasiet in Norrköping, Sweden, with a big project on the conservation of industrial remnants.
• Another example is from Rungsted, Denmark, with a multimedia-project about a local river, Nivå.

Another result of network activities is a home-page with addresses and links to participating schools, useful links about environmental history and the Baltic Sea. If you are interested in knowing more about environmental history in general or educational themes, please visit our home-page: http://hem2.passagen.se/bsp or send a letter to the co-ordinator: