ATS2106 An environmental history of the world: People and our planet

How can history help us understand the environmental problems we face today? What has shaped the relationships between people and environments in the past? This interdisciplinary unit offers an introduction to global environmental history on a planetary scale. We begin with the origins of our universe and through a series of case studies and stories we will examine the Earth and its inhabitants, and how their relationships have changed over time. This unit is organised both chronologically and thematically, allowing students to explore pre-historical environmental change; agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions; Indigenous land management; disease; imperialism; capitalism; urbanisation; conservation and environmentalism; and anthropogenic climate change.

This unit offers an historical perspective on our modern environmental condition through an examination of the changing interactions between people, and people and the environment. It explores the influences on human dealings with the natural world, the ways that humans have changed the natural world, and how humans have responded to environmental change.