Two substantive criticisms of Warren Dean’s ‘wood hypothesis’ are offered here: the wood hypothesis is accurate in general but underestimated the industrial consumption of fossil fuels, without conclusively rejecting the competing ‘hydroelectricity’ hypothesis; the method used for estimating potential energy supply from forest area was erroneous.
Spanish dehesas, the most extensive wood pastures in Mediterranean Europe, are a vivid example for demonstrating that the impact of rural communities on forests has not always been a bad thing.
This paper traces the dynamic of a rapid transition from forest to grass on Banks Peninsula, South Island, New Zealand, from 1850 to 1900, as well as the subsequent partial transition back towards forest.
The magnitude of this two-way trade created domestic timber shortages on both sides of the Tasman Sea, and stimulated conservation efforts from the early years of the twentieth century.
This study argues that when farmers raised concerns about miners’ activities, ‘precautionary stewardship’ of the environment designed to stop entrepreneurial practices harmful to the environment was not a concern. This was a struggle over the ownership of the means of production by two competing forms of capitalism—a characteristic intra-class as well as intra-racial conflict.
Donald Worster, Carson Fellow from February to July 2011, talks about his research concerning the impact of the discovery of the New World and its resources, both on Western Europe, and the American way of life.
The author argues that the analysis of historical energy systems can provide an explanation for the basic patterns of different social formations.
Finland first mad the switch from indigenous energy sources—fuel wood, wood refuse, and hydropower—to imported fossil fuels in the 1960s, during a hightened phase of industrialization. This article is an analysis of developments leading up to this change.
As a response to perceived lumber shortages, Niklaus Emanuel Tscharner sketched a comprehensive strategy for achieving forest sustainability which included political proposals, forestry instructions and moral appeals.
Examines the development of woodland ownership in Denmark from the Middle Ages to the first half of the nineteenth century.
