Content Index

A new research station at the South Pole is a sign of increasing international scientific collaboration. The newest Amundsen-Scott Station is larger than previous stations and has a better design, offering the potential for increased longevity in one of the world’s harshest climates.

The remote Easter Island was settled around 900 by Polynesians who built hundreds of giant stone statues and completely deforested the island before their society underwent a dramatic collapse. Although controversy exists regarding the exact cause of this collapse, the story of Easter Island has unsettling parallels with modern resource issues.

The proposed O’Shaughnessy Dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park precipitated a national environmental debate from 1908 to 1913. In 1913 the congress permitted construction and it was completed in 1923.

This article discusses how the understanding of the key concepts and the links between health, water, and sanitation has changed over time.

The focus of this paper is on identifying some of the key elements of water policy and governance presented at the 5th IWHA Conference ‘Pasts and Futures of Water.’ The paper also explores the challenges and opportunities facing the international community for living up to the principles of democratic water governance in a context of increasing global uncertainty.

This editorial note introduces the four major conference themes of the 5th International Water History Association (IWHA) Conference ‘Pasts and Futures of Water’ in June 2007: (i) water, health and sanitation; (ii) water, food and economy; (iii) water and the city; and (iv) water governance and policy.

This article analyses the contribution of the Austrian-born Russian scientist, Franz Joseph Ruprecht (1814–70) to the development of geobotany in general and to the controversial issue of the origins of the very fertile chernozem (Black Earth) of the steppe region of the Russian Empire.

This study is an overview of the state-led development projects and local efforts to ‘improve’ local conditions on the Zoige grass and wetlands on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau since 1949 and their impact on the regional ecological and social environment. It focuses on historical state-led development projects, as well as more recent efforts to raise environmental awareness of the importance of Chinese wetlands.

This paper explores the social and political factors that historically limited the national nature conservation movement’s influence in Japan, and outlines recent developments which may lead to both a greater emphasis on the greater participation of non-governmental organisations in the political process, and a greater emphasis on the protection of the natural environment.

This paper explores the history of trees and scientific forestry in South Africa and how it changed southern African hydrologies.