Umweltgeschichte

Umweltgeschichte (environmental history) is the study of how humans interact with the natural environment across time. It analyzes how environmental conditions influence social structures, economies, and cultures, and conversely how societies transform landscapes, ecosystems, and resources.

The field rests on long timescales, from pre-modern landscapes to contemporary climate change. It encompasses agriculture, forestry, mining, urbanization, energy use, pollution, and natural hazards. It also engages with political, economic, and cultural dimensions, including ideas about nature, risk, and sustainability, and examines both European and global contexts.

Methodologically, environmental history blends historical sources with natural sciences, geography, and archaeology. It employs paleoenvironmental data, GIS, and material culture, and often uses concepts such as ecological modernization, political ecology, and resource regimes to interpret change.

In German-speaking scholarship, Umweltgeschichte has emerged as a distinct field within historical studies and reshapes understanding of modernity, colonialism, and development. It contributes to debates on climate change, adaptation, and environmental justice by linking past experiences to present challenges.