Exercise #2: Family Environmental History
Instructions
For Exercise #2, you will bring the environmental concepts home by looking at your own and your family environmental history.
Our lives and present environments are products of history. Our parents and grandparents grew up in very different environments from those of today. In our study of environmental history, it is helpful to think about our families’ past environments and their meaning for us today.
- Write an informal essay, between 700 and 1100 words, reflecting on your personal environmental history going back to your grandparents, parents, and your own generation. See the Exercise 2 Samples for a guide to this exercise.
- In formulating your response, consider the environments in which they and you have lived. Where were they located? What natural resources sustained your families and their communities? To what extent were those environments “natural” or human-made, native, or exotic (that is, transformed by European or other non-native species)? How have your families helped to transform their environments? Does your own ethnic and class heritage or gender play a role in the way you and your family have related to and valued the environment? How did the relationships your grandparents and parents had with their environments differ from the ones you have had in the past and wish to have in the future?
- Post your response by clicking ‘Add Submission’ below.
- Please note, you should write and edit your submission in a separate file then copy and paste it into the submission box. Once submitted to the HIST 3991 trubox site, you will not be able to edit your post.
Are you a student of HIST 3991? Click here to add a submission to this assignment.
Submissions
Family Environmental History
February 23, 2025 By: Jessica Kampen
I would like to preface this exercise with a statement: Unfortunately, my family does not have close relationships. I did not grow up hearing stories of my family or even knowing relatives, distant or close. This experience has taught me a lot about my extended family, and I look forward to learning more in the future. As a child, my passion for nature was encouraged by my father; we would camp and hike with his constant reminder, “Take only pictures, leave only footprints.” However, while I was taught to respect nature, I was never taught about understanding the ecosystem or…
Plunkett Family History
February 9, 2025 By: Colleen Plunkett
OFLM Name: Norman Fennema Course Name and Number: Environmental History HIST_3991 Name: Colleen Plunkett Date: 2/9/25 Reflecting on my personal environmental history has led me to consider how generations of my family have utilized, interacted with, and been shaped by the environment. Our relationship with nature has evolved over time, with each generation adapting changes happening around them. For this assignment, I will focus on my maternal grandparents, who were both born in 1919. My grandma was born into a large Irish Catholic family in a rural village called Maidstone, just outside Windsor, Ontario. My grandfather, also Irish Catholic, was…
Gartner Family Environmental History
January 25, 2025 By: Rosie Gartner
OLFM: Norman Fennema HIST 3991: Environmental History Rosie Gartner January 25, 2025 My family’s environmental story intertwines German farming traditions with Canadian urban-to-rural transitions, reflecting a blend of historical necessity, cultural heritage, and personal choice. On my mother’s side, my grandparents were born in the 1920s in Germany, where their lives were deeply connected to the land through farming and traditional agricultural practices. In contrast, my paternal grandparents grew up in urban Ontario, experiencing an environment shaped by city life rather than agricultural demands. In this essay, I will primarily focus on my maternal ancestry, as I am culturally and…
Family Environmental History
January 16, 2025 By: Emmanuel Emmanuel
Family Environmental History My family’s environmental history reflects a transition from rural living to urban life. My grandparents lived in a rural farming community in Saskatchewan, where they practiced small-scale agriculture, relying on crop rotation and livestock for sustenance (Diamond, 2005). They used traditional farming methods that had minimal environmental impact but were vulnerable to climate variability. My parents moved to Edmonton, Alberta, during the oil boom, working in industries related to resource extraction. This shift exposed them to the environmental challenges associated with industrial development, including air pollution and habitat loss (Hughes, 2016). However, they also participated in early…
Family Environmental History
January 12, 2025 By: Jennifer R. Paulsen
Mark Butorac HIST 3991: Environmental History. January 11, 2025. Family Environmental History My environmental history going back to my maternal and paternal great-great-grandparents begins on a farm somewhere in North America. I recently reached out to a distant cousin who mailed me pages upon pages of my genetic and geographical history going back as far as the 12th century CE. This topic reinforces my acute awareness that access to personal history is a privilege I am granted by virtue of my colonial ancestor’s obsession with writing things down and one which through the disruption and attempted eradication of Indigenous family structures…