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
Exercise #2: Family Environmental History
April 17, 2026 By: Alexander Charlton
My family’s environmental history up to my grandparents stretches across North America, South America, and Japan. Their history was shaped by necessity, and access to resources. When looking at the past generations of my family and myself, what stands out the most is how differently each generation interacted with the environment; my grandparents relied on the land for work, my parents trained and used animals, and I enjoy nature, but don’t rely on it in the same way as my past family generations. My grandma, Maria, grew up in a…
Family Environmental History
April 15, 2026 By: An Chen
When I try to picture the environment of my childhood, I see two things: gray concrete and green leaves. Growing up in Shanghai’s Xuhui District during the early 2000s, my world was a mix of old French concession villas turned into offices, narrow nongtang (lane) alleys, and the sudden rise of brand-new apartment towers. But my grandparents remember a very different Shanghai. Looking back at my family’s environmental history—from my grandparents, to my parents, to myself—I see a story of rapid change, from a world of natural waterways to one of air conditioners and car exhaust, and finally to a…
Family Environmental History
April 11, 2026 By: Yanran Lu
My environmental history can be understood through three generations: my grandparents, my parents, and myself. Each generation lived in a different environment shaped by economic development, culture and technology. By comparing their experiences, I can see how people’s life and the environment are closely connected and constantly changing. These generational shifts also reveal how our values, habits and awareness of nature evolved. My grandparents grew up in rural Shanghai, China, where life depended heavily on nature. They lived in small villages in Shanghai. Farming was their primary job. Natural resources such as land, water, and crops were essential to their…
Family Enviornmental History
March 17, 2026 By: Daphnee Cairns
When I think about my personal environmental history, one of the first memories that comes to mind is from when I was about five years old, living in Sooke, BC. My family was out for a walk on the Galloping Goose Trail, and I kept falling behind because my little legs couldn’t keep up with my three older sisters. My parents jokingly called me “cougar bait,” since I was always at the back of the group. At the time it was funny, but looking back, it’s a reminder of how present and real nature felt in that environment. Wildlife wasn’t…
Family Environmental History
March 14, 2026 By: Michelle Anderson
Our lives and present environments are products of history. When I trace my family’s environmental story back through my grandparents, parents, and my own generation, what emerges is a thread of migration, adaptation, and changing relationships to land. From the coal‑lit cottages of postwar Scotland to suburban yards beside Burns Bog and, finally, the suburban‑agricultural edges of Clayton Heights. My paternal grandparents and their six children lived in a small coastal town, Foress, in northeast Scotland. Life there was shaped by scarcity and the elemental rhythms of fuel, food, and weather. My grandfather ran a one‑man slating business and swept…