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 26, 2022 By: Zhuorui Ye
My family is from Jinan, Shandong province in China, where my grandparents and parents were born and raised. I will focus on my grandparents and parents’ environmental history since I believe that their experience in China illustrates various issues that demonstrate their relationship with their past environment. Notably, the City of Jinan faces the Yellow River at the north and Mount Tai at the south.[1] The city has various natural landscapes and natural and artificial resources, which promote survival for the ecological inhabitants. Jinan is known as the city of springs (Quancheng) because it has more than 800 natural artesian…
Family Environmental History
February 10, 2022 By: Benjamin Carson
For this paper I will focus on my grandfather on my mom’s side as he left behind an autobiography. His early childhood was spent in Mossbank, Saskatchewan. His time there can be traced to when the region was opened to homesteaders in 1907 during the latter part of the Laurier boom.[1] By then the area had been cleared out of both First Nations and buffalo. The place names that greeted them were a testament of the ecological impact that had already occurred. For instance, Old Wives Lake owes its name to the Old Wives Massacre, when a Blackfoot tribe killed…
Family Environmental History
February 7, 2022 By: Yimeng Chen
My Personal Environmental History My parents and grandparents were born and raised in Beijing, China, which is also their current residence. Born and raised in small rural villages in China, my grandparents assumed a rather traditional and conservative outlook on the environment. As World War I (WWI) and II (WWII) survivors, the experiences further shaped their attitudes on the value for the environment as it provided food, protection, and shelter during the crisis. To date, my grandparents and parents have maintained a staunchly close connection to non-human resources such as the environment for sustenance. My grandparents from both sides usually…
Exercise #2 My Personal Environment History
February 3, 2022 By: True St.Denis
All of my relatives are descendants of European settlers who came to Canada. The paternal side of my settler lineage dates back to the late 1700s, when my ancestors arrived on a ship from Scotland. My maternal grandmother was born into a Mennonite family in Manitoba, and my paternal grandparents grew up in Ontario and Quebec. My maternal grandmother grew up on a crop farm in Manitoba, where her family lived off the land and the animals they raised. My paternal grandparents grew up in cities and relied on urban amenities. My maternal grandmother’s parents arrived from Prussia (now known…
Exercise #2
February 3, 2022 By: Wanyue Li
In junior school, my grandparents were born in Beijing, China, and migrated to Calgary, Canada. I currently live in Canada, although my parents also immigrated to Canada a few years ago and live in downtown Calgary. Living in Canada has its share of environmental challenges that require addressing policy. The paper’s emphasis will be my father, given his huge k knowledge of life in China. According to Fang and De-gang, “China has a track record of poverty, insecurity, and income inequality.”[1] Since the 1970s, the country experienced massive economic development coupled with a surge in population, resulting in changed living…