Connecting Past and Present

September 1, 2025 By: Vraj Bharatkumar Patel

Dr. Mark Butorac

HIST 3991 – Environmental History

Vraj Bharatkumar Patel – T00785625

Sept 1, 2025

 

Media Article 1:

Urban Heat Island Effect in Canadian Cities

Reference
EnvironBuzz. (2024, August 12). Urban heat island effect in Canadian cities: Why it’s getting hotter and how we can cool down. EnvironBuzz Media. https://environbuzz.com/urban-heat-island-effect-canadian-cities

This article discusses how paved and built surfaces trap heat in Canadian cities, worsening summer conditions. In Unit 3, McShane and Tarr’s study of the decline of the urban horse shows how city surfaces changed from organic grounds to hardened ones, increasing environmental stress. Today’s urban heat challenges continue this same historical trajectory, linking past infrastructure changes to current climate risks.

Media Article 2:

Parks Canada Will Share Stewardship with Indigenous Nations

Reference
National Observer. (2025, August 12). Parks Canada will share stewardship with Indigenous Nations. Canada’s National Observer. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/08/12/news/parks-canada-indigenous-partnership

This report describes Parks Canada’s plan to involve Indigenous communities in managing national parks. In Unit 3, Binnema and Niemi showed how the early parks movement, including Banff, excluded Indigenous peoples to preserve “wilderness” for tourism and conservation. The new initiative reflects a reversal of that exclusion, moving toward collaborative stewardship that values Indigenous leadership and ecological knowledge.

Unit 3 Readings Cited

Binnema, T., & Niemi, M. (2006). “Let the line be drawn now”: Wilderness, conservation, and the exclusion of Aboriginal people from Banff National Park in Canada. Environmental History, 11(4), 724–750. https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/11.4.724

McShane, C., & Tarr, J. (2003). The decline of the urban horse. Journal of Transport History, 24(2), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.7227/TJTH.24.2.4