Reply To: Mon 17 March: Greece and Revisionist Environmental History

Nik Petek
Reply to Saelrodr

I would firstly disagree that environmental history is a young discipline. Yes, compared to studies like mathematics it is, however, environmental history has been with us for over 30 years and during that time it established itself well within history and within other disciplines as a reliable source of information. And during that time it has produced some amazing work. For Eastern Africa it was able to follow the spread of the sleeoing disease and how people have dealt with the spread of East Coast Fever. Historical sources can be reliable and very informative. It just s happens that the sources from Classical Greece and the bible are not. They are not in any way accurate or systematically collected data.
Secondly, I would agree with you that the collection of scientific data is necessary when studying environments. Nevertheless, personally i think the best results come from combining scientific and social science data, as is the case of historical ecology. Of course, this is only possible when and where people are involved and where the results of the study to some extent pertain to people. A purely ecological study (exluding humans) gains very little from a social scientific and humanistic interpretation added on top, when the study’s results do not directly relate to humans.