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"Exploring over a century of Zimbabwe's colonial and post-colonial history, Elijah Doro investigates the murky and noxious history of that powerful crop: tobacco. In a compelling narrative that debunks previous histories glorifying tobacco farming, Doro reveals the indelible marks that tobacco left on landscapes, communities, and people. Demonstrating that the history of tobacco farming is inseparable from that of colonial encounter, Doro outlines how tobacco became an institutionalised culture of production, which was linked to state power and natural ecosystems, and driven by a pernicious heritage of unbridled plunder. With the destruction of landscapes, the negative impacts of the export trade and the growing tobacco epidemic in Zimbabwe, tobacco farming has a long and varied legacy in southern African and across the world. Connecting the local to the global, and the environmental to the social, this book illuminates our understandings of environmental history, colonialism and sustainability"--

Exploring over a century of Zimbabwe's colonial and post-colonial history, Elijah Doro investigates the murky and noxious history of that powerful crop: tobacco. In a compelling narrative that debunks previous histories glorifying tobacco farming, Doro reveals the indelible marks that tobacco left on landscapes, communities, and people. Demonstrating that the history of tobacco farming is inseparable from that of colonial encounter, Doro outlines how tobacco became an institutionalised culture of production, which was linked to state power and natural ecosystems, and driven by a pernicious heritage of unbridled plunder. With the destruction of landscapes, the negative impacts of the export trade and the growing tobacco epidemic in Zimbabwe, tobacco farming has a long and varied legacy in southern African and across the world. Connecting the local to the global, and the environmental to the social, this book illuminates our understandings of environmental history, colonialism and sustainability.

The Cañadas Avellanal and Taniperlas in 24 years went through a process of structural change that differentiated and modified them in their processes of territorial appropriation and land use. Between the 80-90s it was the productive specialization and the ELZN. Today (2018) they are the autonomous regime with Earth Theology and the conservationist with environmental policies. In these transitions, forests and jungles have been reduced 30.31% and 46.47% respectively. This article aims to explain the socio-environmental history of Avellanal and Taniperlas, and the social relationships in which the change in the landscape is expressed, through participant observation, field trips, interviews and meetings with key subjects, documentary review and satellite images. Three historical periods are observed where changes in the landscape are mainly explained by sociopolitical dynamics after the EZLN, more than for other reasons. 1.- Critical period of environmental deterioration, social destructuring, political-ideological dispute and the struggle for the leadership of Las Cañadas (1995-2001), 2.- Reconfiguration and political differentiations that seek to coexist (2002-2011) and 3.- Decline of common use areas in ejidos, land distribution, deforestation and intermittent migration (2012-2018). In each temporality the ecological and social processes were defined that, in continuous agreement, marked the evolution of the socio-environmental history of the regions and express the current landscape. Therefore, changes in the landscape are not unicausal, nor linear, but generally occur within the framework of social relations (at different scales) and in the social organizational capacity in the face of social and environmental conditions. The regional context in this case becomes relevant and its consideration is necessary in the elaboration of rural development proposals. ; Las Cañadas Avellanal y Taniperlas en 24 años pasaron por un proceso de cambio estructural que las fueron diferenciando y modificando en sus procesos de apropiación territorial y de uso de la tierra. Entre los 80-90 fue la especialización productiva y el ELZN. Hoy (2018) son el régimen autónomo con la Teología de la Tierra y el conservacionista con las políticas ambientales. En estas transiciones, los bosques y selvas se han reducido 30.31% y 46.47% respectivamente. Este artículo pretende explicar la historia socioambiental de Avellanal y Taniperlas, y las relaciones sociales en las que el cambio en el paisaje se expresa, mediante observación participante, recorridos de campo, entrevistas y reuniones con sujetos clave, revisión documental e imágenes satelitales. Se observan tres periodos históricos donde los cambios en el paisaje son explicados principalmente por las dinámicas sociopolíticas posteriores al EZLN, más que por otras razones. 1.- Periodo crítico de deterioro ambiental, desestructuración social, disputa político-ideológica y la lucha por la dirección de las Cañadas (1995-2001), 2.- Reconfiguración y diferenciaciones políticas que procuran coexistir (2002-2011) y 3.- Declinación de las áreas de uso común en los ejidos, reparto de tierras, deforestación y migración intermitente (2012-2018). En cada temporalidad se fueron definiendo los procesos ecológicos y sociales que, en continua concordancia, marcaron el devenir de la historia socioambiental de las regiones y expresan el paisaje actual. Por lo tanto, los cambios en el paisaje no son unicausales, ni lineales, pero generalmente ocurren en el marco de las relaciones sociales (en diferentes escalas) y en la capacidad organizativa social ante las condiciones sociales y ambientales. El contexto regional en este caso cobra relevancia y su consideración es necesaria en la elaboración de propuestas de desarrollo rural.

Argues against postmodernist authors that it is better to decode the history of environmentalism as a developmental logic of capitalism rather than as a particular narrative form. Environmental history is defined in the former terms as the study of how human agency shapes & modifies nature & constructs built environments & spatial configurations. It is suggested that this definition has led historians to the only totalizing social science, Marxism. Environmental history writing is situated in the context of three prior types of history: political, economic, & social/cultural. It is argued that, because environmental history encompasses the development of capitalism & its political, economic, social/cultural, & environmental revolutions, it is properly described as the culmination of history writing in the capitalist epoch. The more that nature is viewed as a product of labor, property, exploitation, & social struggle in particular contexts, the better the chances of developing a more socially just future. D. M. Smith

Profit ― getting more out of something than you put into it ― is the original genius of homo sapiens, who learned how to unleash the energy stored in wood, exploit the land, and refashion ecosystems. As civilization developed, we found more and more ways of extracting surplus value from the earth, often deploying brutally effective methods to discipline people to do the work needed. Historian Mark Stoll explains how capitalism supercharged this process and traces its many environmental consequences. The financial innovations of medieval Italy created trade networks that, with the European discovery of the Americas, made possible vast profits and sweeping cultural changes, to the detriment of millions of slaves and indigenous Americans; the industrial age united the world in trade and led to an energy revolution that changed lives everywhere. But when efficient production left society awash in goods, a new sort of capitalism, predicated on endless individual consumption, took its place. This story of incredible ingenuity and villainy begins in the Doge's palace in medieval Venice and ends with Jeff Bezos aboard his own spacecraft. Mark Stoll's revolutionary account places environmental factors at the heart of capitalism's progress and reveals the long shadow of its terrible consequences.

In a series of two articles, the author presents a socio-environmental model which provides a framework for assessing the needs of abusing families. In the 2nd article (to be published in the Spring Issue) she looks at the application of the model in practice.

The authors discuss their book on our state's human and natural history as detailed from an environmental rather than a political viewpoint.