Tópicos de História Ambiental
Cod: 31371
Department: DCSG
ECTS: 6
Scientific area: History
Total working hours: 15
Total contact time: 156

Considering the increasingly widespread awareness that human being relationship with nature is deeply unbalanced, and may, at the limit, call into question our continuity as a species and that the sustained reflection on these aspects is pressing for citizens who want to be active and committed, the programmatic contents selected for this curricular unit intend to draw an overview of this relationship throughout history, broad-spectrum chronology, focusing on certain topics and case studies. This analysis of remarkable moments of history with a decisive influence of the Environment (or, more recently, the impact of human actions) on the future of societies will help students, on the one hand, to formulate critical assessments based on environmental history in its relationship with the capacities and technical knowledge of man and, on the other, to discuss with the property the concept of Anthropocene. 

- Human Societies

- Environment 

- Climate change 

- Anthropocene

- Understand the action of the physiographic framework as a conditioning factor of past civilizations/societies.

 - Analyze the main moments of relevant intervention of human beings in their environments. 

- Understand how climate change has always influenced human actions.

 - Discuss the concept of Anthropocene. - Ability to read critically of historical sources or contents of the mass media.

- Human Being/Nature interaction: the Neolithic and sedentarization.

- Natural surroundings of the great empires of Antiquity.

- Medieval Warm Period: Middle Age or Middle Ages?

- New Worlds/New Environments: case studies.

- Manipulation of Nature by Man since the Industrial Revolution.

- Climate Changes and Human History: the Anthropocene.

BASTOS M.R., CUNHA RIBEIRO J.P. (2019) Climate Change in Human History. In: Leal Filho W., Azul A., Brandli L., Özuyar P., Wall T. (eds) Climate Action. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. Disponível em https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71063-1_30-1

GUIMARÃES, Paulo E. & AMORIM, Inês (2016). A História Ambiental em Portugal: a emergência de um novo campo historiográfico. Disponível em: http://hdl.handle.net/10216/88046

MCNEILL, J.R. (2003). Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History. History and Theory. Environment and History, 42(4): 5-43.

PÁDUA; José Augusto (2010). As bases teóricas da História Ambiental. Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-40142010000100009 

WINIWARTER, V.; ARMIERO, M.; VAN DAM, et al. (2004). Environmental history in Europe from 1994 to 2004: enthusiasm and consolidation. Environment and History, 10(4): 501-530

HIGHLIGHT: during the academic semester bibliographical and/or internet references will be available for each topic in analyses in the virtual classroom.

This course is available in an E-LEARNING scheme, using the Moodle platform, as mentioned in the pedagogical model of the Open University-1st cycle. A Curricular Course is available in the Virtual Classroom, where it is stipulated and scheduled all the work to be developed throughout the semester. The learning process is structured around individual and collaborative work, rewarding students’ individual training. However, teacher tutorial support is available.

Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a final digital test, Global e-folio (e-folio G) at the end of the semester (60%). In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one final exam (100%).

The student must have access to a computer with an internet connection.