As uncontrolled development forces crises in the natural world, deeply ingrained human connections with the earth are changing. Oral history's proven ability to explore issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality make it a uniquely effective methodology for bringing in new perspectives to our understanding of environments.This book brings together interviews with a global range of activists, farmers, water system managers, victims of catastrophe, tribal trustees, wilderness rangers, reindeer herders, and foresters, among others whose life experience gives them special insights into human-environmental interaction and adaption. Commentary by oral historians examines how these stories can be used to better understand our relationship with the natural world. Oral History and the Environment takes what could seem broad and impersonal forces such as climate change and environmentalismLand crystalizes their meaning through personal stories. It overturns narrow historical frameworks bounded artificially by national borders and instead portrays the issues facing our common ecosystems.

Introduction: Querying Environmental and Human Landscapes by Stephen M. SloanChapter 1Grim Humor and Hope: Australian Oral Histories of Drought by Deb AndersonOral histories by Deb Anderson with residents of wheat-belt communities affected by drought in the Mallee, southeast Australia, Sea Lake, Ouyen, Tiega, Victoria 2004-07Chapter 2A Pelican in Her Piety: Perspectives on Wildlife Rescue in Louisiana Following the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill by Mark CaveOral histories by Mark Cave with participants in the wildlife rescue operation in Louisiana following the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill, Baton Rouge, Lacombe, Youngsville, and Arabi, Louisiana, November 2010 to March 2011Chapter 3Fragmentary Time: Memory and Politics in the Wake of the Torrey Canyon by Timothy Cooper and Anna GreenOral History by Anna Green with environmental activist "Jane Evans" at St. Agnes, Cornwall, United Kingdom June 2012Chapter 4The Ghosts of Bhopal: Oral History, Environmental Justice, and the Literature of Protest by Suroopa MukherjeeOral histories by Bhopal Survivors' Movement Study with Bhopal activists Hazra Bi, Hamida Bi, Rashida Bi, Abdul Jabbar, and Satinath Sarangi, Bhopal, India, 2007, 2008, and 2012.Chapter 5Floating Reed Islands: Gendered Stories of Resilience during Ecological Disaster in the Mara Region, Tanzania by Jan Bender ShetlerOral histories by Jan Bender Shetler with elderly women of the Mara Region of Tanzania, August-November 2010Chapter 6Fighting through the Fallout: Maternal and Feminist Resistance and the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster by Heidi HutnerOral histories by Heidi Hutner with Sachiko Sato of Fukushima City, September 21, 2011 and April 23, 2017Chapter 7More than H2O: Exploring the Biophysical and Social Dimensions of Water by Javier Arce NazarioOral history by Javier Arce Nazario with Héctor L. Martinez Rivera, water system manager for the Doña Mayo community, Barranquitas, Puerto Rico on February 12, 2015Chapter 8Environmental Guardians: Learning from Maori Perspectives on Geothermal Fields by Caren FoxOral history by Caren Fox with Aroha Campbell at the Ohaaki Power Station near Reporoa, New Zealand, January 14, 2017Chapter 9When Little Fish Encounter a Big Dam: Environmental Conflict on the Upper Yangtze by Dai Qing and Kang XueOral history by Kang Xue, retired Beijing People's Radio journalist, with Zhang Boju, secretary-general of Chinese non-governmental environmental protection organization, Friends of Nature, Chongying China, June 2016Chapter 10The Free Play of Natural Forces: Wild Methods of Oral History in Documenting Wilderness by Debbie LeeOral history by Debbie Lee with Wilderness Ranger Art Seamans, Lewiston, Idaho, April 28, 2013Chapter 11Culture Keepers: Voices of Renewal in the Eurasian Taiga by Tero MustonenOral histories by Tero Mustonen with Evenk reindeer-herder Vladimir Kolesov, Sakha-Yakutia, Siberia, Russia (2005-2010) and Finnish-Karelian fisherman-farmer Kauko Heiskanen, North Karelia, Finland (2013) as part of the Snowchange Oral History Archive.Chapter 12Who Speaks for the Trees?: Forestry in the Scottish Highlands by K. Jan OosthoekOral histories collected by Jan Oosthoek with retired foresters of the British Forestry Commission, Stirling and Edinburgh, Scotland, June 1998-August 1999.Epilogue: The Fall and Rise of Oral Testimony in Environmental History by Christopher Sellers