In part the influence of globalization derives from the scope and character of environmental issues. Thirty and forty years ago the focus of environmental anxiety almost everywhere was on local issues, especially pollution. Eventually issues of transnational and global scope - the ozone shield, deforestation, climate change - arose and in many precincts took precedence over local ones.  And, increasingly, local issues, whether of pollution or resource access, came to be understood in global contexts, as manifestations of larger patterns. As the compelling issues have evolved, so environmental history has evolved, embracing global perspectives.

Today, environmental history as a scholarly pursuit is blooming on every inhabited continent.  Not only are the perspectives of environmental historians growing more global, but the practice of our craft is as well. Its appeal and success is of course uneven, and there remain countries with academic cultures where it is still unknown - but fewer with each passing year as I was reminded this week when colleagues in Estonia informed me they were trying to set up a center for environmental history within Tallinn University.

 
As in the larger world, among environmental historians communications technology makes it ever easier to be in touch over vast distances and to connect with like-minded scholars. Two decades ago, when the Panamanian historian Guillermo Castro was exploring environmental history from his base in Mexico, he was not aware of similar explorations then afoot elsewhere in Latin America. It was possible for him to follow the emergence of the field in the United States, but not in Argentina or Colombia.

Now there is SOLCHA (the Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Historia Ambiental), which through electronic communications (and biennial meetings) unites a community of scholars. In recent years, ASEH, ESEH and SOLCHA have been joined by ASAEH (the Association of South Asia Environmental Historians) and AEAEH (Association for East Asian Environmental History). And then there are networks: the Australia and New Zealand Environmental History Network (ANZEHN) and the Network in Canadian History & Environment (NiCHE). All these organizations, and others unmentioned, exist at least as vigorously in the virtual world as in the 'real' world.

An alphabet soup such as this needs an umbrella organization, and we now have it.  The International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations (ICEHO) exists to promote exchanges among environmental historians around the world. It organized the first world congress, in Copenhagen in 2009, and is working on the next, to be held in Guimarães, in northern Portugal, in July of 2014. The call for papers will be issued shortly.  Details may be found at: http://www.iceho.org/ 

   
I imagine that John Opie, Susan Flader, Sam Hayes, Don Hughes, Don Worster and the others who were present at the creation of ASEH in 1976-77 did not foresee this globalized, interconnected world of environmental history. They should be pleased as well as surprised. Had he too somehow been present at the creation (Prof. Hughes could have served as Latin-English interpreter), even Polybius, despite foresight second to none, might well be surprised. And although he wrote political history with scant reference to the environment, one hopes he would be gratified as well.

John McNeill

ASEH President