Today's environmental problems climate change, loss of biodiversity, polluted
air, land, and water all have their origins to a greater or lesser extent in how
we have lived, played and worked. At a time when societies are confronted with
the often dramatic consequences of past choices made in the fields of energy,
technology, industry, agriculture, urbanisation and consumption, we need a
history that casts more light on the ways in which unsustainable human-nature
relationships came into being. This means forging stronger connections between
social and environmental history. Common Ground opens up a dialogue between two
sub-disciplines that to date have remained largely parallel endeavours, bringing
together both established