The timeline of discovering Antarctica and the ‘race’ to the South Pole, from first sighting to Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton and more. January 1773: Captain James Cook becomes the first recorded navigator to cross the Antarctic Circle. Discover more about James Cook’s voyage to the Antarctic Circle January 1820: Antarctica is first sighted. The first person to actually see[…]
A close look at the flowers, fruits, seedpods, insects, and other small creatures in a 16th-century manuscript. By Nancy Turner and Karen Trentelman Small enough to hold in the hand, the allure of the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta (Wondrous Monuments of Calligraphy) in the Getty Museum’s collection of manuscripts is undeniable. Hold the book close enough, and the[…]
You’ve probably heard of asbestos before, but maybe you don’t know very much about it. You should probably know at least some of the basics. That’s because asbestos is potentially quite dangerous. Builders commonly used asbestos for many years. At that point, they didn’t know the risks. Now, medical science knows what it can do,[…]
Airflow, water fountains, and shade. Dark green leaves flutter in the breeze; water splashes in a fountain; the shade deepens along a covered colonnade. It might be a hot day, but it feels like the temperature has fallen a few degrees. That’s how a summer afternoon feels at the Getty Villa—and that’s how it might[…]
In the middle of a global pandemic, it can be easy to forget the significant danger that global warming presents. The planet is warming at an accelerating rate, from the north pole to the south. The average surface temperature has seen an increase of 0.9 degrees Celsius. The impact of this warming isn’t something way[…]
Throughout the history of the ancient Mediterranean artists were always keen to express their appreciation of the bounty of the sea. Marine life of all kinds, real and imagined, was frequently depicted on frescoes, pottery, mosaics and coins. Here are 24 images with a sea theme from the Bronze Age to the 3rd century CE, encompassing Egyptian, Minoan, Mycenaean,[…]
How a symbolic climb changed two men. This is the story of one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo, and of two extraordinary characters of the 19th century: the German explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt and the Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar. Both are said to have climbed Chimborazo, although one[…]
All businesses need energy to function, and there’s nothing you can do to escape this. What you can do, however, is take proactive steps to reduce your costs. The issue is that many business owners tend to be stuck in their ways and think that they’re either already doing everything they can, or that whatever[…]
Over the years, the way that we drink coffee has changed a lot with many people now finding themselves addicted to drinking a cup a day. With recent developments in global warming, we should all be doing what we can to ensure we are reducing our carbon footprint and the waste that we are contributing.[…]
The catastrophe led to in-depth government reviews. Despite a gale warning from the local meterological office on the morning of Saturday, 31 January 1953, the passenger ferry Princess Victoria left Stranraer, Scotland for her regular journey across the Irish Sea. Shortly after departure, the ship got into trouble, and at 2 p.m., before rescue crews[…]
America and Europe introduced advanced manufacturing processes during the Industrial Revolution period. Most of the technological innovations originated in Britain. They included machine tools, chemical manufacturing processes and mechanized factory systems. The textile industry created many employment opportunities. But, many people don’t know the adverse effects the revolution had on the environment. In this post,[…]
How long will our planet last? Is it really a matter of twelve more years for earthlings? Find out the answer to the frequently asked questions about the climate crisis: Are we too late? Have we invited inevitable climate changes for the generations to come? More importantly, is it too late to stop climate change[…]
Understanding history can deepen our sense of what it means to be human and how fragile our societies are. At some time or another, every historian of Rome has been asked to say where we are, today, on Rome’s cycle of decline. Historians might squirm at such attempts to use the past but, even if[…]
What caused the rise and then collapse 2,600 years ago of this vast empire centered on Mesopotamia? Introduction Ancient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was the command and control center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This ancient superpower was the largest empire of its time, lasting from 912 BC to[…]
The reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural variation in climate and the evolution of the current climate. Introduction Paleoclimatology is the study of climates for which systematic measurements were not taken.[1] As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural[…]
Weather often significantly affects history. Fox’s Jesse Waters dismissedclimate change in a not-so-nuanced manner: “It gets hot. It gets cold.” Yet weather matters, and it matters even to historians. I offer an illustration. I have for many years been perplexed by the somberness of Jefferson’s thinking beginning with the spring of 1816 and continuing throughout[…]
We will watch these parts of our image of the world wash away, unsure of what will remain. By Claire Harbage Massive stands of silvery trees rise skeletally out of saltwater marshes at the edges of the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, a significant part of the coastlines of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. A[…]
The Whitney hall was once one of the crown jewels of the museum, alongside the halls of African and North American mammals. By Jonathan MeiburgOrnithologist Visitors to the American Museum of Natural History’s popular Butterfly Conservatorycould be forgiven a moment’s confusion when they enter the exhibit through an archway marked ‘Birds of the Pacific.’ A framed[…]
For decades, they’ve sustainably managed their community forest, relying on it for food, shelter and livelihoods. By Caleb Stevens, Sarah Parsons, Katie Reytar and Bill DuganPhotos by: André D’elia Introduction The Yudja are one of many indigenous groups who call Brazil’s Amazon rainforest home. For decades, they’ve sustainably managed their community forest, relying on it[…]
While we’re losing biological diversity, we’re also losing linguistic and cultural diversity at the same time. This is no coincidence. The world is getting uncomfortably warm. At present, much of Europe is suffering under a heat wave of record-breaking temperatures. It’s so hot that piles of manure are spontaneously combusting and setting off wildfires in Spain. Across the[…]
John Wesley Powell’s expedition opened the West. He then devoted his life to protecting it. In May 1869, ten men climbed into four small, wooden rowboats to attempt what no one had dared before: descend the Colorado River through the unknown, frightening confines of the Grand Canyon. The leading explorer of the day, John C.[…]
Arctic ice has long proved a stern adversary to explorers. Exploring the representation of this fearful foe by explorers across the centuries. As Francis Spufford’s 2003 book I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination argues, ice has a powerful hold on the English imagination. Today this is commonly articulated by summoning the names of[…]
Many people think climate change caused Classic Maya civilization to collapse abruptly around 900 A.D. An archaeologist says that view is too simplistic and misses the bigger point. Carbon dioxide concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere have reached 415 parts per million – a level that last occurred more than three million years ago, long before the evolution of[…]
Modern civilizations might also be less capable of recovering from deep collapse than their predecessors. Is the collapse of a civilisation necessarily calamitous? The failure of the Egyptian Old Kingdom towards the end of the 2nd millennium BCE was accompanied by riots, tomb-raids and even cannibalism. ‘The whole of Upper Egypt died of hunger and[…]
While the social category of ‘persons’ is found in multiple cultural contexts, who or what is recognized as a person can differ. For the Maya of the Classic period, who lived in southern Mexico and Central America between 250 and 900 CE, the category of ‘persons’ was not coincident with human beings, as it is[…]
Soil is a valuable resource that needs to be carefully managed as it is easily damaged. Introduction Soil is the thin layer of material covering the earth’s surface and is formed from the weathering of rocks. It is made up mainly of mineral particles, organic materials, air, water and living organisms—all of which interact slowly[…]
How did Greenpeace develop this affinity with Native Americans? The German branch of Greenpeace announced itself to the world in June 1981 when two activists climbed a smokestack in Hamburg and festooned it with a banner which read: Erst wenn der letzte Baum gefällt, der letzte Fluss vergiftet und der letzte Fisch gefangen ist, werdet[…]
Even though Neste tried to conceal its intentions, they were obvious enough to members of the local community. By Dr. Matias Kaihovirta, Dr. Hanna Lindberg, and Dr. Mats WickströmKaihovirta: Postdoctoral Researcher in Political HistoryLindberg: Postdoctoral ResearcherWickström: Postdoctoral ResearcherÅbo Akademi University On 30 October 1970, the local newspaper Västra Nyland revealed that the Finnish state-owned oil[…]
Many of the protected open spaces that we have today have been inherited from one or more of three traditions. By Ann E. Chapman Introduction – Trends in the 19th Century Conservation thinking has evolved over centuries, often as a response to the profound land use changes that shaped the American landscape after the arrival[…]
Rugendas up the challenging mission of drawing and conveying the New World to Europe. A significant weakness of commonplace records of the first four centuries of Brazil’s history is that they do not capture the wide range of interactions between humans and nonhuman animals, nor recognize them as an essential element in the formation of[…]