Images of Landscape and Environment, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for Environmental History (UK Branch) with the European Society for Environmental History (UK section)

On Friday 27 September, 2002, the European Association for Environmental History, an enthusiastic group of researchers, gathered for their annual meeting at the Open University in Milton Keynes. Below an account by Raymond Smith of the papers presented at this one day conference. The report was first published in PERG Newsletter, Winter 2002.

Ray Thomas and Stephen Potter outlined the origins of "garden city" thinking from the human scale of Ebenezer Howard through to Milton Keynes, a car based city imitating Los Angeles. They asked whether, in the light of the new resource constraints of the 21st century, we should be returning to the concepts of Howard.

Stephen Mosley, argued that air pollution campaigners, in spite of their use of imperial rhetoric and emphasis on the costs of smoke pollution, made little headway in the late 19th century, as the work-force and manufacturers shared a belief in smoke as the symbol of prosperity.

Peter Brimblecombe explored the "professionalization" of the implementation of air pollution control (in the period 1875-1926), the rivalries between various examining and representative bodies and tensions over the role of women, who were unable to retain some their early advances.

John Sheail showed how the problem of burning "bings" (heaps of flammable coal mine waste) was largely avoided by government in deference to mine owners, in spite of pressure from MP's from mining districts in the 1930's. Only with the introduction of wartime black-out regulations were the uncontrolled fires extinguished.

Horace Herring argued that FoE's anti-nuclear power campaign in the 1970's has obscured earlier (often local) campaigns in this field. FoE's distinctiveness was direct action, and when they entered the "professional" arena at the Windscale inquiry they were unsuccessful.

John Thornes looked at Monet's 'London Series' of paintings, landscapes of the Westminster area around 1900. He assessed the visibility in Monet's paintings by estimating distances from bridges, buildings, chimneys and church spires. This coincided with other data on the visible distance through London's (permanent) haze.

Jan Oosthoek contrasted the successful opposition to forestry planting in the Lake District which drew on Wordsworthian imagery of a natural landscape, and the Trossachs where planting was accepted, reflecting Walter Scott's utilitarian view of the human value of the landscape.

Raymond Smith argued for the value of the EC Bathing Water Directive in underpinning coastal sewage pollution control in Britain. This coincided with a shift to health and ecological, rather than aesthetic, concerns about coastal pollution.

Fiona Watson (in a paper delivered in her absence) proposed that for more than a millennium 'official' conceptions Nature in Britain have obscured the distinctiveness of local environments that had more importance for individual identity and experience.

Finally, Peter Brimblecombe suggested that the relatively recent use of apocalyptic imagery of environmental destruction, drew on an old and continuing tradition of natural cataclysms.