International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.4, 2023

Portraying Nature in Canada: Scales and Strategies

(Abstract)

Graeme Wynn

Graeme Wynn's Nature in Canada, co-edited with Colin Coates, on Canadian environmental history, has attracted widespread scholarly attention since its publication. Canada occupies half of the North American continent, and humans have come to recognize its ecological patterns on a macro scale, but local natural environments are complex, diverse, and unpredictable. In 17 chapters (350 pages), Nature in Canada covers the history of Canada from deep time (geologic history) to the immediate past (Arctic warming), covering all provinces and territories of Canada, and examining processes of change at various scales ranging from the microbial to the global. This paper will present the key points, research methods and ideas of the book, and reflect on the challenges posed by scales and strategies in environmental history research, thereby deepening our understanding of Canadian nature.