In order to address today's global environmental challenges, it is important to understand them within the context of humankind's influences on its environment throughout the ages. The Encyclopedia of World Environmental History provides much needed explanation of urgent social and environmental issues - from urbanization to water shortages, climate change to the extinction of species - in articles replete with the stories of human and natural history.World historians, anthropologists, geographers, and biologists from 26 countries have pooled their knowledge for the first time to trace the interaction of humankind and nature over the course of human history, across cultures, and in the modern world. In more than 500 accessible articles emphasizing cross-cultural exchange, diffusion, and change over time, these scholars demonstrate why the approaches of environmental history are having such wide influence, and how past problems can cast new light on current debates. Thedistinguished editors--Shepard Krech III, J.R. McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant--are assisted by an international editorial advisory board of senior scholars, with contributors including Donald Worster, Alfred Crosby, William McNeill, and James Lovelock. Featuring up-to-date coverage of the latest developments in the field, this fascinating new work belongs in any collection serving world history, ecology, environmental studies, geography, or environmental science programs.Key features: * Unprecedented global coverage spans cultures from prehistory to the present day * Over 500 articles written by a community of international experts * Illustrated with dozens of unique photographs and original maps and tables * Primary text sidebars include ethnographic accounts of rituals to control the environment and explanations of natural events and disasters * Articles represent the cross-fertilization of history, geography, and science to put today's environmental issues in context * Thorough, analytical index ion of urgent social and * Written and edited for general readers, teachers, and students.