Ontario Historical Society Presents Two Awards for Environmental Histories

At their June 2016 Annual General Meeting, the Ontario Historical Society presented two awards for environmental histories of Ontario.

Owen Temby and Ryan O’Connor received the 2015 Riddell Award recognizing the best article on Ontario History for their “Property, Technology, and Environmental Policy: The Politics of Acid Rain in Ontario, 1978-1985,” published in The Journal of Policy History.

As the Ontario Historical Society describes,

“In this impressively researched and clearly argued article, Temby and O’Connor analyze the Ontario campaign of the late 1970s and early 1980s to reduce acid rain.

The authors show how an effective coalition of property owners and businesses in Ontario’s cottage country, assisted by Toronto newspapers, raised public awareness about acid rain damage to the environment and pressed big industry and the provincial government to address the matter. Analytically sharp, the article shows how the campaign made significant headway only after the coalition of activists identified low-cost technological solutions that appealed to the corporate polluters. The revisionist argument, which is well situated in the wider historiography of North American air pollution governance, adds significantly to our understanding of Ontario environmental history.”

Ryan O’Connor also received the 2015 J.J. Talman Award for his The First Green Wave: Pollution Probe and the Origins of Environmental Activism in Ontario, published by The University of British Columbia Press. The J.J. Talman Award is awarded to the best book on Ontario’s social, economic, political, or cultural history.

From the press release:

“The First Green Wave traces the emergence of the environmental movement in Ontario from its beginnings in the late 1960s to the 1980s. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the memories of many of those people directly involved in the creation of Pollution Probe and other organizations, O’Connor deftly illustrates how concerned citizens laid the groundwork for environmental action by pioneering ways to publicize environmental issues, raise funds for the movement, and work effectively with diverse interest groups. Together these activists shaped not only Ontario’s social, economic, political, and cultural history but also the future of our society.”

Congratulations to both authors!

To view the press releases from the Ontario Historical Society, please click the links below:
Riddell Award – Owen Temby and Ryan O’Connor
J.J. Talman Award – Ryan O’Connor