Besides peace on earth, infrastructure powered by renewables, and a gift card to the local independent organic café, what would you, as teachers of environmental history, want for Christmas?

What courses in environmental history would you add at your institution, if you could?
What do you think is missing? What needs to be taught?

Or, in a dream world, what would you teach, if your slate was cleared (no Canada since 1867 duty), and any prep possible?

Here’s what a few NiCHE editors had on their lists. Add your own in the comments!

Claire Campbell, Bucknell:

With a few environmental historians on hand here, we’ve been tossing around possible classes in: energy history, climate history, the history of environmentalism, the North, and landscape and identity in North America.

I may team-teach a class on climate in the next few years, and probably do a seminar on the same next year. I’d really love to teach a class on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence … but would anybody in Pennsylvania care?!

Dan Macfarlane, Western Michigan:

Since I teach in an environmental studies department, I’m lucky in that everything I teach is about the environment, and I already get to teach variations of some of my “dream courses” — i.e., in addition to intro courses on “nature and society,” I’m doing a senior/grad course on Freshwater Policy, and a senior seminar on Great Lakes Water Policy. The challenge for me is to smuggle in as much history (and Canadian content) as possible, though that usually isn’t too difficult (actually, I prefer teaching in environmental studies rather than history, but that is another story for another blog post).

In my institution’s History Department, which I’m affiliated with, there are two other environmental historians; environmental history is therefore very well represented and there are already a number of EH courses on offer. Aside from getting my water courses cross-listed with History, the course I would like to add is one I taught at a previous university, but would like to teach again and expand upon: the history of Canada-US environmental relations. This class would focus on environmental issues that cross the border – the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence obviously, but also other water bodies, the IJC, wood, minerals, oil and gas, etc. – and would be a mix of transnational, borderlands, and environmental diplomacy. Another class that I’ve thought about would be on North American energy history and policy — which apparently is already getting taught at York University (see below) among other places.

Sean Kheraj, York:

Here are the undergraduate courses we currently have on the books:

• Ecology of Empire: Europe and the Conquest of North America
• The Nature of Cities: The History of Urban Environments in North America
• Power and Change: The History of Energy and Fuel in North America
• Canadian Environmental History

These are our graduate courses:

• North American Environmental History
• Environmental History of Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Ca. 500 – ca. 1750 CE)
• Coming soon: Global Environmental History before Industrialization; Global Environmental History since Industrialization

Here’s my EH course wishlist:

• Animals, People, and Environments: Human-Animal Relations in Environmental History
• Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Environmental Crises
• The Nature of Canada: Rethinking Canadian History
• History of Disasters

So many courses, so little time.