If you are in Toronto on October 12th, you have TWO chances to attend a book launch for Daniel Macfarlane’s new book, Natural Allies: Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations.
Book Launch #1: Natural Allies: Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations
with Daniel Macfarlane
Thursday, 12 October 2023, 12-2pm EDT
LOCATION: In-person in the boardroom at 315 Bloor St. W, Toronto, M5S 1W7 and online via Zoom
No two nations have exchanged natural resources, produced trans-border environmental agreements, or cooperatively altered ecosystems on the same scale as Canada and the United States. Environmental and energy diplomacy have profoundly shaped both countries’ economies, politics, and landscapes for over 150 years.
Natural Allies looks at the history of US-Canada relations through an environmental lens. From fisheries in the late nineteenth century to oil pipelines in the twenty-first century, Daniel Macfarlane recounts the scores of transborder environmental and energy arrangements made between the two nations. Many became global precedents that influenced international environmental law, governance, and politics, including the Boundary Waters Treaty, the Trail Smelter case, hydroelectric megaprojects, and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements. In addition to water, fish, wood, minerals, and myriad other resources, Natural Allies details the history of the continental energy relationship – from electricity to uranium to fossil fuels -showing how Canada became vital to American strategic interests and, along with the United States, a major international energy power and petro-state.
Environmental and energy relations facilitated the integration and prosperity of Canada and the United States but also made these countries responsible for the current climate crisis and other unsustainable forms of ecological degradation. Looking to the future, Natural Allies argues that the concept of national security must be widened to include natural security – a commitment to public, national, and international safety from environmental harms, especially those caused by human actions.
About the Author:
Daniel Macfarlane is associate professor at the School of the Environment, Geography, and Sustainability at Western Michigan University and senior fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto.
Sponsored by The Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History
Book Launch #2: Natural Allies: Exploring the History of Canada – U.S. Environmental and Energy Relations
with Daniel Macfarlane
Thursday, 12 October 2023, 3:30pm EDT
JOR-1410, Toronto Metropolitan University
Latest posts by NiCHE Administrators (see all)
- 2024 David Neufeld Memorial Lecture: Tr’ondëk-Klondike Panel Recording - April 24, 2024
- ASEH Membership Survey: Future of Online Programming - April 18, 2024
- Call for Proposals: Toronto History Lecture 2024 - April 11, 2024
- Online Event – Environmental Perspectives in the History of the Levant - March 27, 2024
- Event – Book Talk – Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography - March 19, 2024
- Shannon Stunden Bower Joins NiCHE Executive Committee - March 18, 2024
- Online Event – New Horizons for Portuguese Environmental History - March 13, 2024
- Event – Nerd Nite Edmonton #78: Rocks ‘n Roll - February 28, 2024
- Online Event – The Green Power of Socialism - February 13, 2024
- Hybrid Event – Early Insecticide Controversies and Beekeeper Advocacy in the Great Lakes Region - February 6, 2024