We had another vibrant and successful year on The Otter / la loutre, reaching yet another readership record! We could not do this work without our editorial team and the brilliant contributors who shared their words, thoughts, and research with us. Thanks everyone!

Here’s some of NiCHE’s 2024 by the numbers:

• 292 Posts
• 321,642 words
• 148,243 visitors
• Five Book Reviews
• Twelve The Otter Series
• Ten NiCHE Conversations
• Six Recorded Roundtables and Discussions

Here are our Top Five Most-Read Posts of 2024!

#5: “Maurice Strong, Conspiracy Theories, and the Pitfalls of Environmental Diplomacy“

Cyrus Mody

This post by Cyrus Mody was based on a paper originally presented at a workshop in Banff, Alberta in March 2024, organized by Petra Dolata and David Painter, that was called “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: The Oil Crises of the 1970s and the Transformation of the Postwar World.” Maurice Strong, a Canadian diplomat, environmentalist, and oil executive, organized pivotal global conferences like the 1972 UN Stockholm meeting. In this post, Mody argues that his closed-door diplomacy fostered consensus on sustainability, but fueled conspiracy theories of secret agendas. Despite his impactful environmental efforts, his business dealings and elite networks invited skepticism, undermining his legacy.

#4: “The Problem with Axe the Tax“

Lori Lee Oates

Writing in response to Jagmeet Singh’s comments on carbon pricing in September, Lori Lee Oates argued in her well-received article that Singh’s criticism of carbon pricing reflects a misunderstanding of its benefits, as the program redistributes wealth downward, aiding low-income Canadians. Looking into carbon pricing’s origins, she shows that conservative misinformation campaigns have politicized the policy, despite its proven effectiveness in reducing emissions. Oates contends that while carbon pricing alone isn’t sufficient, it’s a critical tool in combating climate change urgently and equitably.

#3: “A Crash Course in Canadian Environmental History“

Alan MacEachern

In early 2024, Alan MacEachern reached out to Canadian environmental history scholars in various stages of their career in an effort to put together an updated essential reading list for the field. Fifteen scholars responded to MacEachern’s call, and the result was a list of nineteen books and articles that MacEachern referred to as “a compelling introduction to the field.” Our readers agreed! If anyone wants to put together some more specific “crash course” lists on more specific sub-topics in Canadian environmental history, get in touch!

#2: “’The snow, the snow, the beautiful – O, slush!’ Snow, rain, and winter life in Vancouver“

M. Blake Butler

Our Winter in Canada series, edited by M. Blake Butler and Ben Bradley, was very popular with our readers. Butler kicked off the series with a look at the history of winter in Vancouver. Butler begins the post on January 21, 1935, when Vancouver faced a record snowstorm followed by torrential rain, causing widespread flooding, collapsed buildings, and infrastructure damage. While Vancouverites typically relied on rain to clear snow, Butler shows that this unprecedented event exposed the limits of such expectations, highlighting the delicate balance between natural weather patterns and human management strategies.

#1: “‘Draining the Swamp’ as a Metaphor for Control“

Anna Myers

The 2024 US election undoubtedly brought people time and time again to Anna Myers’ article for our editor Gabrielle McLaren’s Wetland Wednesday series, on the phrase “draining the swamp,” which Donald Trump popularized during the 2016 election. Myers shows that the phrase has deep roots in U.S. history, evolving from leftist critiques of capitalism to a conservative rallying cry against corruption and government overreach. Its enduring power lies, Myers argues, in framing swamps as chaotic, corrupt spaces, tapping into historical fears and creating insider-outsider political distinctions.

Image Credits: Whitehouse. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons; Item: Str N315.1 – [Flooding at Ontario Street and Marine Drive after a storm] 25 January 1935, 183-D-03, Series S4 – Collected Photographs, Fonds AM54 – Major Matthews Collection, City of Vancouver Archives; Collage of Featured Books; Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, second left, and Mark Carney take part in a panel discussion on carbon pricing at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. “2021.11.02.” by hailey.sani is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0; Strong mapping out a plan of action 167 days before the start of the 1972 Stockholm conference. UN Photo.