#EnvHist Worth Reading: March 2026

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Every month I carefully track the most popular and significant environmental history articles, videos, audio, and other items making their way through the online environmental history (#envhist) community. You can read all of our past #EnvHist Worth Reading lists right here. Here are my choices for items most worth reading from March 2026.

1) Consider the Rattle

In his early 20s, Asher Elbein nearly grabbed a rattlesnake in Texas, an encounter that reshaped his view of the species. In this article for Texas Observer, Elbein examines the folklore behind our cultural assumption that rattlesnakes are dangerous; through the article western diamondbacks are revealed as cautious, largely defensive animals that avoid conflict and use their rattle as a warning. They are adaptable predators with complex behaviors, including social bonds, maternal care, and communal denning. Despite this, Elbein writes that humans often kill them out of fear or tradition, exemplified by rattlesnake roundups. “We do not want to suffer the restriction of its presence. That, I think, is why so many of my fellow Texans instinctively wish them dead,” he writes. Through firsthand experiences and scientific insight, Elbein comes to see rattlesnakes as self-possessed, even gentle creatures deserving respect rather than hostility.

2) Whale Sharks: A Window Into the Ocean and Ourselves

Each autumn at Ningaloo Reef, whale sharks gather in large numbers, a phenomenon widely recognized only after Geoff Taylor documented it in 1982–83. This discovery, Laura-Marie Dehne writes in the latest issue of Arcadia, spurred global media attention, tourism, and scientific research, transforming the species into an icon of Western Australia. However, Dehne points out that Indigenous groups like the Yinigudera, Baiyungu, and Thalanyji long understood these animals as part of sea country. Dehne’s research reveals their migrations, feeding, and social patterns, while also highlighting growing threats from human activity and environmental change. “What began at Ningaloo with a chance encounter on 1 May 1982, has developed into a story of relationships that reveals how encounters with whale sharks can deepen our knowledge of the ocean and how we begin to care for it,” Dehne concludes.

3) Where mining and conservation meet

In this article for Africa is a Country, Emmanuelle Roth, Aby L. Sène, and Gregg Mitman explain that in Guinea, projects like the Simandou mine highlight tensions between mining, conservation, and “green steel.” While firms like Rio Tinto promote sustainable extraction, the authors argue that mining increasingly overlaps with biodiversity protection through offsets and partnerships. These efforts often mask land dispossession, ecological harm, and unequal power dynamics, particularly around sites like Mount Nimba. Framed as compatible, they show that conservation and extraction instead function together within global capitalism, turning nature into tradable assets while marginalizing local communities and reinforcing longstanding inequalities rooted in colonial histories.

4) The Missing History of Our National Parks

As an American ex-pat and a parks historian, I’ve been watching the developments at the US’s national parks with a mix of horror and intrigue. I have been frustrated that I don’t have the bandwidth right now to really dig in and use my knowledge to write and otherwise advocate for the park system. This map by the Missing Part History project is a critical piece of citizenship activism and knowledge stewardship. It has not only those sites where information has already been removed, but those are are up for review or revised. Individual park nodes include articles on the information removed, as well as archived past versions of the National Park Service website. If anyone does have the capacity right now and wants to write about one of these national parks, or the issue in general, for our Tracking the Effects: Environmental History and the Current United States Federal Administration, give Shannon, Niiyo and I a holler!

5) Slaveship Earth: Capitalism’s Secret 500-Year Climate History

This lecture by Jason W. Moore is so good. It’s a long one, but I found myself fully invested. He masterfully argues that the current climate crisis should not be understood as “anthropogenic” (caused by humanity as a whole), but rather as “capitalogenic”—a consequence of capitalism’s historical development, power structures, and the way it has organized nature for profit. He critiques the “man vs. nature” binary, employs the metaphor of “slaveship Earth” to highlight the racial dimensions of our current situation, and advocates for an ecology of hope in this time of climate crisis.

Feature Image: “Southern Pacific Rattlesnake” by FotoGrazio is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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Jessica DeWitt

NiCHE Editor-in-Chief, Social Media Editor at Jessica M. DeWitt: Editing and Consulting
is an environmental historian of Canada and the United States, editor, project manager, consultant, and digital communications strategist. She earned her PhD in History from the University of Saskatchewan in 2019. She is an executive member, editor-in-chief, and social media editor for the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE). She is the Managing Editor for the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and Associate Editor for Environmental Humanities. Closer to home, she is the President of the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society, a Coordinating Team member of Showing Up for Racial Justice Saskatoon-Treaty Six, and a Conservation Advisory Committee member for the Meewasin Valley Authority. She focuses on developing digital techniques and communications that bridge the divide between academia and the general public in order to democratize knowledge access. You can find out more about her and her freelance services at jessicamdewitt.com.

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