#EnvHist Worth Reading: September 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 September 2026.

1) “Blind Man and Loon” – Places Journal

In this gorgeous essay, Jen Rose Smith, recounts her experience of learning dAXunhyuuga’ (the Eyak language) by translating variations of The Blind Man and the Loon story. Studying transcriptions by elders Lena Saska Nacktan and Anna Nelson Harry, Smith explains, reveals how oral traditions preserve Indigenous history, literary nuance, and connections across the circumpolar Arctic despite colonial disruptions. I love the way that Smith describes her various encounters with the dAXunhyuuga’ language, describing its playfulness and cunningness, among other characteristics.

2) “The political economy of garbage with Sayan Dey” – Planet Decolonized

This episode of Planet Decolonized features a discussion between Nairita Roy Chaudhuri and Sayan Dey about his book, Garbocracy: Towards a Great Human Collapse (2024). “Garbocracy” is a term coined by Dey to describe a societal state of “wasting and trashing” both people and the planet, rooted in capitalist, colonial, and fascist ideologies. They cover a broad array of topics in the conversation, including waste in regards to both fascism and democracy, caste and race in relation to garbage, and where hope and resistance might fit into this moment.

3) “”Extractive Technologies, Ecospirituality & the Sustainability of the Mangrove Ecosystems” – Environmental Pasts and Futures – Rachel Carson Center

This past month, the Rachel Carson Center released the panel recordings of their July 2026 event, “Environmental Pasts and Futures.” I’ve been working through all of them, but I really enjoyed this panel featuring Abosede Omowumi Babatunde (University of Ilorin), Jackson Tamunosaki Jack (University of Groningen), Jemima O’Farrell (University of Galway), and Anthony Chukwudumebi Obute (University of Tübingen). They explore the complex environmental and social impacts of oil extraction in the Niger and Mississippi Deltas, focusing on the destruction of mangrove ecosystems, the role of spirituality in local resistance, and the use of modern technology for environmental advocacy. I really appreciated Obute’s comparison of the Niger and Mississippi Delta’s as interconnected “oilscapes.”

4) “M43 Field Jacket” – A History of the United States in 100 Objects

Perhaps one may not immediately connect the topic of the field jacket to environmental history, but I was struck by how the object makes some really clear connections between environmental, military, and fashion history. The jacket, after all, was developed using windproof cotton sateen cloth so that soldiers could safely and at least a bit more comfortably bear the climatic conditions of WWII combat.

5) “Michael W. Childers – The Mountains Are Calling: Tourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park” – Writing West Podcast

I love a good park history discussion and this episode of Writing Westward is one of the most interesting that I’ve encountered in a while. Host Brenden W. Rensink and Michael W. Childers discuss Childers’ book The Mountains Are Calling: Tourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park, by which they explore the long-standing tensions between visitor expectations, the environmental impacts of tourism, and the management mandates of the National Park Service. What I love is that Childers attempts to tell park history from a visitor perspective, a viewpoint that I have argued we need more of in park history in the past. I especially loved Childers provocation toward the end that we may need to change our relationship to these parks by deciding not to go to them. So good. I need to get the book now. Also, if the Instagramification of parks that they discuss is of interest to you, you’ll also enjoy my interview with Joe Whitson on parks and marketing.

Feature Image: Man and horse pulling a cart shown in garbage dump in Dawson, Yukon, April 1903. “Dawson Garbage.” Photographer: Woodside, H.J., 1858-1929. Credit: Henry Joseph Woodside/Library and Archives Canada/PA-016547.
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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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