The Sudcalifornian Environmental Historiography and local Sustainability

Abstract

Every history may be consider the daughter of its time and space, we must add if we practice environmental history, especially in regions such as the Baja California peninsula where the long struggle with isolation and aridity, which has woven stories of adaptation, austerity, cunning and greed. This study does not narrate that long history, since we did it in other books and articles. It analyzes the historiographical and conceptual aspects of three lines of research with which we have reconstructed Southern Californian history: fishing, cultivation and trade of nacre and pearls; oasis build by ranchers; and the confrontation of looting and conservation. The environmental history approach supports this analysis, we explain the main theoretical-methodological implications that this historical approach has had in our research. We also discuss the importance of its application in education and environmental policy, in search of regional sustainability.