Filling the Blue Hole in Environmental History

In this short article John R. Gillis  discussed  a significant gap regarding the ocean within in the  Environmental history studies as a persistently  ‘landlocked’ discipline. He ascribed this  to the hesitation to explore the ocean within western culture, stemming from the distinctive cultural perceptions of the sea. While many non-western coastal and island cultures have felt a closer connection to the sea and while the continue to harbour more profound and diverse knowledges of it, in the western tradition the ocean has been continually perceived it as “other”—distant, exotic, mysterious and often outright chaotic. These perceptions have shaped the understanding of the ocean ‘as something to cross rather than to be explored for their own sake’. It is perhaps in this lack of understanding where the source of current exploitative approaches to the ocean governance can be sought.