Research: Topics: Environment: Guide to Documenting Environmental Affairs in New York
A Guide to Documenting Environmental Affairs in New York State
What do we mean by Environmental Affairs?
The subject of this Guide to Documenting Environmental Affairs in New York State is the relationship, past and present, of humankind to the natural environment in New York. This vast subject includes the utilization of natural resources (air, energy, plants, animals, minerals, land, and water), their conservation and related environmental issues, the effect of environmental hazards on human populations and other life forms, and the development and implementation of public policy and planning related to the environment. Important stakeholders may include institutions doing research in environmental sciences and public health; organizations established to promote environmental conservation, preservation, and increased awareness of environmental affairs through education, advocacy, or public action; industries, businesses, and organizations that make direct use of natural resources or respond actively to environmental issues; legislators and administrators engaged in regulation, enforcement, education, and programs of federal, state, and local governments and government agencies that address environmental affairs; also individuals prominent in environmental affairs. Also important to document are the people and organizations engaged in issues, such as environmental justice, that involve environmental impacts upon or actions by population groups, by economic class, cultural background, or region.
In many cases, determining whether the activities of a particular organization or individual fall within the framework of this guide will require judgment. Here are some guidelines:
- Focus on New York. There are a number of national environmental organizations based in New York that began by addressing environmental issues here. Their activities related to New York issues would be relevant, including New York components of national programs. Documentation of their national or international activities would not be included. Similarly, only the environment-related activities in New York of national or multinational corporations would fall within the scope of this framework.
- Focus on environmental affairs. Numerous businesses, educational and activist organizations, outdoor recreation clubs, and research groups conduct activities that address subjects such as wildlife, energy, historic preservation and so on but do not explicitly address environmental issues. Such organizations and activities would fall outside the scope of the guide. For example, the Bronx Zoo, whose public programming and exhibit interpretation focuses extensively on environmental issues, would be included; another zoo that explores animal life cycles and habitats, with only minor emphasis on environmental affairs, would not. Similarly, basic research in animal behavior or microbiology would not be included unless its findings entered the public or scholarly discourse about environmental issues. Research that explicitly addresses environmental issues such as pollution would be included.
- Focus on humans’ interaction with the natural environment — a two-way street. While much of environmental affairs concentrates on human impacts on the natural environment, the effects of a degraded natural environment on humans also falls within the scope of this definition of environmental affairs. Thus, environmental impacts upon public health, aesthetic sensibilities, cultural resources, and economic wellbeing may be appropriate subjects of documentation — these concerns are often reflected in environmental law and action. These subject areas are only relevant, however, to the extent that they are related to the state of the natural environment.
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For the purposes of this guide, documentation consists of valuable information about environmental affairs in New York that may be found in a wide range of formats (paper, photographs and slides, motion picture film, audio- and videotape, computer disks and tape) typically collected by archival repositories. Many kinds of documentation may have important historical value, for example:
- Minutes, summaries, or transcripts of meetings, hearings, or conferences
- Correspondence, including email files, of people in responsible positions or people who have had an important impact
- Reports, grant proposals, position papers, academic papers, and other unpublished documents that present what an organization does and why or that discuss environmental issues
- Program announcements, broadsides, flyers, and other publicity materials related to events, programs, or services
- Legal briefs and other supporting documentation related to litigation
- Summaries, analyses, and raw data related to scientific studies
- Records from the print and broadcast media, especially old or rare publications and film or text documentation that may not have been published
- Maps, photographs, slides, tapes and other sound or graphic records that document the people or activities of a group or organization, scientific data, or environmental features, events, or changes
- Three-dimensional artifacts also tell important parts of the story, and much of the information in this guide will be useful to those collecting such objects. The focus of this guide, however, is on archival documentation. Organizations that are committed to collecting material culture may want to consult with the New York State Museum or other museum professionals for guidance.
