In Western culture, oceans have traditionally been perceived as timeless, separate from society and practically boundless in resources and absorptive capacity. As a result, the entangled histories of people and marine environments have largely been neglected in historical research. This is changing with the development of marine environmental history together with increasing recognition of oceans’ vulnerability and importance in earth systems. Against this background, we review the current state of historical knowledge of how different actors within Swedish society have perceived and impacted the Baltic Sea environment, as well as discovered and responded to marine environmental change. We find that this environmental history, as distinct from other forms of historical research, has so far received limited attention. While the environmental histories of terrestrial resources in Sweden – including forests, agriculture, minerals and energy – have been thoroughly studied, there is little comparative knowledge about the formation and development of the major scientific institutions and public agencies involved in Baltic Sea governance. In light of this, we discuss how knowledge about Sweden’s marine environmental history can be improved, and the importance this may have for the future sustainability of the Baltic Sea.

中文翻译：

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瑞典波罗的海环境史

在西方文化中，海洋历来被认为是永恒的，与社会分离，在资源和吸收能力方面实际上是无限的。因此，人类和海洋环境的纠缠历史在历史研究中基本上被忽视了。随着海洋环境史的发展以及对海洋在地球系统中的脆弱性和重要性的认识不断提高，这种情况正在发生变化。在此背景下，我们回顾了瑞典社会中不同行为者如何感知和影响波罗的海环境以及发现和应对海洋环境变化的历史知识的现状。我们发现，与其他形式的历史研究不同，这种环境史迄今为止受到的关注有限。虽然瑞典陆地资源的环境历史——包括森林、农业、矿产和能源——已经得到彻底研究，但关于参与波罗的海治理的主要科学机构和公共机构的形成和发展的比较知识很少。有鉴于此，我们讨论了如何提高有关瑞典海洋环境历史的知识，以及这对波罗的海未来的可持续性可能具有的重要性。