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On October 30, 2018, the School of History, Philosophy and Religion hosted the Biodiversity and The History of Scientific Environments<\/em> workshop as part of the Oregon State University Horning Endowment Series lectures. \u00a0The workshop included five scholars from Universities from around the country and from Oregon State. \u00a0The scholars were from different disciplines and presented lectures about a variety of subjects related to biodiversity, environmental history and sciences. \u00a0The lectures keynote speaker, Dr. Lisa Brady, closed the series of lectures with a presentation called \u201cBridging the Divide \u2013 Nature, Science and Politics on the Korean Peninsula.\u201d \u00a0Dr. Brady is a professor of Environment and US History at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, and author of the book War Upon the Land<\/em>. \u00a0Dr. Brady is also the outgoing editor-in-chief of the academic journal Environmental History, <\/em>a position she has held since 2014. \u00a0Her research interests encompass war, environment and the combination of both.<\/p>\n \u201cBridging the Divide\u201d focused on the nearly untouched strip of land that roughly follows the 38th<\/sup> parallel and separates North and South Korea. \u00a0Four to sixteen kilometers wide and nearly intact since the end of the Korean War, the demilitarized zone (DMZ) is an example of a militarized landscape isolated by fences heavily guarded on both sides.\u00a0 This isolation allowed the DMZ to be one of the last wild, untouched environments in the whole Korean Peninsula.\u00a0 It became an unintended wildlife and ecological reserve, where a host of native Peninsula animals and plants live and prosper with little or no interference from humans. \u00a0The knowledge of this militarized landscape and its ecosystem is limited to what can be observed from the southern side of the border, where access to the fences is heavily controlled.\u00a0 No knowledge currently exists from the North.\u00a0 Access to the area in-between the fences is unauthorized therefore it does not happen. \u00a0But even if entry into the actual DMZ was authorized, the area has been heavily mined by both sides thus offering unreasonable risks.\u00a0 According to Dr. Brady, despite the current isolation, the DMZ has a high risk of disappearing if the two Koreas unite, so scientists and environmentalists in South Korea, started a DMZ forum that has as one of its goals, the protection of the DMZ from destruction caused by exploitation and greed in case the Koreas reunite. \u00a0The hope of these activists is that the DMZ would become a transnational park and eventually be protected as a UNESCO heritage site.\u00a0 As it stands, some of the species that are known to live in the DMZ are already protected by South Korea and the United Nations.\u00a0 However, there is a fear that if the Koreas are united, the conservation of plants and animals will take a second seat to much more pressing humanitarian needs, thus placing then in great risk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Brady lecturing at the <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Biodiversity and The History of Scientific Environments Workshop<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet, the most compelling aspect of the DMZ in the context of Dr. Brady\u2019s lecture, is what it means to the populations of the North and South Koreas. \u00a0Dr. Brady emphasized how the DMZ currently serves as a shared emotional and physical reminder of the trauma experienced by the Korean people during a war that not only killed many but also separated families and fractured the country. \u00a0However, Dr. Brady argues that this unintentional natural preserve has the potential to serve not only as an ecological-, but also as a social and economic bridge between the two sister countries.\u00a0 She closed the lecture by situating the DMZ amongst militarized landscapes that greatly benefited or prospered from isolation due to military conflict or activities.<\/p>\n I enjoyed this lecture not only because of my interest in military and political issues and the environment, but also because it shed light on a subject that I knew little about: militarized landscapes. \u00a0I did not know that the DMZ, due to its isolation, was considered a militarized landscape with its own ecosystem, and with native species that only lived between the fences and therefore, were well protected from human interference.\u00a0 In my opinion, the lecture was informative and entertaining.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On October 30, 2018, the School of History, Philosophy and Religion hosted the Biodiversity and The History of Scientific Environments workshop as part of the Oregon State University Horning Endowment Series lectures. \u00a0The workshop included five scholars from Universities from around the country and from Oregon State. \u00a0The scholars were from different disciplines and presented… 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