Examining various combats for the environment reveals a complex reality that is at the root of often contradictory discourses. While they generally flare up around crises caused by increases in the destruction of nature and the exhaustion of natural resources, more than anything else, they illustrate issues about how our political life is organized. In fact, a few fundamental notions can be found behind every environmental combat: the issue of frugality and equality (at the time of the French Revolution); challenging the idea of progress (mid-nineteeth century); the birth of consumer society (early twentieth century); utopia confronted with totalitarianism (between the two World Wars); fear of growth (the post-World War 2 era); the shock of invisible pollution (the 1960s); the search for both local and global solutions (from the Earth Summit to buying local and fair trade).

Environmental issues must, therefore, be analyzed not only in political terms (how should we live together?) but also in cultural (the weight of representations and identities) and ethical ones (our relationship to the Other). All those various dimensions are actually inseparable.

A cultural history of struggles to protect the environment from the late eighteenth century onwards.