ABSTRACT
From where is it that our concern for the natural environment comesthe concern which is expressed in the fear that magnificent landscapes, majestic trees, snowy peaks, ecosystems, animal species and local climates will all disappear forever? Advances in knowledge and technology have spurred on reflection on these matters, as also have certain shifts in morality. Ominous signs of the human impact on the planet over the last halfcentury have in fact become inescapable. It has become evident to what extent the growth of developed societies entails the destruction of the environment, through the use of polluting technologies, fossil fuels, and life-styles based on cars, meat-eating, heating and cooling systems, and so forth. At the same time moral concepts have changed. There is greater awareness of the value of nature, in all its forms, which is increasingly seen as something precious to be protected. In this awareness different sentiments and attitudes come together, both nature-oriented-an appreciation of nature’s independence with regard to human interventionand human-oriented-an aesthetic appreciation of natural landscape, an interest in the equilibrium of ecosystems in which the human species can prosper, breathing clean air, for example.
