Nature and morality from George Perkins Marsh to the millennium

This essay is a revised version of the first Journal of Historical Geograph y lecture, delivered by the author in 1998 at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers at the University of Surrey. The lecture, which was followed by a response from C atherine Nash, also published below, considered the life and works of Georg e Perkins Marsh, particularly his Man and Nature (1864), the first comprehe nsive study of human environmental impacts. This remarkable text engendered worldwide awareness of the ill-effects of human agency, along with efforts to repair the damage and conserve the fabric of nature. Most noteworthy wa s Marsh's stress on the unforeseen and unintended consequences, as well as the heedless greed, of technological enterprise. Despite recent tendencies to belittle Marsh's insights as derivative, elitist, anthropocentric, or na rrowly utilitarian, he remains modern environmentalism's pre-eminent pionee r. Preparation of a revised life of Marsh provides an occasion to reassess the history of views of and relations with nature. Since the 1950s, confide nce in our ability to monitor and manage the environment has succumbed to m ounting fear in the face of ever more horrendous threats and to rising doub ts that science and society can prevent ecological disaster. Deforestation, flooding, and soil erosion, though far from cured, give way to chemical po isoning, nuclear fall-out, and global warming as foci of major concern-conc erns more globally interrelated, less readily visible, longer-delayed in th eir onset and longer-lasting in their ill effects, and perhaps more lethall y irreversible than the sterile earth Marsh warned might be nigh. Notwithst anding these changed perspectives, Marsh's views on nature, human agency, s tewardship, and public environmental education offer insights of potential value today. (C) 2000 Academic Press.