Conservation and the Gospel of
Efficiency : un modèle de gestion
de l'environnement venu d'Europe?
Authors
Michel F. Girard
Abstract
Samuel Hay's interpretation of the American progressive conservation movement
is re-evaluated in light of the recent historiography and the sources used by George
Perkins Marsh to publish his book "Man and Nature," in 1865. According to the author, these
sources show that European scientists were worried about man's negative impact on the
environment all through the nineteenth century. Also, if the American movement is studied
within the larger context of Western world environmental history, one can see that its main
source of inspiration for ideas and means of conserving the environment was European.
