Abstract

A forerunner of conservation in nineteenth century Italy. The American geographer George Perkins Marsh   The article investigate on the geographer George Perkins Marsh and its relations with Italian culture during the second half of the nineteenth century, when he lived in newly unified Italy as American ambassador. Marsh  is a pioneer in denouncing  the huge human impact on the Earth and in claim for nature conservation. He influenced the Italian debate on agricultural impact of forests and river assets, but was also influenced by Italian and Mediterranean history of environment degradation. Marsh was a real global thinker, because looking to land degradation on the Old World, he worked to nature preservation in the New World. The attention to this author, therefore, allows us to observe the awareness of environmental problems in Italy, and the necessary conservation  actions to be taken in that time.