We propose to examine the far right's reading of the famous article by the American medievalist and Presbyterian Lynn White, Jr. (1907–1987), “The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis.”1 This article had a strong impact in environmentalist circles from the 1970s onwards.2 It was originally a lecture given by Lynn White in December 1966 in Washington, DC, to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, published the following year in the association's journal, Science.3 Like Dominique Bourg, who had it translated in 2019,4 we consider it to be a seminal article, both for environmentalists and for researchers interested in these issues.
In a long introduction, White explains that humanity has always modified the environment, then highlights “the Western technical and scientific tradition” and the need to move away from it, before returning to “the medieval conception of man and nature,” to finally arrive at...
