A humanistic approach to environmental sciences with a glance at entomology

The Anthropocene confronts humanity with a paradox: unprecedented advances in technology and culture coexist with environmental crises that endanger life on Earth. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion are interlinked challenges that require rethinking our place in nature. This thesis argues for an interdisciplinary paradigm that combines scientific knowledge with the ethical, cultural, and historical perspectives of the Environmental Humanities. Through case studies spanning gardens, cultural landscapes, ancient water management, entomophagy, sustainable tourism, and entomological collections, the research explores how past knowledge and humanistic insights can guide contemporary strategies for sustainability and resilience. Historic gardens emerge as living laboratories of stewardship, while Roman engineering and land-use practices reveal enduring lessons in resource management. The cultural and ecological value of insects—often marginalized—underscores the urgency of reimagining biodiversity conservation in a climate crisis. These examples show that sustainability is not only technical or political but also ethical, aesthetic, and social. By integrating history, literature, philosophy, and ecology, the thesis challenges anthropocentric narratives of domination and extraction, advocating instead for reciprocity, care, and interdependence. Insects, gardens, and cultural landscapes become sites where humanity and nature intersect, fostering ecological awareness, community engagement, and a sense of responsibility. Placing the Environmental Humanities at the heart of sustainability discourse, the work argues that today’s crises are existential as well as environmental. Echoing Aldo Leopold’s invitation to see land as a community to which we belong, it proposes a vision of sustainability that honors the complexity, beauty, and wisdom of the natural world—past, present, and future.