Nature, Dwelling: A Needed New Balance

This text reviews the current state of nature on the planet and the anthropogenic causes of the incum-bent ecological crisis. In the first part, the paper illustrates a set of essential principles on which the understanding of the ecologic functioning on the micro and macro-scale relies. In the second part, it elaborates on the cultural and societal forms of the human presence on the planet, discussing the divarication sundering dwelling from the natural subsistence of animals and plants. The methodology adopted is the compared analysis of two thematic bibliographies, on the one hand, interpreting landscape as an ecological apparatus, on the other hand, as a product of human culture and society. The combination of opposite but coexisting perspectives allows linking the disrup-tions of the metabolic regime of the biosphere to the anthropic act of dwelling. In light of a third thematic bibliography photographing the state of the biosphere, the conclusions propose an agenda consisting of six imperatives relative to the spheres of cognition, demography, economy, equality, ecology, and built environment, meant to revert the ongoing ecological crisis on the planet and regain a new nature/dwelling balance.