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Nature has not always been the object of preoccupation and care, mainly because it was not fragile. Mankind was fragile. The turnabout has been caused by globalisation, which is the substantialization of man’s greater power of action, the realization that the environment is limited, finite, and can thus be finished, finished by the works of man. Nature and its manifestations will then become the expression of Virtue, of the Good to be protected from man’s defiling, even from man himself. But if such a mythology of nature is really virtuous, and necessary today, it can become counterproductive if closed to criticism. The staging of the natural – making nature into the supernatural – may be industrially costly and ecologically harmful. Making food more natural often requires more industry, hence more pollution. The author reminds us that all that is artificial is not necessarily bad, it enabled man to survive, and may enable man now to take effective care of the environment.