This paper intends to contribute to the academic discussion related with the role that myths about the New World played - and also play - into the historic building of the contemporary relationship between environment and society. The main idea is based on historical texts that point out that the relation between man and nature was always mediated by the first’s attitude, culturally and socially constructed. Thus, men found on cultural and religious myths all the needed justifications to allow them to dominate and to explore/exploit the natural resources, given that the physical world was created by God and only exists to sustain human societies. Such argumentation can nowadays be found, even in others forms, inside the contemporary development speech, especially when it’s made by corporations that explore/exploit directly the natural resources as, for instance, oil, coal and natural gas companies. The study area is the Metropolitan Region of Paraíba River’s Valley and North Seaside of São Paulo State, Brazil.
Environment; Global environmental change; Society; Myth; Risk
