This course explores modern and contemporary environmental crises through the lens of Italy and its experts: ecocritics, writers, and filmmakers. We will track the meaning of key terms such as “environment,” “ecology,” “nature,” analyzing how the history of environmental crises and discourse on current crises are integrated into the critical analyses of key Italian literary and cinematic texts. We will take the lessons learned from Italian texts to interrogate the underlying causes behind the environmental issues that humanity currently faces and to propose approaches that could potentially resolve them. Prerequisite: ITAL 203.