# John Evelyn: Britain’s First Environmentalist

- Institution: Gresham College
- Speaker: Gillian Darley OBE
- Year: 2020
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Earth and environment, Literature and writing, Art, architecture and design
- Source: [Gresham College](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/john-evelyn)
- Licence: [Educational use (Gresham College's terms)](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Air pollution, the usefulness of trees, ideas for a green belt are not concerns we associate with the 1600s. But John Evelyn, writer, diarist and gardener, was unusual. His thinking in Fumifugium (1661) about air quality, and Sylva (1664) about trees, seems astonishingly close to our own today.

## Lectures

1. [John Evelyn: Britain’s First Environmentalist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/john-evelyn/cff42756d54a) (YouTube)