This article is based on a bibliographic research about the evolution of the geographic think, since its institucionalization and consolidation of Geography as a Science up to the present days, highlighting the vision of the environmental theme implicit in this period. In this perspective, there are two distinct periods. The first one, the naturalist that lasted from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, when to nature it was designed an elevated material-economical value, the environmentalist from the middle of the twentieth century (the 50 and 60 decades), the second period to the present days when the deterioration of the environment reaches considerate levels of relevant social importanceEste artigo fundamenta-se em um resgate bibliográfico sobre a evolução do pensamento geográfico, desde a institucionalização e consolidação da Ciência quando à natureza era designado um elevado valor econômico-material; o segundo período, ambientalista, de meados do século XX (décadas de 50/60) até a atualidade, quando a deterioração do meio ambiente atinge níveis preocupantes e de relevante importância social