Profile: Alan Drengson
Alan Drengson (1934-2022) was a Canadian philosopher and educator who served as close collaborator with Arne Naess and founding editor of The Trumpeter journal, becoming a key voice in articulating …
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Profile: Bill Devall
Bill Devall (1938-2009) was an American sociologist who co-authored Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered (1985) with George Sessions. The book introduced deep ecology philosophy to North …
Profile: Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra (born 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist and systems theorist. His work examines connections between physics, biology, systems theory, and ecological philosophy. Born in …
Profile: George Sessions
George Sessions (1938-2016) was an American philosopher who co-developed the Deep Ecology Platform with Arne Naess. He taught philosophy at Sierra College in Rocklin, California for nearly fifty …
Profile: Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold was an American forester, ecologist, and environmentalist whose concept of the “land ethic” revolutionized conservation thought. His posthumously published masterwork …
Profile: Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch philosopher whose pantheistic philosophy influenced Arne Naess’s development of deep ecology. Writing in the 17th century, Spinoza proposed a monistic …
Profile: Bayo Akomolafe
Bayo Akomolafe is a Nigerian psychologist, author, and philosopher who offers decolonial perspectives on mental health, spirituality, and environmental activism. Trained in Western psychology but …
Profile: Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder (born 1930) is an American poet, Zen Buddhist practitioner, and ecological philosopher whose work integrates Beat poetry, Buddhism, and bioregionalism. His collection Turtle Island …
Profile: Helena Norberg-Hodge
Helena Norberg-Hodge is a Swedish author, filmmaker, and activist who promotes economic localization as an alternative to industrial globalization. Through Local Futures, the organization she …
Profile: Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), known as Mahatma (“Great Soul”), developed the concept of satyagraha - nonviolent resistance - during the Indian independence movement. His philosophy of …
Profile: Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was an American marine biologist and nature writer whose 1962 book “Silent Spring” launched the modern environmental movement by revealing the devastating …
Profile: Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar (born 1936) is an Indian-British activist, educator, and editor who founded Schumacher College and edited Resurgence & Ecologist magazine for over forty years. His work integrates …
Profile: Sulak Sivaraksa
Sulak Sivaraksa is Thailand’s most prominent Buddhist social critic and one of the founders of the international Engaged Buddhism movement. For over five decades, he has articulated a Buddhist …
Profile: Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) was a Vietnamese Zen master, poet, and peace activist whose teachings on “Interbeing” examined the interconnectedness of all phenomena. His development of …
Profile: Tyson Yunkaporta
Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal Australian scholar and member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He founded the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University and wrote Sand Talk: …
Profile: Val Plumwood
Val Plumwood was an Australian ecofeminist philosopher whose rigorous critique of dualism revealed how Western philosophy’s hierarchical separation of reason from nature, mind from body, and …
Profile: Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was an American poet whose accessible nature poetry examined attention to the natural world. Her work invited readers to observe closely the ordinary aspects of nature - …
Profile: Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) was an Austrian-German poet whose work explored nature, solitude, and human existence. Writing in the early 20th century, Rilke articulated a sense of intimacy with the …
Profile: Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) was an American poet whose philosophy of “inhumanism” examined the non-human world and rejected anthropocentrism. Writing from his stone tower home in Big …
Profile: Brian Swimme
Brian Swimme is a mathematical cosmologist and cultural historian who examines the implications of modern cosmology for human meaning and purpose. Trained as a mathematician at the University of …
Profile: E.O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson (1929-2021) was one of the world’s leading biologists whose groundbreaking research on biodiversity, evolution, and human nature profoundly influenced both scientific …
Profile: Francis Weller
Francis Weller is a psychotherapist, author, and ritual elder who examines connections between grief, ecological crisis, and community healing. Trained in depth psychology and influenced by …
Profile: Francisco Varela
Francisco Varela (1946-2001) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, and cognitive scientist who developed theories of autopoiesis and enactive cognition. His work integrated biological research with …
Profile: Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) was an anthropologist, biologist, and cyberneticist whose groundbreaking work on systems thinking, learning theory, and the “ecology of mind” provided …
Profile: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a Jesuit priest, paleontologist, and visionary thinker who pioneered the integration of evolutionary science with mystical spirituality, articulating cosmic …
Profile: Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was a cultural historian, cosmologist, and self-described “geologian” who examined human-Earth relationships through the lens of both scientific cosmology and …
Profile: Ailton Krenak
Ailton Krenak (born 1953) is a Brazilian indigenous intellectual, environmental activist, and leader of the Krenak people of Minas Gerais. He advocates for indigenous rights, environmental …
Profile: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist, author, and distinguished professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. As an enrolled member of the Citizen …
Profile: Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva (born 1952) is an Indian physicist, environmental activist, and author who advocates for biodiversity, traditional agriculture, and indigenous peoples’ rights. Her work examines …
Profile: Arne Naess
Arne Naess was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term “deep ecology” in 1973, fundamentally reshaping environmental thought and activism. Born in Oslo in 1912, he became …
Profile: Elisabet Sahtouris
Elisabet Sahtouris is an American and Greek evolution biologist, futurist, and author whose work emphasises how cooperation and symbiosis, rather than competition alone, drive evolutionary processes. …
Profile: James Lovelock
James Ephraim Lovelock (1919-2022) was an independent scientist who formulated the Gaia hypothesis in the early 1970s. Working outside academic institutions, he proposed that Earth functions as a …
Profile: Joanna Macy
Joanna Macy (1929-2025) was a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Born in Los Angeles, she earned her PhD and spent five decades developing the Work That Reconnects, a …
Profile: John Seed
John Seed is an Australian environmental activist who co-created the Council of All Beings practice and founded the Rainforest Information Centre. His work connects direct action rainforest …
Profile: Lynn Margulis
Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) was an American evolutionary biologist whose endosymbiotic theory proposed that complex cells arose through symbiotic mergers of simpler organisms. Her work emphasized …
Profile: Pat Fleming
Pat Fleming is a deep ecology facilitator who co-authored Thinking Like a Mountain (1988) with John Seed, Joanna Macy, and Arne Naess. She has conducted experiential deep ecology workshops for over …
Profile: Vimala Thakar
Vimala Thakar (1921-2009) was an Indian philosopher, social activist, and spiritual teacher who pioneered the integration of meditative inquiry with social justice work. A woman who challenged the …