Uk on deep ecology

Profile: Satish Kumar

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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 ecological sustainability, spiritual values, and nonviolent social change.

Kumar trained as a Jain monk in India, learning principles of ahimsa (non-violence) and reverence for all life. In the 1960s, he undertook an 8,000-mile peace walk from India to America without money, relying on hospitality. This journey demonstrated his commitment to Gandhi’s philosophy of simple living.

Profile: Gregory Bateson

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) was an anthropologist, biologist, and cyberneticist whose groundbreaking work on systems thinking, learning theory, and the “ecology of mind” provided essential foundations for deep ecological understanding of consciousness and communication. His interdisciplinary approach revealed fundamental patterns connecting psychological, biological, and ecological systems.

Bateson’s early anthropological work led him to recognize that culture, mind, and nature operate according to similar systemic principles. His studies of communication patterns in humans and other animals revealed that information, not energy or matter, is the fundamental organizing principle of living systems - directly paralleling deep ecology’s understanding that all beings participate in networks of relationship and communication.

Profile: James Lovelock

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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 self-regulating system through interactions between living organisms and planetary processes.

Lovelock invented the electron capture detector in 1957, which enabled the first measurements of widespread chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. While designing instruments for NASA’s planetary exploration programs in the 1960s, he developed the conceptual framework that became the Gaia hypothesis.

Profile: Pat Fleming

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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 forty years.

Born in England to a Northern Irish family, Fleming holds British-Australian nationality and currently resides in northern Lutruwita (Tasmania). Her background includes mental health counseling, conservation botany, organic farming, and environmental education. She holds an MA in Psychology from Edinburgh University and an MSc in Botanical Conservation from Plymouth University.