George Monbiot

George Joshua Richard Monbiot (/ˈmɒnbioʊ/ MON-bee-oh; born 27 January 1963) is a British writer known for his environmental and political activism. He writes a regular column for The Guardian and is the author of a number of books.

George Monbiot
Monbiot in 2013
Born (1963-01-27) 27 January 1963
London, England
Alma materBrasenose College, Oxford
OccupationJournalist
Spouse
Angharad Penrhyn Jones
​
​
(m. 2006; div. 2010)​
Children2
AwardsUnited Nations Global 500 Award (1995)
Websitehttps://www.monbiot.com/

Monbiot grew up in Oxfordshire and studied zoology at the University of Oxford. He then began a career in investigative journalism, publishing his first book Poisoned Arrows in 1989 about human rights issues in West Papua. In later years, he has been involved in activism and advocacy related to various issues, such as climate change, British politics and loneliness. In Feral (2013), he discussed and endorsed expansion of rewilding. He is the founder of The Land is Ours, a campaign for the right of access to the countryside and its resources in the United Kingdom.[2] Monbiot was awarded the Global 500 in 1995 and the Orwell Prize in 2022.

Early life and education

Born in Kensington, Monbiot grew up in Rotherfield Peppard, Oxfordshire.[3][4][5] His father, Raymond Monbiot, was a businessman who headed the Conservative Party's trade and industry forum.[6][2] His mother, Rosalie (daughter of Gresham Cooke MP) was a Conservative councillor and former leader of South Oxfordshire District Council.[7][8] His uncle, Canon Hereward Cooke, was the Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Norwich City Council.[9]

After preparatory boarding school, he was educated at Stowe School, in Buckinghamshire.[10][11] He won an open scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford.[12] Monbiot has stated that his "political awakening" was prompted by reading Bettina Ehrlich's book, Paolo and Panetto, while at his prep school[13][14] and that he regretted attending Oxford.[15]

Career

After graduating with a degree in zoology, Monbiot joined the BBC Natural History Unit as a radio producer, making natural history and environmental programmes. He transferred to the BBC's World Service, where he worked briefly as a current affairs producer and presenter, before leaving to research and write his first book.

Working as an investigative journalist, he travelled in Indonesia, Brazil, and East Africa. His activities led to his being made persona non grata in seven countries[16] and being sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in Indonesia.[17] In these places, he claims he was also shot at,[18] brutally beaten up and arrested by military police,[18] shipwrecked[18] and stung into a poisoned coma by hornets.[19] He came back to work in Britain after being pronounced clinically dead in Lodwar General Hospital in north-western Kenya, having contracted cerebral malaria.[20]

He joined the British roads protest movement and was often called to give press interviews; as a result he was denounced as a "media tart"[21] by groups such as Green Anarchist and Class War. He claims he was brutally beaten and attacked by security guards, who allegedly drove a metal spike through his foot, smashing the middle metatarsal bone. His injuries left him in hospital.[22] Sir Crispin Tickell, a former United Nations diplomat, who was then Warden at Green College, Oxford, made the young protester a Visiting Fellow.[23]

In November 2012, he apologised to Lord McAlpine for his "stupidity and thoughtlessness" in implying, in a tweet, that the Conservative peer was a paedophile.[24][25][26]

In 2014, Monbiot wrote an article on the theme of loneliness.[27] This led to a collaboration with musician Ewan McLennan. Together they released an album Breaking the Spell of Loneliness in October 2016 followed by a tour of the UK.[28][29] Folk Radio described it as "an enthralling album" where "Each song is a short, eloquent and thought provoking essay on the destruction of our humanity and how it can be regained".[30]

Monbiot narrated the video How Wolves Change Rivers[31] which was based on his TED talk of 2013[32] on the restoration of ecosystems and landscape (rewilding) when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone Park.[31] In 2019, Monbiot co-presented Nature Now,[33] a video about natural climate solutions, with Greta Thunberg. He appeared in the 2021 Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, which focuses on the human impact on marine life and fishing, and defended it from critics.[34]

In 2021, Monbiot created the live documentary Rivercide, highlighting the lamentable state of the UK's rivers, and in particular the River Wye.[35]

While describing the film Don't Look Up in early 2022, Monbiot explained how difficult it is to campaign for the preservation of Earth in the face of what he sees as overwhelming inaction.[36]

Views and activism

Climate change
Monbiot at a Make Poverty History rally in Edinburgh, July 2005

Monbiot believes that drastic action coupled with strong political will is needed to combat global warming.[37] He supports the introduction of the crime of ecocide to the International Criminal Court stating “I believe [a crime of ecocide] would change everything. It would radically shift the balance of power, forcing anyone contemplating large-scale vandalism to ask themselves: ‘Will I end up in the international criminal court for this?’ It could make the difference between a habitable and an uninhabitable planet.”[38][39][40]

To reduce his personal impact on the environment, he has transitioned to a vegan lifestyle and encourages others to do the same.[41]

Media

Monbiot has criticised media coverage of climate change and environmental issues, in particular that of the BBC and its nature documentaries.[36][34] He has also criticised the BBC for what he views as its political bias.[42]

Attempted arrest of John Bolton

Monbiot made an unsuccessful attempt to carry out a citizen's arrest of John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, when the latter attended the Hay Festival to give a talk on international relations in May 2008. Monbiot argued that Bolton was one of the instigators of the Iraq War, of which Monbiot was an opponent.[43]

Politics

Monbiot is a critic of neoliberalism.[34] In January 2004, Monbiot and Salma Yaqoob co-founded Respect – The Unity Coalition (later formally the Respect Party) which grew out of the Stop the War Coalition.[44] He resigned from the group the following February when Respect failed to reach agreement with the Green Party not to stand candidates in the same constituencies in the forthcoming 2004 European Parliament election.[45]

In an interview with the British political blog Third Estate in September 2009, Monbiot expressed his support for the policies of Plaid Cymru, saying "I have finally found the party that I feel very comfortable with. That's not to say I feel uncomfortable with the Green Party, on the whole I support it, but I feel even more comfortable with Plaid."[46]

In April 2010, he was a signatory to an open letter of support for the Liberal Democrats, published in The Guardian.[47] Prior to the May 2015 UK general election, he was one of several public figures who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas.[48] In the election he also endorsed the Green Party as a whole.[49] In August 2015, Monbiot endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.[50] In April 2017, he announced his intention to vote for the Labour Party in the 2017 general election.[51][52][53] In August 2021, he endorsed Tamsin Omond and Amelia Womack in the 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election.[54]

Monbiot, who has warned that Britain is at risk of becoming a failed state,[55] is a supporter of Scottish independence, Welsh independence and Irish reunification.[56] On 11 February 2021, whilst on BBC Two's Politics Live, he said, "If I lived in Scotland, I'd want to get out of this corrupt, dysfunctional, chaotic union as quickly as possible. And the same applies to Wales, the same applies to Northern Ireland. I can't see the point of staying in the United Kingdom, of being chained to the United Kingdom like a block of concrete, as the boat begins to founder."[57][58]

Monbiot has criticized linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, arguing that "Part of the problem is that a kind of cult has developed around Noam Chomsky and John Pilger, which cannot believe they could ever be wrong, and produces ever more elaborate conspiracy theories to justify their mistakes."[59]

Nuclear energy

Monbiot once expressed deep antipathy to the nuclear industry.[60] He finally rejected his later neutral position regarding nuclear power in March 2011. Although he "still loathe[s] the liars who run the nuclear industry",[61] Monbiot now advocates its use, having been convinced of its relative safety by what he considers the limited effects of the 2011 Japan tsunami on nuclear reactors in the region.[61] Subsequently, he has harshly condemned the anti-nuclear movement, writing that it "has misled the world about the impacts of radiation on human health ... made [claims] ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged and wildly wrong." He singled out Helen Caldicott for, he wrote, making unsourced and inaccurate claims, dismissing contrary evidence as part of a cover-up, and overstating the death toll from the Chernobyl disaster by a factor of more than 140.[62]

In October 2013 Monbiot criticized the selection of a generation III reactor design for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station due to cost as well as for a half century requirement of uranium mining and transuranic waste production; he contrasted this with two generation IV reactor concepts: "if integral fast reactors were deployed, the UK's stockpile of nuclear waste could be used to generate enough low-carbon energy to meet all UK demand for 500 years. These reactors would keep recycling the waste until hardly any remained: solving three huge problems – energy supply, nuclear waste and climate change – at once. Thorium reactors use an element that's already extracted in large quantities as an unwanted byproduct of other mining industries. They recycle their own waste, leaving almost nothing behind."[63] (cf. similar comments by James Hansen)

Published works

Monbiot's first book was Poisoned Arrows (1989), concerning the partially World Bank-funded transmigration program on the peoples and tribes of West Papua. It was followed by Amazon Watershed (1991), which documents the expulsions of Brazilian peasant farmers from their land. His third book, No Man's Land: An Investigative Journey Through Kenya and Tanzania (1994), documented the seizure of land and cattle from nomadic people in Kenya and the Tanzania.

In 2000, he published Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain in which Monbiot argues that corporate power in the United Kingdom is a serious threat to democracy. His fifth book, The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order, was published in 2003. The book is an attempt to set out a positive manifesto for change for the global justice movement.[64]

Monbiot's next book, Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning, published in 2006, focused on the issue of climate change. Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding was published in 2013, and focuses on the concept of rewilding the planet. In the book, Monbiot criticises sheep farming.[65] The book received favourable reviews in The Spectator[66] and The Daily Telegraph.[65] It won the Society of Biology Book Award for general biology in 2014.[67] Monbiot's 2022 book Regenesis focuses on the environmental impact of agriculture and sustainable approaches.[68]

Monbiot's weekly column for The Guardian has covered a variety of issues, concentrating on political philosophy in relation to ecological and social problems, particularly in the United Kingdom.[69]

Personal life

Monbiot has mostly lived in Oxford, but for a few years from 2007, he lived in a low emissions house in the market town of Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire, originally with his then-wife, writer and campaigner Angharad Penrhyn Jones, and their daughter.[70] Because his new partner lives in Oxford, Monbiot returned by 2012.[71] The couple's daughter, Monbiot's second, was born in early 2012.[72] In December 2017, Monbiot was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he had surgery in March 2018.[73][74] In 2022, he relocated to South Devon.[75]

Awards

In 1995, Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement.[76] He won the Sir Peter Kent award 1991 prize for his book Amazon Watershed. In November 2007, his book Heat was awarded the Premio Mazotti, an Italian book prize, but he was denied the money given with the prize because he chose not to travel to Venice to collect it in person, arguing that it was not a good enough reason to justify flying. In 2017, he was a recipient of the SEAL Environmental Journalism Award for his work at The Guardian.[77]

In 2022, Monbiot was awarded The Orwell Prize for Journalism.[78]

Selected works
  • (1989). Poisoned Arrows: An investigative journey through the forbidden lands of West Papua. London: Abacus. ISBN 0-7181-3153-3
  • (1991). Amazon Watershed: The new environmental investigation. London: Abacus. ISBN 0-7181-3428-1
  • (1992). Mahogany is Murder: Mahogany Extraction from Indian Reserves in Brazil. ISBN 1-85750-160-8
  • (1994). No Man's Land: An Investigative Journey Through Kenya and Tanzania. Picador. ISBN 0-333-60163-7
  • (2000). Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-90164-9
  • (2003). The Age of Consent. Flamingo. ISBN 0-00-715042-3
  • (2004). Manifesto for a New World Order. The New Press. ISBN 1-56584-908-6
  • (2006). Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9923-3
  • (2008). Bring on the Apocalypse: Six Arguments for Global Justice. Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-84354-858-4
  • (2013). Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-84614-748-7
  • (2016). How Did We Get into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature. London: Verso.
  • (2017). Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-78663-289-0
  • (2022). Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143135968

See also

References
  1. "The End of Plastic". Costing the Earth. 5 November 2013. 30:00 minutes in. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 10 February 2022. Tom Heap meets a man determined to rid the world of plastic and replace it with a biodegradable fungus.
  2. Fox, Genevieve (9 May 1995). "Enter the clean-shaven adventurer hero". The Independent.
  3. Fox, Genevieve (8 May 1995). "Enter the clean-shaven adventurer hero". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  4. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  5. Beckett, Andy (12 May 1996). "Occupying the Moral High Ground". The Independent.
  6. "Nick Cohen: 'It's farcical how Cameron has rescued Blair's ideas from the rubbish dump'". The Guardian. 8 January 2006.
  7. "Marriages". The Times. 9 December 1961. p. 10.
  8. The Daily Telegraph, 25 May 1996.
  9. "Obituary: Canon Hereward Cooke". The Times. 7 January 2010.
  10. "George Monbiot on how boarding school destroys the imagination". Rob Hopkins. 24 July 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  11. Monbiot, George (16 January 2012). "The British boarding school remains a bastion of cruelty". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  12. "Past Members". UK: Brasenose College, Oxford. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  13. Monbiot, George (24 August 2015). "Help me trace the book that prompted my political awakening". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  14. Monbiot, George (6 January 2016). "You can be born into privilege and still want to change the world". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  15. "About George". George Monbiot. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  16. "George Monbiot; short biography". Penguin Books. Archived from the original on 20 August 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
  17. Hosking, Patrick; Wighton, David (22 June 2003). "In a globalised world of opportunity". The Sunday Times (UK). London. Retrieved 27 May 2007.
  18. George Monbiot, 1991. Amazon Watershed. Michael Joseph, London
  19. George Monbiot, 1989. Poisoned Arrows: an investigative journey through Indonesia. Michael Joseph, London
  20. Monbiot, George (1994), No Man's Land: an investigative journey through Kenya and Tanzania
  21. Monbiot, George (1998). McKay, George (ed.). The land is ours Campaign. p. 181. ISBN 9781859842607. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  22. Mobb, Paul (25 March 2011). "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" (PDF). ecolonomics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  23. Genevieve Fox, Enter the clean-shaven adventurer hero, The Independent. 8 May 1995.
  24. Monbiot, George (10 November 2012). "Lord McAlpine – An Abject Apology". George Monbiot. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  25. "Guardian columnist apologises for naming Lord McAlpine on Twitter". The Daily Telegraph. London. 9 November 2012. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  26. Interview, BBC Radio 4, World at One, 15 November 2012
  27. Monbiot, George (14 October 2014). "The age of loneliness is killing us". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  28. Hughes, Tim (12 January 2017). "'No more lonely nights' - George Monbiot and Ewan McLennan bring us together to fight isolation". Oxford Times. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  29. Monbiot, George (3 October 2016). "George Monbiot: why I wrote an album of anthems for all the lonely people". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  30. McFadyen, Neil (11 October 2016). "Folk Radio review of "Breaking The Spell Of Loneliness", 2016". Folk Radio. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  31. "How Wolves Change Rivers". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021.
  32. Monbiot, George (9 September 2013). "For more wonder, rewild the world" – via www.ted.com.
  33. "Nature Now". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021.
  34. "Seaspiracy shows why we must treat fish not as seafood, but as wildlife | George Monbiot". the Guardian. 7 April 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  35. "Livestreamed documentary Rivercide to unmask UK's water polluters". the Guardian. 14 July 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  36. Monbiot, George (4 January 2022). "Watching Don't Look Up made me see my whole life of campaigning flash before me". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  37. Monbiot, G; Lynas, M.; Marshall, G.; Juniper, T.; Tindale, S. (2005). "Time to speak up for climate-change science". Nature. 434 (7033): 559. Bibcode:2005Natur.434..559.. doi:10.1038/434559a. PMID 15800596.
  38. "Supporters of Ecocide Law". Stop Ecocide International. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  39. Monbiot, George (28 March 2019). "The destruction of the Earth is a crime. It should be prosecuted". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  40. Monbiot, George (19 September 2019). "For the sake of life on Earth, we must put a limit on wealth". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  41. Monbiot, George (9 August 2016). "I've converted to veganism to reduce my impact on the living world". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  42. "Rightwing thinktanks run this government. But first, they had to capture the BBC | George Monbiot". the Guardian. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  43. Adams, Stephen (28 May 2008). "John Bolton escapes citizen's arrest at Hay Festival". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
  44. Peace, Timothy (2013a). "All I'm asking, is for a little respect: Assessing the Performance of Britain's Most Successful Radical Left Party" (PDF). Parliamentary Affairs. 66 (2): 405–424. doi:10.1093/pa/gsr064.
  45. Tempest, Matthew (17 February 2004). "Monbiot quits Respect over threat to Greens". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  46. An Interview with George Monbiot. "An Interview with George Monbiot". Thethirdestate.net. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  47. "Lib Dems are the party of progress". The Guardian. 28 April 2010
  48. Elgot, Jessica (24 April 2015). "Celebrities sign statement of support for Caroline Lucas – but not the Greens". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  49. Monbiot, George (28 January 2015). "Follow your convictions – this could be the end of the politics of fear". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  50. Monbiot, George (18 August 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn is the curator of the future. His rivals are chasing an impossible dream". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  51. Monbiot, George (25 April 2017). "If ever there was a time to vote Labour, it is now". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  52. Monbiot, George (6 June 2017). "I've never voted with hope before. Jeremy Corbyn has changed that". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  53. Monbiot, George (13 June 2017). "The election's biggest losers? Not the Tories but the media, who missed the story". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  54. Jarvis, Chris (16 August 2021). "A 3 horse race? – Green Party leadership election round up issue 1". Bright Green. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  55. Double Down News (11 February 2021). "How Britain Could Become a Failed State - George Monbiot". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  56. Monbiot, George [@GeorgeMonbiot] (18 January 2021). "In the meantime, it is surely now clear that the best protection against ongoing disaster for the people of Wales and Scotland is independence, and for the people of Northern Ireland, reunification" (Tweet). Retrieved 18 January 2021 – via Twitter.
  57. "Monbiot: Wales should escape 'chaotic, dysfunctional, corrupt' UK as soon as possible". Nation.Cymru. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  58. Webster, Laura (11 February 2021). "WATCH: Scottish Tory MP squirms as George Monbiot tears the 'corrupt' Union apart". The National. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  59. Katerji, Oz (24 November 2017). "The West's Leftist 'Intellectuals' Who Traffic in Genocide Denial, From Srebrenica to Syria". Haaretz. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  60. George Monbiot "The nuclear winter draws near", The Guardian, 30 March 2000
  61. Monbiot, George (21 March 2011). "Why Fukushima made me stop worrying and love nuclear power". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  62. Monbiot, George (4 April 2011). "Evidence Meltdown". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  63. George Monbiot (21 October 2013). "The farce of the Hinkley C nuclear reactor will haunt Britain for decades". theguardian.com. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  64. Glossop, Ronald J. (18 November 2010). "The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order". GlobalSolutions.org. Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  65. "Philip Hoare is enchanted by a call for the return of bear, beaver and bison to Britain". The Daily Telegraph. London. 28 May 2013. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  66. "Sam Leith enjoys a vision of Britain where sheep may no longer safely graze". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  67. Website developed by James Hamlin (6 February 2014). "2014 winners". Societyofbiology.org. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  68. Hooper, Rowan (18 May 2022). "Regenesis review: Farming is killing the planet but we can stop it". New Scientist. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  69. "George Monbiot Profile". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  70. Crewe, Bel (7 September 2008). "Moving house from the city to the country". The Times. London.
  71. Sexton, David (28 May 2013). "Wild ideas: a dream of boars, bears and wolves back in Britain". Evening Standard.
  72. Monbiot, George (16 April 2012). "Daughter, my generation is squandering your birthright". The Guardian.
  73. Monbiot, George (13 March 2018). "I have prostate cancer. But I am happy". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  74. "George Monbiot: from mental health to climate breakdown". The Ecologist. 5 September 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  75. "The Mingling". George Monbiot. 11 August 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  76. Monbiot Profile on Global 500 Forum Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 10 November 2006.
  77. "2017 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award Winners - SEAL Awards". SEAL Awards. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  78. "Claire Keegan's novella Small Things Like These wins 2022 Orwell Prize for political fiction". CBC/Radio-Canada. 15 July 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
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