David Bellamy

David J. Bellamy OBE (born 1933) is an English professor, botanist, author, broadcaster and environmental campaigner.

Contents

1 Background 2 Career 3 Unorthodox views 4 Recognition 5 Bibiography 5.1 Discovering the Countryside with David Bellamy 6 External links 7 References

Background

He was brought up as a strict Baptist. He attended Sutton County Grammar School, Sutton; Chelsea College of Science and Technology; and Bedford College (now Royal Holloway and Bedford New College - University of London), all in London. He originally trained as a botanist at Durham University, where he later held the post of senior lecturer in botany until 1982, and still holds the post of Honorary Professor for Adult and Continuing Education.

Bellamy and his wife Rosemary, whom he married when he was 19, have five children - four are adopted.

Career

He first came to public prominence as an environmental consultant at the time of the 1967 Torrey Canyon disaster. He has been the writer and presenter of some 400 television programmes on Botany, Ecology and environmental issues. He is the originator, along with David Shreeve and The Conservation Foundation (which he also founded), of the Ford European Conservation Awards and has published over 80 scientific papers and many books.

In 1983, he was jailed for blockading the Australian Franklin River in protest at a proposed dam.

In 1997, he stood unsuccessfully against incumbent Prime Minister John Major for the anti-European Union Referendum party. Bellamy credits this campaign with the decline in his career as a popular celebrity and television personality, saying in 2002:

In some ways it was probably the most stupid thing I ever did because I'm sure that if I have been banned from television, that's why. I used to be on Blue Peter and all those things, regularly, and it all, pffffft, stopped.

(The Guardian (http://education.guardian.co.uk/academicexperts/story/0,1392,801699,00.html))

He remains Britain's most prominent campaigner against the construction of wind farms in undeveloped areas.

Unorthodox views

Throughout his career Bellamy has championed unpopular causes and used his influence and fame to draw attention to controversial points of view, and these are increasingly at odds with mainstream environmentalist perspectives. He is one of the most well-known people in the UK to reject global warming. In 2004, he wrote an article in the Daily Mail in which he described the theory of man-made global warming as "poppycock".1 (http://www.junkscience.com/july04/Daily_Mail-Bellamy.htm) A typographical error in a recent letter he published in the New Scientist (April 16th, 2005) suggested a large percentage (555 of 625!) of the world's glaciers were advancing, not retreating. This was a gift for global warming deniers, but turned out to be untrue and misleading.2 (http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/05/10/junk-science).

His unorthodox opinions have changed the way in which some organisations view Bellamy.In 2005 a spokesperson for Plantlife, where Bellamy has been president for 15 years, says it "would be wrong to ask him to continue [as president]". The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts stated that it would not renew his presidency in November 2005 for a third term. (New Scientist, 2005)

Recognition

Bellamy also holds or has held these positions:

• Professor of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Durham.
• Hon. Prof. University of Central Queensland, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Systems
• Special Professor of Botany, (Geography), University of Nottingham.
• President of:
  • The Conservation Foundation
  • The Wildlife Trusts partnership
  • Population Concern
  • Plantlife
  • WATCH
  • Coral Cay Conservation
  • National Association for Environmental Education
  • British Naturalists Association
  • Galapagos Conservation Trust
  • British Institute of Cleaning Science
• Vice President:
  • BTCV
  • Fauna and Flora International
  • Marine Conservation Society
  • Australian Marine Conservation Society
• Trustee
  • Living Landscape Trust
  • World Land Trust (1992-2002)

• Hon Fellow Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management
• Chair of the international committee for the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards.

Recipient of:

• The Dutch Order of the Golden Ark
• the U.N.E.P. Global 500 Award
• The Duke of Edinburgh's Award for Underwater Research
• BAFTA, Richard Dimbleby Award
• BSAC Diver of The Year Award

Bibiography

Bellamy has authored at least 45 books:

• Bellamy on Botany (1972) ISBN 0563106662 (A short and accessible introduction to botany)
• Peatlands (1973)
• Bellamy's Britain (1974)
• Life Giving Sea (1975)
• Green Worlds (1975)
• The World of Plants (1975)
• It's Life (1976)
• Bellamy's Europe (1976)
• Botanic Action (1978)
• Botanic Man (1978)
• Half of Paradise (1978)
• Forces of Life (1979)
• Bellamy's Backyard Safari (1981)
• The Great Seasons (with Sheila Mackie, illustrator; Hodder & Stoughton, 1981)
• Il Libro Verde (1981)
• The Mouse Book (1983)
• Bellamy's New World (1983)
• The Queen's Hidden Garden (1984)
• I Spy (1985)
• Bellamy's Ireland (1986)
• Turning The Tide (1986)
• Bellamy's Changing Countryside (1987)
• England's Last Wilderness (1989)
• England's Lost Wilderness (1990)
• Wildernes Britain (1990)
• How Green Are You? (1991)
• Tomorrow's Earth (1991)
• World Medicine: Plants, Patients and People (1992)
• Blooming Bellamy (1993)
• Trees of the World (1993)
• The Bellamy Herbal(2003)
• Golly Green Giant (autobiography, 2002, Century, ISBN 0712683593)
• A Natural Life (autobiography, 2002, Arrow, ISBN 0-09-941496-1)
• Conflicts in the Countryside: The New Battle for Britain (2005), Shaw & Sons, ISBN 0721916708

Discovering the Countryside with David Bellamy

Bellamy was "consultant editor and contributor" for this series, published by Hamlyn in conjunction with the Royal Society for Nature Conservation:

• Coastal Walks (1982; ISBN 0600355882)
• Woodland Walks (1982; ISBN 0600356582)
• Waterside Walks (1983; ISBN 0600356361)
• Grassland Walks (1983; ISBN 060035637X)

External links

• David Bellamy Conservation Awards (http://www.davidbellamyconservation.org.uk/)
• Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian, September 30, 2002, "The green man" - Interview with David Bellamy (http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0%2C3604%2C801411%2C00.html/)
• Bellamy in the Daily Mail (http://www.junkscience.com/july04/Daily_Mail-Bellamy.htm), Jul 9 2004
• Correspondence between David Bellamy and George Monbiot, 2004 (http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/08/19/correspondence-with-david-bellamy/)
• "Has David Bellamy gone mad"? (http://www.marklynas.org/wind/bloggin/68.html) by Mark Lynas, 2004.
• George Monbiot, The Guardian, May 10, 2005, "Junk science:David Bellamy's inaccurate and selective figures on glacier shrinkage are a boon to climate change deniers" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1480279,00.html)

References

• Discussion in Issue 2503 of New Scientist magazine, 11 June 2005, page 4 (http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18625033.300)