Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder’s On Freedom influences me daily at this stage of my life. Its predecessors are equally important and the most recent one caused me to read On Tyranny, Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. It caused me to share copied with children and grandchildren. The book made Snyder an overnight sensation, even though the previous though and scholarly histories made him a well respected historian.. It is equally important to read Thinking the Twentieth Century. co-written with Tony Judt and The Road to Unfreedom, Russia, Europe, America for a full understanding of where we are now/

Paul Krugman

I used to follow Paul Krugman in the New York Times - and even took an online course in the pandemic to learn more about economics. He left the Times when their editors wanted him to changecopy - which makes me read the Times now with a more watchful eye. Moving to Substack he write nearly every day and in no time has more than 700,000 subscribers in a few months; 391,000 are paid ones. He is very generous with his free posts if you can’t afford to be a subscriber. He makes economics much more understandable and is often joined by its critics - and is one himself.

Thomas Berry

“Geologian” rather than theologian, Thomas Berry has inspired countless individuals, organizations and institutions to rethink their relationship with the universe and with our planet. His work and influence spans this entire site.

Rachel Carson

A marine biologist and nature writer, Rachel Carson catalyzed the global environmental movement with her 1962 book Silent Spring. Outlining the dangers of chemical pesticides, the book led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides and sparked the movement that ultimately led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Lynn Margulis

Lynn Margulis was an eminent American evolutionary biologist. Her serial endosymbiotic theory (SET) of eukaryotic cell development overturned the modern concept of how life originated on earth. She argued that different types of bacteria, through “symbiogenesis”, formed more complicated single organisms.

George Monbiot

When a journalist and broadcaster puts the following on his website:

“I love not man the less, but Nature more.”

It’s often worth seeing what he has to say. This journalist for several publications, including the Guardian writes frequently on environment change and the natural world. It’s also pretty refreshing to see a journalist who lists his sources of income in a Registry of Interests.