Michael Tobias
Encyclopedia
Michael Charles Tobias (born June 27, 1951) is an American author
, ecologist, mountaineer
, and filmmaker. His more than 35 books and 100 films have been distributed, translated, and broadcast internationally. Many of his projects are collaborations with his wife, Jane Gray Morrison.
His work has focused on interlocking themes such as population and the environment, ecological aesthetics, international conservation, and the sanctuary movement. One of his foremost themes is what he has termed "the anthropology of conscience", which emphasizes humanity's capacity for non-violence, compassion, and tolerance. This resulted what became known as the Sanctuary movement
. Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck
, then Queen of Bhutan
, described their efforts as being "invaluable for policymakers and scientists...(and) inspiration for the next generation of young ecologists wanting to make a difference in the world."
Tobias has been an advocate for animal rights; In 2004 Tobias was honored with the Parabola Magazine
Focus Award for his body of work in defense of the Earth. Ingrid Newkirk
, co-founder and President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
, described Tobias as "one of the world’s great souls." Examples of his interdisciplinary approach include collections of essays such as A Parliament of Minds: Philosophy for a New Millennium and A Parliament of Science: Science for the Twenty-First Century, in which he invited philosophers, scientists, and ethicists from around the world to contribute. For his contribution to peace, nonviolence and cruelty-free living, he was presented with the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in 1997.
in 1977 in the History of Consciousness
. His interests converged around a broad approach to ecological science and humanities: the impact on diverse human cultures of the idea of nature, a theme throughout much of his approach to what he examined with respect to tribal cultures, and the ecological drivers throughout all civilizations and cultures.
His early mentors, Helen Kazantzakis (widow of Nikos Kazantzakis
) and Kazantzakis' translator, the poet/essayist Kimon Friar, were very close to Tobias, who directed one of his first films on the legacy of Kazantzakis. The Dutch
painter
Vermeer's work inspired Tobias to write a biographical novel of the painter and his family, Jan & Catharina. Japan
ese aesthetics held an allure for him, and he wrote and filmed in that country. He was interested in India; During his final year as an undergraduate, he moved to Kashmir
, wrote several books, and made several first ascents in the Kashmiri Himalaya.
The Himalayas, and mountains in general, are an important influence on his work. He was the first review editor for the journal Mountain Research and Development, and some of his early climbing fiction and non-fiction appeared in such journals as Climbing, The Mountain Gazette, and Mountain Magazine, most notably an early essay entitled "The Anthropology of Ascent." He made hundreds of mountaineering ascents, including many first ascents. Among his climbs was the first known solo ascent of the sheer wall on Mount Sinai
. In 1973 he lived in a cave above the Saint Catherine's Monastery
while attending the University of Tel Aviv and writing one of his earliest books, Dhaulagirideon; his stahy was the subject of an essay in Mountain Magazine entitled "Pondering the Imponderable." In 1984, he wrote, produced, and directed a mountaineering film, Cloudwalker for the UK's Channel 4
. It chronicled a failed attempt at a first ascent on a 7,000 foot wall of ice on the Moose's Tooth in the Ruth Gorge Amphitheatre of Alaska's McKinley range
. Much of this early mountaineering appeared in many of his books, including the early metaphysical epic, Tsa, and a novel set in Ladakh
(where he had spent nearly a year while working on his Ph.D.) titled Deva, with a Preface by Kimon Friar
. Tobias edited an anthology, The Mountain Spirit, as well as the anthologized work, Mountain People.
wrote that it "reads like a volcano erupting...Tobias throws sparks like an evangelist and has the old-fashioned, wide-ranging erudition of a Renaissance scholar." Scientist Marc Lappé described World War III as "a lengthy and complex treatise that is a distillation of a lifetime of thought and action concerning the human condition.... It provides a thread of hope, offering a new vision about how humankind may ultimately come to peace with nature." Writing of Tobias' World War III in 1998, Jane Goodall
said, "Tobias describes for us a path that we could take – a path mapped out by a combination of scientific, logical, intuitive, and spiritual reasoning – towards a future where all is not, after all, lost." In 1994, during the UN International Conference on Population and Development
, the Montreal Gazette quoted Tobias, "For purposes of absolute clarity I call it World War III," or, as the Gazette extrapolated from Tobias' perspective, "the most terrifying problem humanity has ever faced." In her foreword to World War III, Jane Goodall said of Tobias that he has provided "ample scientific proof of the large-scale habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity that has and continues to take place."
In China, Tobias tracked down the "father" of the One-child policy
, Dr. Qian Xinzhong
and met with him in Beijing
. In his later PBS
adaptation of his book, he interviewed Madame Peng Peiyun
, the head of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission
; she admitted that China could possibly hit a poipulation of 2 billion, a number that was larger than the conventional demographic projections for China by 25%. Kirkus Reviews
wrote that Tobias had employed "a governing metaphor a bit less subtle than a strip mine" but acknowledges that "Tobias is both knowledgeable and passionate in his attempt to reconcile scientific rationality with a religious reverence for the planet." Tobias' contribution to understanding this issue was in his systematic correlations of myriad hits to biological populations throughout Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Pacific Rim, as well as in the G7 nations, resulting from expanding human numbers, a relationship that has recently seen a wave of renewed scientific interest, particularly in calculating the impact of climate change
on biodiversity
.
The documentary No Vacancy, based on Tobias book of that title, addresses the issue of population and the environment. Journalist Ellen Snortland, writing in the Pasadena Weekly, stated that "No Vacancy, written and directed by Michael Tobias, is to the world's population explosion what Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' is to global warming."
, Tobias has been described as one who has "reinvigorated (Thomas) Malthus' theories", of exponential population growth
. Tobias has argued, with a range of examples and research, that human beings are constantly revealing windows on the "soul of nature." In writing about the example of the nearly twenty-million Jains, Tobias has said that “what we do with the all-encompassing belief in nonviolence is a personal affair...Each of us must rise to the challenge; must transform every juncture of every day into the possibility of a poetic gesture of forgiveness, right intentions, love and compassion. The opportunities, of course, are endless.” In analyzing Jain compassion, lifestyle, and nonviolent approaches to the world, Tobias has championed Jain ecological connections. His work which most embodies this is Life Force: The World of Jainism, which has been called “the best book on Jainism.”,
His PBS film Ahimsa –Nonviolence premiered nationwide in the United States on Christmas Day in 1987 and was described by Southeast Asian Religions Professor Chris Chapple as a film “which elegantly portrays several Jain leaders and extols the religion as the great champion of animal rights and nonviolent living.” The film, which took three years of preparations and was filmed in nearly 100 locations across India, was one of the first to explore in depth the Jain religion, as well as portraying the life of Digambara
, Shwetambara, and Sthanakavasi mendicants. In an essay on Jain conscience in 1997, Tobias described “the goal of absolute nonviolence” as an ideal that activists worldwide must take seriously, “every waking moment." Elsewhere he has argued that evolution does not condemn us; only our choices can do that, adding, “We have the capacity throughout our lives to give unstinting, unconditional love.”
In examining the Bishnoi, he focused on universal principles of conservation based on long-term ethical convictions. In this case, the Bishnoi of Rajasthan
who, during a sustained drought in Western India and Pakistan
in 1988, were shown to have saved themselves and their communities and ecosystems through prudent and non-violence ecological behavior, a metaphor, for progressive conservation that could be applied throughout Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. He pointed out that the entire society of the Todas of the Nilgiris converted to vegetarianism 1,000 years ago. This transformation of an entire community on ethical grounds is one of the “windows” he cites as key to understanding the potential for the human species to engage in non-violence. In his introduction to the book One Earth he wrote, “The human race is rallying. The earth desperately needs the personal help and restraint of each of us.”
as an ecological and modern-day ethical incarnation of early spiritual and legal traditions in many countries, particularly canon law
, wherein, for a thousand years those who entered churches could obtain legal sanctuary.
In a cover story for the New York Academy of Sciences
publication The Sciences
, and in three films, he called for an Antarctic World Park, in the spirit of similar proposals from Greenpeace and New Zealand. He drew attention to the despoliation occurring in what was considered the last great hope for large-scale habitat preservation. His film Antarctica: The Last Continent (PBS, 1987) encouraged the National Science Foundation to implement best environmental practices at some of its managed bases in Antarctica, including McMurdo Station
, which NSF subsequently did. In his Discovery Channel
documentary of the Exxon Valdez
disaster, Black Tide, he considered the dilemma of safely using oil resources.
The combined impacts of demographic pressure with energy intensity and consumerism have been themes in his work. The Sky’s On Fire, a movie of the week for ABC
based upon his novel Fatal Exposure, examined the effect of ozone depletion
on biodiversity. The View From Malabar and Element One were early documentaries for public broadcasting examining green space issues, and prospects for a hydrogen fuel cell economy. America’s Great Parks, a documentary for Discovery Channel, examined the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.
He has endeavored to explore the concept of sanctuary in his, and co-author Jane Gray Morrison’s work, Sanctuary: Global Oases of Innocence. They track efforts by conservationists and animal rights activists to save habitat and individuals. They focused on Alaska (Wrangell-St. Elias National Park with Park Service and United States Fish and Wildlife Service
researchers working to save a rare seabird, the Kittlitz's murrelet), the San Francisco Bay
Area (Muir Woods and the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge), Central Park
, Gene Baur
and team’s Farm Sanctuary
in Upstate New York, the Central Suriname Nature Reserve
with Dr. Russell Mittermeier
, the Iberian Wolf Sanctuary in Portugal, the work of Brigitte Bardot
in France, continuing efforts to save Bialowieza National Park in eastern Poland and western Belarus, a European brown bear sanctuary in the Netherlands, Michael Aufhauser’s Gut Aiderbichl sanctuary in Salzburg
, Austria, Howard Buffett’s cheetah sanctuary (Jubatus) in South Africa, Marieta Van Der Merhe’s Harnas Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia
, and other sanctuaries on Socotra in Yemen
, in the United Arab Emirates
at Al Maha, at the Al Areen Sanctuary in Bahrain
, in the vegetarian Rajasthani city of Pushkar
, and the Nilgiris of India (working with the Todas and Dr. Tarun Chhabra), in Indonesian Borneo
with Dr. Birute Galdikas at Tanjung Putting National Park, in Brunei
’s Ulu Temburong National Park, at a butterfly sanctuary in Malaysia, at nature reserves throughout Singapore
, in Thailand
, and the many moss temples of Kyoto
’s Greenbelt, Japan, and in eastern-most Bhutan’s newest Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary
, where he participated in a biodiversity survey across 125 kilometers of little-known Eastern Himalayan high-altitude terrain, under the auspices of Bhutan’s National Biodiversity Centre.
He has been involved in wildlife preservation efforts. In New Zealand
, for nearly a decade he has overseen ecological restoration of a peninsula in the far South of the country, adjoining Rakiura National Park
. He is President of the California animal sanctuary Dancing Star Foundation
.
In his most recent documentary, Hotspots (2008), Tobias and Morrison joined forces with President of Conservation International, Dr. Russell Mittermeier, to make a film based upon the book Hotspots Revisited, which focuses upon biodiversity conservation efforts on Easter Island
, throughout Madagascar
, in the Atlantic Forests of Brazil, in the Tropical Andes, Southern California, and New Zealand.
In his book Environmental Meditation, he addresses the eco-psychological underpinnings of animal rights, eco-aesthetics, ecological history, and spirituality – from Chartres, to Viennese ducks, the search for paradise and “the mind in an age of ecological stress.”
The reconciliation of conservation biology with animal rights has been a theme in his recent work. In his lead essay for the catalogue of a museum exhibition on Endangered Species: Flora & Fauna in Peril, he writes, “The numbers (referring to U.S. Fish & Wildlife listings of Threatened and Endangered species) represent far more than cold calculus. Each species has an amazing, mysterious face, an incalculable biography, and a primeval context that is local, regional, and global... Given the extremes of the human animal, whose footprints are inordinately represented across the landscape, we must confront that all too familiar spectacle of ourselves: ungainly beasts in an innocent garden, with capacities that both recommend and condemn us in the context of biological history.”
He has furthered his enquiries into this dialectic that perceives human nature with both optimism and sincere misgivings, in such works as Nature’s Keepers: On The Front Lines of the Fight to Save Wildlife in America, Voices From The Underground: For the Love of Animals, and the 1836-page illustrated novel The Adventures of Mr. Marigold. Chateau Beyond Time got a Publishers Weekly
starred review as a “...a well-written and sophisticated thriller,”
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, ecologist, mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
, and filmmaker. His more than 35 books and 100 films have been distributed, translated, and broadcast internationally. Many of his projects are collaborations with his wife, Jane Gray Morrison.
His work has focused on interlocking themes such as population and the environment, ecological aesthetics, international conservation, and the sanctuary movement. One of his foremost themes is what he has termed "the anthropology of conscience", which emphasizes humanity's capacity for non-violence, compassion, and tolerance. This resulted what became known as the Sanctuary movement
Sanctuary movement
The Sanctuary Movement was a religious and political campaign that began in the early 1980s to provide safe-haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict...
. Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck
Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck
Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck is a former queen of Bhutan and first wife of former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who is married to four sisters all of whom were entitled to be called queen.Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck is the first wife of...
, then Queen of Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
, described their efforts as being "invaluable for policymakers and scientists...(and) inspiration for the next generation of young ecologists wanting to make a difference in the world."
Tobias has been an advocate for animal rights; In 2004 Tobias was honored with the Parabola Magazine
Parabola (magazine)
Parabola: Where Spiritual Traditions Meet, whose founder and editor was D.M. Dooling, began publishing in 1976 as a quarterly magazine on the subjects of mythology and the world's religious and cultural traditions. It is published by The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, a not-for-profit...
Focus Award for his body of work in defense of the Earth. Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk is a British-born animal rights activist and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , the world's largest animal rights organization...
, co-founder and President of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
, described Tobias as "one of the world’s great souls." Examples of his interdisciplinary approach include collections of essays such as A Parliament of Minds: Philosophy for a New Millennium and A Parliament of Science: Science for the Twenty-First Century, in which he invited philosophers, scientists, and ethicists from around the world to contribute. For his contribution to peace, nonviolence and cruelty-free living, he was presented with the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in 1997.
Early studies
Tobias received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa CruzUniversity of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
in 1977 in the History of Consciousness
History of Consciousness
The History of Consciousness program is an interdisciplinary graduate program in the humanities with links to the sciences, social sciences, and arts at the University of California at Santa Cruz....
. His interests converged around a broad approach to ecological science and humanities: the impact on diverse human cultures of the idea of nature, a theme throughout much of his approach to what he examined with respect to tribal cultures, and the ecological drivers throughout all civilizations and cultures.
His early mentors, Helen Kazantzakis (widow of Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher, celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek, considered his magnum opus...
) and Kazantzakis' translator, the poet/essayist Kimon Friar, were very close to Tobias, who directed one of his first films on the legacy of Kazantzakis. The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Vermeer's work inspired Tobias to write a biographical novel of the painter and his family, Jan & Catharina. Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese aesthetics held an allure for him, and he wrote and filmed in that country. He was interested in India; During his final year as an undergraduate, he moved to Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, wrote several books, and made several first ascents in the Kashmiri Himalaya.
The Himalayas, and mountains in general, are an important influence on his work. He was the first review editor for the journal Mountain Research and Development, and some of his early climbing fiction and non-fiction appeared in such journals as Climbing, The Mountain Gazette, and Mountain Magazine, most notably an early essay entitled "The Anthropology of Ascent." He made hundreds of mountaineering ascents, including many first ascents. Among his climbs was the first known solo ascent of the sheer wall on Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...
. In 1973 he lived in a cave above the Saint Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Saint Catherine's Monastery lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in the city of Saint Catherine in Egypt's South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site...
while attending the University of Tel Aviv and writing one of his earliest books, Dhaulagirideon; his stahy was the subject of an essay in Mountain Magazine entitled "Pondering the Imponderable." In 1984, he wrote, produced, and directed a mountaineering film, Cloudwalker for the UK's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. It chronicled a failed attempt at a first ascent on a 7,000 foot wall of ice on the Moose's Tooth in the Ruth Gorge Amphitheatre of Alaska's McKinley range
Mount McKinley
Mount McKinley or Denali in Alaska, United States is the highest mountain peak in North America and the United States, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.- Geology and features :Mount McKinley is a granitic pluton...
. Much of this early mountaineering appeared in many of his books, including the early metaphysical epic, Tsa, and a novel set in Ladakh
Ladakh
Ladakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
(where he had spent nearly a year while working on his Ph.D.) titled Deva, with a Preface by Kimon Friar
Kimon Friar
Kimon Friar was a Greek-American poet and translator of Greek poetry.-Youth and education:Friar was born in 1911 in Imrali, Ottoman Empire, to an American father and a Greek mother. In 1915, the family moved to the United States and Friar became an American citizen in 1920...
. Tobias edited an anthology, The Mountain Spirit, as well as the anthologized work, Mountain People.
Population and environment – World War III
Tobias has tackled the many complex issues concerning human population pressure on the environment. His book World War III: Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium received widespread praise. Psychology TodayPsychology Today
Psychology Today is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States. It is a psychology-based magazine about relationships, health, and related topics written for a mass audience of non-psychologists. Psychology Today was founded in 1967 and features articles on such topics as love,...
wrote that it "reads like a volcano erupting...Tobias throws sparks like an evangelist and has the old-fashioned, wide-ranging erudition of a Renaissance scholar." Scientist Marc Lappé described World War III as "a lengthy and complex treatise that is a distillation of a lifetime of thought and action concerning the human condition.... It provides a thread of hope, offering a new vision about how humankind may ultimately come to peace with nature." Writing of Tobias' World War III in 1998, Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
said, "Tobias describes for us a path that we could take – a path mapped out by a combination of scientific, logical, intuitive, and spiritual reasoning – towards a future where all is not, after all, lost." In 1994, during the UN International Conference on Population and Development
International Conference on Population and Development
The United Nations coordinated an International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt from 5–13 September 1994. Its resulting Program of Action is the steering document for the United Nations Population Fund ....
, the Montreal Gazette quoted Tobias, "For purposes of absolute clarity I call it World War III," or, as the Gazette extrapolated from Tobias' perspective, "the most terrifying problem humanity has ever faced." In her foreword to World War III, Jane Goodall said of Tobias that he has provided "ample scientific proof of the large-scale habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity that has and continues to take place."
In China, Tobias tracked down the "father" of the One-child policy
One-child policy
The one-child policy refers to the one-child limitation applying to a minority of families in the population control policy of the People's Republic of China . The Chinese government refers to it under the official translation of family planning policy...
, Dr. Qian Xinzhong
Qian Xinzhong
Qian Xinzhong was the Minster of Health of the People's Republic of China ....
and met with him in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. In his later PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
adaptation of his book, he interviewed Madame Peng Peiyun
Peng Peiyun
Peng Peiyun is a Chinese politician.-Biography:Peng was admitted to the National Southwestern Associated University at 15. She graduated from Qinghua University and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1946. She held several positions in the CPC branches in public education institutions...
, the head of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission
National Population and Family Planning Commission
National Population and Family Planning Commission is the state agency responsible for population and family planning in the People's Republic of China.-Administration:The agency is managed by a minister and four vice ministers.-List of Chair:...
; she admitted that China could possibly hit a poipulation of 2 billion, a number that was larger than the conventional demographic projections for China by 25%. Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
wrote that Tobias had employed "a governing metaphor a bit less subtle than a strip mine" but acknowledges that "Tobias is both knowledgeable and passionate in his attempt to reconcile scientific rationality with a religious reverence for the planet." Tobias' contribution to understanding this issue was in his systematic correlations of myriad hits to biological populations throughout Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Pacific Rim, as well as in the G7 nations, resulting from expanding human numbers, a relationship that has recently seen a wave of renewed scientific interest, particularly in calculating the impact of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
on biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
.
The documentary No Vacancy, based on Tobias book of that title, addresses the issue of population and the environment. Journalist Ellen Snortland, writing in the Pasadena Weekly, stated that "No Vacancy, written and directed by Michael Tobias, is to the world's population explosion what Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' is to global warming."
The anthropology of conscience – the Jains, Bishnoi, and Todas
In researching indigenous spiritual and ethical traditions, he thinks that humanity has what it takes to get it right, with respect to an environmentally sustainable future. In Mother Earth NewsMother Earth News
Mother Earth News is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 475,000. It is based in Topeka, Kansas.Approaching environmental problems from a down-to-earth, practical, how-to standpoint, Mother Earth News has, since the magazine’s founding in 1970, been a pioneer in the promotion...
, Tobias has been described as one who has "reinvigorated (Thomas) Malthus' theories", of exponential population growth
Population growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
. Tobias has argued, with a range of examples and research, that human beings are constantly revealing windows on the "soul of nature." In writing about the example of the nearly twenty-million Jains, Tobias has said that “what we do with the all-encompassing belief in nonviolence is a personal affair...Each of us must rise to the challenge; must transform every juncture of every day into the possibility of a poetic gesture of forgiveness, right intentions, love and compassion. The opportunities, of course, are endless.” In analyzing Jain compassion, lifestyle, and nonviolent approaches to the world, Tobias has championed Jain ecological connections. His work which most embodies this is Life Force: The World of Jainism, which has been called “the best book on Jainism.”,
His PBS film Ahimsa –Nonviolence premiered nationwide in the United States on Christmas Day in 1987 and was described by Southeast Asian Religions Professor Chris Chapple as a film “which elegantly portrays several Jain leaders and extols the religion as the great champion of animal rights and nonviolent living.” The film, which took three years of preparations and was filmed in nearly 100 locations across India, was one of the first to explore in depth the Jain religion, as well as portraying the life of Digambara
Digambara
Digambara "sky-clad" is one of the two main sects of Jainism. "Sky-clad" has many different meaning and associations throughout Indian religions. Many representations of deities within these traditions are depicted as sky-clad, e.g. Samantabhadra/Samantabhadrī in Yab-Yum...
, Shwetambara, and Sthanakavasi mendicants. In an essay on Jain conscience in 1997, Tobias described “the goal of absolute nonviolence” as an ideal that activists worldwide must take seriously, “every waking moment." Elsewhere he has argued that evolution does not condemn us; only our choices can do that, adding, “We have the capacity throughout our lives to give unstinting, unconditional love.”
In examining the Bishnoi, he focused on universal principles of conservation based on long-term ethical convictions. In this case, the Bishnoi of Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
who, during a sustained drought in Western India and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in 1988, were shown to have saved themselves and their communities and ecosystems through prudent and non-violence ecological behavior, a metaphor, for progressive conservation that could be applied throughout Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. He pointed out that the entire society of the Todas of the Nilgiris converted to vegetarianism 1,000 years ago. This transformation of an entire community on ethical grounds is one of the “windows” he cites as key to understanding the potential for the human species to engage in non-violence. In his introduction to the book One Earth he wrote, “The human race is rallying. The earth desperately needs the personal help and restraint of each of us.”
The sanctuary movement and international conservation efforts
In some of his earliest work, Tobias focused extensively on the concept of sanctuarySanctuary
A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
as an ecological and modern-day ethical incarnation of early spiritual and legal traditions in many countries, particularly canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
, wherein, for a thousand years those who entered churches could obtain legal sanctuary.
In a cover story for the New York Academy of Sciences
New York Academy of Sciences
The New York Academy of Sciences is the third oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, non-profit organization with more than members in 140 countries, the Academy’s mission is to advance understanding of science and technology...
publication The Sciences
The Sciences
The Sciences was published from 1961 to 2001 by the New York Academy of Sciences. Each issue contained articles that discussed science issues with cultural relevance, illustrated with fine art and an occasional cartoon. The periodical won seven National Magazine Awards over the course of its...
, and in three films, he called for an Antarctic World Park, in the spirit of similar proposals from Greenpeace and New Zealand. He drew attention to the despoliation occurring in what was considered the last great hope for large-scale habitat preservation. His film Antarctica: The Last Continent (PBS, 1987) encouraged the National Science Foundation to implement best environmental practices at some of its managed bases in Antarctica, including McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research center located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National...
, which NSF subsequently did. In his Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
documentary of the Exxon Valdez
Exxon Valdez
Oriental Nicety, formerly Exxon Valdez, Exxon Mediterranean, SeaRiver Mediterranean, S/R Mediterranean, Mediterranean, and Dong Fang Ocean is an oil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground in Prince William Sound spilling hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil in Alaska...
disaster, Black Tide, he considered the dilemma of safely using oil resources.
The combined impacts of demographic pressure with energy intensity and consumerism have been themes in his work. The Sky’s On Fire, a movie of the week for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
based upon his novel Fatal Exposure, examined the effect of ozone depletion
Ozone depletion
Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere , and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon...
on biodiversity. The View From Malabar and Element One were early documentaries for public broadcasting examining green space issues, and prospects for a hydrogen fuel cell economy. America’s Great Parks, a documentary for Discovery Channel, examined the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.
He has endeavored to explore the concept of sanctuary in his, and co-author Jane Gray Morrison’s work, Sanctuary: Global Oases of Innocence. They track efforts by conservationists and animal rights activists to save habitat and individuals. They focused on Alaska (Wrangell-St. Elias National Park with Park Service and United States Fish and Wildlife Service
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats...
researchers working to save a rare seabird, the Kittlitz's murrelet), the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
Area (Muir Woods and the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge), Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, Gene Baur
Gene Baur
Gene Baur is an activist, best-selling author, and president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, the first animal rescue organization dedicated to farmed animals. He is vegan and has been at the forefront of animal rights since he began the Sanctuary in 1986.Baur grew up in Hollywood, California,...
and team’s Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary is an American animal protection organization, founded in 1986 as an advocate for farm animals. It promotes laws and policies that support animal welfare, animal protection and vegetarianism/veganism through rescue, education and advocacy...
in Upstate New York, the Central Suriname Nature Reserve
Central Suriname Nature Reserve
The Central Suriname Nature Reserve was created in 1998 by Conservation International and the government of Suriname. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000 for its pristine tropical rainforest ecosystem, and contains 16,000 square kilometres of both montane and lowland primary...
with Dr. Russell Mittermeier
Russell Mittermeier
Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologist, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He has written several books for both popular and scientist audiences, and has authored some 300 scientific papers.-Biography:...
, the Iberian Wolf Sanctuary in Portugal, the work of Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
in France, continuing efforts to save Bialowieza National Park in eastern Poland and western Belarus, a European brown bear sanctuary in the Netherlands, Michael Aufhauser’s Gut Aiderbichl sanctuary in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Austria, Howard Buffett’s cheetah sanctuary (Jubatus) in South Africa, Marieta Van Der Merhe’s Harnas Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
, and other sanctuaries on Socotra in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, in the United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
at Al Maha, at the Al Areen Sanctuary in Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, in the vegetarian Rajasthani city of Pushkar
Pushkar
Pushkar is a town in the Ajmer district in the state of Rajasthan, India. It is situated at 14 km North West from Ajmer at an average elevation of 510 metres , and is one of the five sacred dhams...
, and the Nilgiris of India (working with the Todas and Dr. Tarun Chhabra), in Indonesian Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
with Dr. Birute Galdikas at Tanjung Putting National Park, in Brunei
Brunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
’s Ulu Temburong National Park, at a butterfly sanctuary in Malaysia, at nature reserves throughout Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and the many moss temples of Kyoto
Kyoto
is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
’s Greenbelt, Japan, and in eastern-most Bhutan’s newest Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary
Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary
Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary located mostly in Trashigang District and just crossing the border into Samdrup Jongkhar District, Bhutan. It is one of the country's protected areas.-Flora and fauna:...
, where he participated in a biodiversity survey across 125 kilometers of little-known Eastern Himalayan high-altitude terrain, under the auspices of Bhutan’s National Biodiversity Centre.
He has been involved in wildlife preservation efforts. In New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, for nearly a decade he has overseen ecological restoration of a peninsula in the far South of the country, adjoining Rakiura National Park
Rakiura National Park
Rakiura National Park is a nature reserve park located on Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand. It is the 14th of New Zealand's national parks and was officially opened on 9 March 2002. It covers 1,570 km², which is about 85% of Stewart Island, New Zealand's third-largest island...
. He is President of the California animal sanctuary Dancing Star Foundation
Dancing Star Foundation
The Dancing Star Foundation is a U.S.-based non-profit organization engaged in environmental, cultural and animal welfare activities, including worldwide environmental education, global biodiversity conservation, animal protection, animal welfare, and animal rights.Some of the various issues with...
.
In his most recent documentary, Hotspots (2008), Tobias and Morrison joined forces with President of Conservation International, Dr. Russell Mittermeier, to make a film based upon the book Hotspots Revisited, which focuses upon biodiversity conservation efforts on Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
, throughout Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
, in the Atlantic Forests of Brazil, in the Tropical Andes, Southern California, and New Zealand.
Reconciling animal rights and conservation biology
In their book Donkey: The Mystique of Equus Asinus, Tobias and Morrison examined donkeys through an interdisciplinary ecological approach.In his book Environmental Meditation, he addresses the eco-psychological underpinnings of animal rights, eco-aesthetics, ecological history, and spirituality – from Chartres, to Viennese ducks, the search for paradise and “the mind in an age of ecological stress.”
The reconciliation of conservation biology with animal rights has been a theme in his recent work. In his lead essay for the catalogue of a museum exhibition on Endangered Species: Flora & Fauna in Peril, he writes, “The numbers (referring to U.S. Fish & Wildlife listings of Threatened and Endangered species) represent far more than cold calculus. Each species has an amazing, mysterious face, an incalculable biography, and a primeval context that is local, regional, and global... Given the extremes of the human animal, whose footprints are inordinately represented across the landscape, we must confront that all too familiar spectacle of ourselves: ungainly beasts in an innocent garden, with capacities that both recommend and condemn us in the context of biological history.”
He has furthered his enquiries into this dialectic that perceives human nature with both optimism and sincere misgivings, in such works as Nature’s Keepers: On The Front Lines of the Fight to Save Wildlife in America, Voices From The Underground: For the Love of Animals, and the 1836-page illustrated novel The Adventures of Mr. Marigold. Chateau Beyond Time got a Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
starred review as a “...a well-written and sophisticated thriller,”
Sources
- Documentary filmmaking : http://www.mwp.com/books/documentary/search-reality.php4
- Feeding the Population Monster: http://desip.igc.org/Monster.html
- Kinship with the Animals: http://www.all-creatures.org/book/r-kinship.html