David Bellamy

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David Bellamy
David Bellamy

David J. Bellamy OBE (born 18 January 1933) is an English botanist, author, broadcaster, environmental campaigner and a global warming sceptic.

Contents

[edit] Background

Bellamy was born in London. He was brought up as a strict Baptist. He attended Sutton County Grammar School, Sutton; Chelsea College of Science and Technology (now part of King's College London); and Bedford College (now part of Royal Holloway, University of London), 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.

[edit] 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.

On 18 August 1984, he leapt from the pier at St. Abbs Harbour and splashed into the North Sea. In the process he officially opened Britain's first Voluntary Marine Reserve, the St. Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve.

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." [1]

He is Britain's most prominent campaigner against the construction of wind farms in undeveloped areas. This is despite appearing very enthusiastic about wind power in the educational video Power from the Wind[2] produced by Britain's Central Electricity Generating Board.

He once voiced an advert for the blackcurrant drink Ribena which claimed that 95% of British blackcurrants were used in Ribena. (This has now been changed to "Nearly all British blackcurrants are used in Ribena".)

[edit] Views on 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" [3]. A letter he published in New Scientist (16 April 2005) asserted that a large percentage (555 of 625) of the glaciers being observed by the World Glacier Monitoring Service were advancing, not retreating. However, Bellamy's figures were incorrect: the vast majority of the world's glaciers have been retreating for the last several decades. George Monbiot of the Guardian tracked down Bellamy's original source for this information and found that it was Fred Singer's website. Singer claimed to have obtained these figures from a 1989 article in the journal Science, but to date this article has not been found.[1] Bellamy has since admitted that the figures on glaciers were wrong, and announced in a letter to The Sunday Times on 29 May 2005 [4] that he had "decided to draw back from the debate on global warming" [5]. However he has not withdrawn his assertions about the causes of global warming.

His 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, said it "would be wrong to ask him to continue [as president]". The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts stated in 2005 "We are not happy with his line on climate change"[6], and Bellamy was succeeded as president of the Wildlife Trusts by Aubrey Manning in November 2005.

In October 2006, it was reported that Bellamy had joined the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, a group of scientists trying to refute what they believe are unfounded claims about man-made global warming[7].

[edit] Trivia

  • Bellamy's voice can be heard as one of the many samples on the track Shanty Town from the Mr Scruff album Keeping It Unreal.

[edit] Recognition

Bellamy also holds or has held these positions:

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

[edit] Bibliography

Bellamy has written at least 45 books:

  • Bellamy on Botany (1972) ISBN 0-563-10666-2 (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 Bugle (1986)
  • Bellamy's Ireland (1986)
  • Turning The Tide (1986)
  • Bellamy's Changing Countryside (1987)
  • England's Last Wilderness (1989)
  • England's Lost Wilderness (1990)
  • Wilderness Britain? (1990, Oxford Illustrated Press, ISBN 1-85509-225-5)
  • 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)
  • Jolly Green Giant (autobiography, 2002, Century, ISBN 0-7126-8359-3)
  • A Natural Life (autobiography, 2002, Arrow, ISBN 0-09-941496-1)
  • Conflicts in the Countryside: The New Battle for Britain (2005), Shaw & Sons, ISBN 0-7219-1670-8

[edit] 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:

[edit] Forewords

Bellamy has contributed forewords or introductions to:

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hattenstone, Simon. The green man, The Guardian, September 30, 2002
  2. ^ Jenkins, N. (September 1990). "European Wind Energy". The Environmentalist 10 (3): 230-231. ISSN 0251-1088. Retrieved on 2007-03-24. 
  3. ^ Junk Science: Global Warming? What a load of poppycock!
  4. ^ Times Online: 29 May 2005, In an adverse climate
  5. ^ New Scientist: 11 June 2005, British conservationist to lose posts after climate claims - Issue 2503, page 4
  6. ^ Times Online: 15 May 2005, Wildlife groups axe Bellamy as global warming ‘heretic’
  7. ^ New Zealand Herald: 19 October 2006, Bellamy warms to scientists' scepticism on climate change


Persondata
NAME Bellamy, David, OBE
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English professor, botanist, author, broadcaster and environmental campaigner
DATE OF BIRTH 1933-01-18
PLACE OF BIRTH London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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