Jim Merkel

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Jim Merkel is an American author, volunteer, and engineer that moved from involvement in the military industry to pioneering in simplicity.

Initially trained as an electrical engineer, Merkel spent twelve years designing industrial and military systems. After witnessing the devastation following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, however, he concluded that global problems had become so urgent as to require immediate action. He consequently quit his job and began a new career as an environmental activist and spokesman.

Merkel has now dedicated himself to trying to reduce his personal impact on the environment and to encourage others to do the same. He claims to have lived on $5,000 a year (close to the global median income) for the past 14 years. In his work, he has founded the Alternative Transportation Task Force in San Luis Obispo, California and served briefly as an elected officer of the Sierra Club; he also has conducted hundreds of workshops on sustainable living in the United States and more recently in Spain.

[edit] Earthwatch

In 1994 he received an Earthwatch Gaia Fellowship, allowing him to visit Kerala, India, and parts of the Himalayas to research sustainable living. In 1995, he founded the Global Living Project, and continues to serve as its co-director.

Merkel put his views in print with Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth in 2003. In April 2005, Dartmouth College appointed him its first Sustainability Director.