| Pentti Linkola | |
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Pentti Linkola |
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| Born | Kaarlo Pentti Linkola 7 December 1932 Helsinki, Finland |
Kaarlo Pentti Linkola (born 7 December 1932 in Helsinki) is a radical Finnish deep ecologist,[1] polemicist, and fisherman.[2] He has written widely about his ideas and is a prominent thinker in Finland,[3][4] but, at the same time, is also an extremely controversial figure. He lives a simple and austere life. Linkola was occupitional whole-year fisherman from 1959 to 1995. He has fished on Keitele, Päijänne, Gulf of Finland and from 1978 he fishes on Vanajavesi. Nowadays Pentti Linkola receives an old-age government pension and fishes only winters.
Linkola blames humans for the continuous degradation of the environment. He promotes rapid population decline[5] in order to combat the problems commonly attributed to overpopulation. He is also strongly in favour of deindustrialization and opposes democracy, which he calls the "Religion of Death,"[6] believing it to be an agent of wasteful capitalism and consumerism. He considers the proponents of economic growth to be ignorant of the subtle destructive effects which free market policies have had over the past two centuries.
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Linkola grew up in Helsinki, spending the summers in the countryside, at the farm of his grandfather Hugo Suolahti. His father Kaarlo Linkola was the Rector of Helsinki University and his grandfather had worked as the Chancellor of that same university. Pentti Linkola chose not to continue his zoological and botanical studies after his first year.
In the essay collection Unelmat paremmasta maailmasta (Dreams about a Better World) (1971) he explained for the first time his ecological attitudes. He has continued to speak against the modern Western way of life and the overconsumption of natural resources. His latest books Johdatus 1990-luvun ajatteluun (Introduction to the Thinking of the 1990s) (1989) and Voisiko elämä voittaa? (Could Life Prevail?) (2004), translated in 2009 into English as Can Life Prevail? are collections of his writings that have been published in various Finnish newspapers and magazines.
As a philosopher Linkola can be described as a biocentric empiricist. A website ("fansite") set up in Linkola's name states that in the West his ideas are considered to be "fascist" and "made taboo".[7] He demands that man return to a smaller ecological niche and abandon modern technology and what he describes as the almost-religious pursuit of economic growth. Linkola considers human population growth the biggest threat to life on Earth.
Linkola's first political publication was the pamphlet Isänmaan ja ihmisen puolesta (For Fatherland and Man) (1960), in which he spoke strongly for pacifism and encouraged conscientious objection. In contrast, in 2004 he derided those he considers to be "sanctimonious in their opposition to violence," when the earth is suffering from severe human overpopulation.[8]
He advocates eugenics, genocide,and abortion as possible means to combat overpopulation. He describes the Stalinist and Nazi massacres, as "massive thinning operations," but which have "not overturned our ethical norms".[9] He has suggested that big cities should be attacked by "some trans-national body like the UN", with nuclear weapons or with "bacteriological and chemical attacks".[10] Linkola has described humans as a cancer of the earth, and he desires that the human population "be reduced to about ten percent of what it is now."[11][12][13]
Linkola often expresses his admiration for forests and nature in general. He is known for his deep love of birds. He considers education to be the "most precious aspect of society," and advocates for universities to be maintained regardless of the cost.[14] In a 2004 interview given at the international bookfair at Turku[15] Linkola describes the origins of his bitterness towards humankind. In his essay, Women as Protectors of Life,[16] he opines that the "soul of a man, beneath its rough surface, is paradoxically more sensitive, fragile and weak than that of a woman."
In May 1994 Linkola was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal Europe.[17] He said he was for a radical reduction in the world population and was quoted as saying about a future world war, "If there were a button I could press, I would sacrifice myself without hesitating, if it meant millions of people would die."[18]
In 1995 Linkola founded the Nature Heritage Foundation (Luonnonperintösäätiö). It concentrates on preserving the few ancient forests still left in southern Finland and other nature conservation. The forests are donated to the foundation.
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