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László Erdős Green Heroes From Buddha to Leonardo DiCaprio Green Heroes László Erdős Green Heroes From Buddha to Leonardo DiCaprio László Erdős MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Debrecen Institute of Ecology and Botany MTA Centre for Ecological Research Vácrátót, Hungary ISBN 978-3-030-31805-5 ISBN 978-3-030-31806-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31806-2 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Photo by László Balogh This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To Dolly Acknowledgements Writing this book was a challenging yet highly rewarding journey. It was a journey on which I received continuous emotional, technical, and financial support from many sources. I owe the greatest debt to my late mother, who, despite tremendous personal and financial difficulties, created the happiest and most democratic family environment I can possibly imagine. She fostered my interest in animals and the natural world and helped me find ways to become an activist. My mother taught history and litera- ture at a secondary school but also was a great animal lover and an amateur natural- ist. Her love and wisdom are missed every minute of every day. I am especially grateful to my wife, Dolly, for her invaluable comments and sug- gestions on the manuscript. I also thank her for her love and patience. Without her full support and encouragement, I would never have been able to write this book. I would like to thank my father and brother for their assistance during this and my earlier projects. I am grateful to Mike Cooke from Ambios Ltd for his linguistic advice while finalising the manuscript. Special thanks are due to Simon Roper, the Director of Ambios Ltd, for his support in preparing the book. I owe a great deal to Dr. László Körmöczi, Dr. György Kröel-Dulay, Dr. Péter Török, Dr. Zoltán Botta-Dukát, Dr. László Garamszegi, and Dr. András Takács- Sánta, who made it possible for me to focus on my book and allowed to develop and teach university courses on the subject. For their useful comments on how to improve the manuscript, I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Zoltán Bátori, Dr. Judit Bódis, Viktória Cseh, Dr. János Csiky, Mira Devánszki, Dr. Erika Farkas Csamangó, Viktória Füzesi, Dr. László Gallé, Dr. Róbert Gallé, Krisztina Gellény, Dr. Balázs Kevey, Dr. Martin Magnes, Dr. György Málovics, Dr. Katalin Margóczi, Dr. Zsolt Molnár, Dr. Róbert Pál, Dr. Zsolt Palkó, Dr. Károly Penksza, Dr. Stephen Puryear, Dr. Petr Smýkal, Dr. János I. Tóth, and Dr. Csaba Tölgyesi. vii viii Acknowledgements My work was supported by the National Youth Excellence Scholarship, which made me possible to obtain materials for writing this book. Last but not least, I want to express appreciation to all green heroes, those who are mentioned in this book and those who are not, for their tireless and unselfish work to protect animals, the natural world, and our environment. Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part I H eroes for Animals Do Not Kill – Buddha’s Compassion for Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Saint Francis of Assisi – The Patron Saint of Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Saint Francis of Paola – Humility and Non-violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Animals Are Back – The Ethics of Jeremy Bentham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Pioneers of Animal Advocacy in the Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Charles Darwin – Evolution and the Fall of Human Superiority . . . . . . . . 27 Reverence for Life – Albert Schweitzer’s Biocentrism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Cleveland Amory and the Fund for Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Spokesmen for Animals – Richard Ryder, Peter Singer, and Tom Regan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 How Henry Spira Put Animal Liberation into Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Ingrid Newkirk, Alex Pacheco, and PETA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Talking Apes – Ambassadors of the Animal Kingdom in the Human World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Parrots, Dolphins, Seals – And What They Have Taught Us. . . . . . . . . . . . 67 In the Front Line of Animal Advocacy – From Brigitte Bardot to Lek Chailert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 ix x Contents Part II H eroes for Nature Beginnings of the Conservation Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Under the Banner of the Giant Panda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Arne Naess and the Deep Ecology Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Living with Big Cats – The Story of Joy and George Adamson . . . . . . . . . 97 The Modern Noah – Gerald Durrell’s Mission to Save Endangered Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Farley Mowat Never Cried Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Jane Goodall – A Lifelong Optimist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 No One Loved Gorillas More – The Life and Legacy of Dian Fossey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Biruté Galdikas and the People of the Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Jacques-Yves Cousteau – In Awe of the Oceans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Mike Pandey – Using the Power of Motion Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 David Attenborough – The Grand Old Man of Natural History Filmmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Paul Watson – The Daredevil of Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Part III Heroes for the Environment The Environmental Movement Is Born – Rachel Carson and Silent Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Environmentalism Gaining Momentum – Denis Hayes and Earth Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 The Greenpeace-Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Chico Mendes – A Martyr for the Rainforest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Missing in Action – The Story of Bruno Manser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Oil Is Blood – The Fight of Ken Saro-Wiwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 A Passion for Trees – Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Vandana Shiva – Defending Traditional Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Contents xi Tree Huggers and Hunger Strikers – Environmental Leadership in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 The Sacrifice of Berta Cáceres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Don’t Waste It! – Rossano Ercolini, Bea Johnson, and Ian Kiernan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Al Gore – The Climate Crusader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Arnold Schwarzenegger – The Strong Man of Environmentalism . . . . . . 213 Greening Hollywood – The Activism of Leonardo DiCaprio . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223