Jonathon Porritt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jonathon Espie Porritt, CBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, (born 6 July 1950) is an English environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

and writer. Porritt appears frequently in the media

Mass media

Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

, writing in magazines, newspapers and books, and appearing on radio and television regularly.

Early life and family background

He was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and educated at Eton College

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

and Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

. Like many other environmentalists of his generation he lacks any formal scientific training. Despite training as a barrister, he decided to become an English teacher at St Clement Danes Grammar School (later Burlington Danes School) in Shepherd's Bush, West London in 1974.

Porritt is the son of Lord Porritt

Arthur Porritt, Baron Porritt

- External links :* * *...

, 11th Governor-General of New Zealand

Governor-General of New Zealand

The Governor-General of New Zealand is the representative of the monarch of New Zealand . The Governor-General acts as the Queen's vice-regal representative in New Zealand and is often viewed as the de facto head of state....

. His father, who served as a senior officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

during World War II, was also the bronze medalist in the Olympic Chariots of Fire

Chariots of Fire

Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....

100 metres race. As well as receiving a non-hereditary life peerage, Lord Porritt had previously been awarded a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

cy. Jonathon Porritt is entitled to claim the baronetcy, becoming The Hon Sir Jonathon Porritt, 2nd Baronet, but has so far declined to do so. He has two daughters.

Political and campaigning career

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Porritt was a prominent member of the Ecology Party. As chair of the UK Ecology Party (now the Green Party

Green Party of England and Wales

The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...

) from 1978 to 1984, he presided over changes that made the party much more prominent in elections. Under his stewardship, membership grew from a few hundred to around 3,000.

In 1984 his first book, Seeing Green, was published. In this year he also gave up teaching to become Director of Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth (EWNI)

Friends of the Earth is one of 70 national groups around the world which make up the Friends of the Earth network of environmental organizations...

in Britain, a post he held until 1990. From 1993-1996 he chaired Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future

Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future

Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future is an international multi-stakeholder organization which exists at the interface of civil society and the UN...

then known as UNEP-UK.

After the Greens achieved 15% of the European Parliamentary vote in 1989, he became a strong public advocate of change in the Green Party. In particular, he advocated a more professional organisation with identifiable leaders.

He also backed the election of Cynog Dafis

Cynog Dafis

Cynog Glyndwr Dafis is a Welsh politician and member of the Plaid Cymru party. He was a school teacher and researcher before entering politics.-Education:...

, the joint Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru

' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...

-Green MP for Ceredigion

Ceredigion

Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...

.

With Sara Parkin

Sara Parkin

Sara Parkin is a former Green Party of England and Wales activist and politician. She rose to prominence during and after the 1989 European election, in which the Green Party received 15% of the vote...

and Paul Ekins

Paul Ekins

Paul Ekins is a prominent British academic in the field of sustainable economics. He is a former member of the Green Party.-Political career:...

he founded Forum for the Future

Forum for the Future

Forum for the Future is a British non-profit organisation with a mission to promote sustainable development. Its vision is of "businesses and communities thriving in a future that’s environmentally sustainable and socially just". It runs partnerships with more than 90 organisations across business...

in 1996, a sustainable development

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...

charity. In 1997 he was appointed the inaugural Chair of the incoming Labour government's Sustainable Development Commission

Sustainable Development Commission

The Sustainable Development Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for advising the UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government, and Northern Ireland Executive on sustainable development....

from which he retired in September 2009.

He has also supported the Forests Now Declaration

Forests Now Declaration

The Forests Now Declaration is a declaration that advocates using carbon credits to protect tropical forests. The Declaration was created by the Global Canopy Programme, and has been signed by over 200 NGOs, business leaders, scientists and conservationists...

, which calls for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.

In February 2009, Porritt stated that population growth is a serious threat to the global environment and that contraception, abortion and family planning is a part of the answer to global warming. He thinks that people should have no more than two children and if they do, they are being irresponsible.

He has been heavily criticised for what some are calling anti-family and communist-like comments.

From the time at which he founded Forum of the Future, Porritt withdrew from party politics to concentrate on his non-party political roles. In March 2009, Porritt spoke at the launch of the South West Green Party European Election campaign in Bristol, he stated that he had always remained a member of the Green Party and that it was the correct time to reaffirm his support.

Since leaving the SDC, Porritt has publicly supported the report Prosperity Without Growth.

It remains to be seen whether he will now return to party political activism after retiring from the SDC.

Current activities

Porritt acts as advisor to many bodies on environmental matters, as well as to individuals including Prince Charles

Charles, Prince of Wales

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...

and Stuart Rose, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

, advising on that company's forward strategy. He is a board member of Wessex Water

Wessex Water

Wessex Water Services Limited, known as Wessex Water, is a water supply and sewerage utility company serving an area of the south west of England, covering 10,000 square kilometres including Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire...

and Willmott Dixon

Willmott Dixon

Willmott Dixon Group is one the largest privately-owned construction, housing and property companies, according to the 2010 Sunday Times Top Track 100 list of private companies. In the same list, the company recorded the best revenue growth for that year after it saw a 69 per cent jump in sales...

.

Porritt is on the advisory board of BBC Wildlife
BBC Wildlife
BBC Wildlife is a British glossy, all-colour, monthly magazine about wildlife, founded by BBC Worldwide and published through the BBC Magazines Bristol division, also trading as Bristol Magazines Ltd....

magazine and actively supports the efforts of experts promoting renewable energy and sustainable development such as Walt Patterson

Walt Patterson

Walter C Patterson is a UK-based Canadian physicist and widely-published writer and campaigner on energy.Patterson was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and educated there at the University of Manitoba. Patterson arrived in the United Kingdom in 1960. Trained as a nuclear physicist, Patterson...

. He is a former Chair and current President of sustainable development charity Sustainability South West. From 2000 to 2009, he was chair of the Sustainable Development Commission

Sustainable Development Commission

set up by the prime minister, Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

. He has, however, been critical of the Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

government for its environmental record and its pro-nuclear stance.

He is a patron of Population Matters, (formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust). A substantial rewrite of his bestselling book Capitalism: As if the World Matters was published by Earthscan

Earthscan

Earthscan is an English language publisher of books and journals on climate change, sustainable development and environmental technology for academic, professional and general readers....

in September 2007. In July 2008, he became an honorary graduate of the University of Exeter

University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....

. On 9 February 2012 he is due to become Chancellor

Chancellor (education)

A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....

of Keele University

Keele University

Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...

Quotations

“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate,”

“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the ‘p’ word.”

"The trust (OPT) will release research suggesting UK population must be cut to 30m if the country wants to feed itself sustainably."

"I've learned that the fate of the world's indigenous people lies in the fate of us all. And the reason is very simple. At the heart of today's so-called 'environmental crisis' is something profound and disturbing. We are simply not at one with the world in which we live, we are not 'true dwellers in the land', and behave for the most part as if we were just uncaring itinerants hanging around until we've used everything up and then moving on."

Articles

Hilton, Isabel
Isabel Hilton
Isabel Nancy Hilton OBE is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster based in London.-Biography:She was educated at Edinburgh University where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level...

and Jonathon Porritt. "Sustainable development's 'taboo territory.'" chinadialogue. 2007-05-30.
Perrement, Matt. "Interview with Jonathon Porritt: Sustainable development needs China." chinadialogue. 2006-09-19.
Porritt, Jonathon. "China could lead the fight for a cooler climate." chinadialogue. 2007-11-13.
Porritt, Jonathon. "China: the most important story in the world." chinadialogue. 2006-09-18.

External links

Biography
Sustainable Development Commission - profile of Jonathon Porritt.
Blog
Audio recording of Oct 25, 2007 talk at the RSA on Capitalism as if the world matters
Profile: Jonathon Porritt
Women.timesonline.co.uk
Jonathon Porritt RIBA Zero Carbon debate 2009(video)
The Burntwood Lecture 2010: The Growth Fetish and the Death of Environmentalism (video)