DAVID BELLAMY: Green Personality of August 2018

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Full name: David James Bellamy

Date of birth: 18 January, 1933

Nationality: British

Residence: County Durham, England

Family: He married Rosemary Froy in 1959 and they had 5 children together

“Global warming is part of natural cycle and there’s nothing we can actually do to stop these cycles. The world is now facing spending a vast amount of money in tax to try to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist.”
— David J. Bellamy

EDUCATION

He attended Chatsworth Road Primary School, Cheam; Cheam Road Junior School and Sulton County Grammar School; all in England.
He originally wanted to study English Literature and History but later changed to study Botany, Physics and Chemistry in the sixth form. Thus he studied Botany for a bachelor degree at Chelsea college of science and Technology which is now part of University College, London. Also, he got his PhD at Bedford College (now part of the University of London) in 1960.

OCCUPATION/CAREER

In 1960, David Bellamy became a lecturer in Botany Department of Durham University, after having worked as a laboratory assistant at Ewell Technical College, London and before becoming a graduate. However, it was his environmental consultancy work on the Torrey Canyon oil spillage in 1967 that brought him into prominence as a result of his write up in a leading scientific journal named “Nature”.

Also, he wrote many books for TV series in the 1980’s, especially for children’s enjoyment and education. In 1980, he released a musical single entitled ‘Brontosaurus Will You Wait For Me?’. It reached number 88 in the charts then.
Besides, Bellamy worked for the New Zealand Tourism department’s unique program for foreign journalists. While in New Zealand, he also worked on a documentary series known as “Noah’s Ark” which was released in 1990.

Moreover, he is one of the originators of the Ford European Conservation Awards. Significantly, David Bellamy has worked on and presented hundreds of television programs on Botany, ecology, environmental and other issues. Examples of such include “Bellamy on Botany”, “Bellamy Britain”; “Bellamy Europe”; and “Bellamy Backyard Safari”.

ADVOCACY/ACHIEVEMENTS

In 1983, Bellamy was jailed for blockading the Australian Franklin River in a protest against a proposed dam. On the 18th of August, 1984, he jumped from the pier at St. Abbs Harbor into the North Sea and thereby Voluntary Marine Reserve, the St. Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve.

In the late 1980’s, he staged a campaign in Jersey, Channel Islands, to save Queen Valley from being turned into a reservoir because of the presence of a rare type of snail, but he was unable to stop it. Besides, David Bellamy is the President of the British Institute of Cleaning Service (BICSc) and a strong supporter of the BICSc plan to educate young people to care for and protect the environment. Also, he runs the David Bellamy Awards program as a competition designed to encourage schools to be aware of and act positively towards environmental cleanliness.

In 2004, David Bellamy wrote an article in the Daily Mail in which he described the theory of human-made global warming as ‘poppycock’. He also expressed his opinions on global warming in other newspapers magazines and scientific journals, particularly between 2005 and 2007.

_The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened._ (1).png

PUBLICATIONS

  • Bellamy on Botany (1972) ISBN 0-563-10666-2
  • 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)
  • Moa's Ark (with Brian Springett and Peter Hayden, 1990)
  • 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)
  • Fabric Live: Bellamy Sessions (2004)
  • 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

RESOURCES