George Monbiot

George Monbiot (born January 27, 1963) is a journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist in the United Kingdom who writes a weekly column for The Guardian newspaper.

Related Topics:
January 27 - 1963 - Journalist - Author - Academic - Environmental - Political - Activist - United Kingdom - The Guardian

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Monbiot was educated at Stowe and then Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read Zoology and shared rooms with the historian Niall Ferguson. He has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics) and East London (environmental science). He is currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University.

Related Topics:
Stowe - Brasenose College, Oxford - Zoology - Niall Ferguson

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Working as an investigative journalist after graduation he travelled in Indonesia, Brazil and East Africa. His activities led to him being made persona non grata in several countries and being sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in Indonesia. In these places he was also shot at, beaten up by military police, shipwrecked and stung into a poisoned coma by hornets. He came back to work in Britain after being pronounced clinically dead in Lodwar General Hospital in north-western Kenya, having contracted cerebral malaria.

Related Topics:
Investigative journalist - Indonesia - Brazil - East Africa - Persona non grata - In absentia - Kenya - Cerebral malaria

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In Britain, he joined the roads protest movement. He was hospitalised by security guards, who drove a metal spike through his foot, smashing the middle bone. He helped to found The Land is Ours, which has occupied land all over the country, including thirteen acres (five hectares) of prime real estate in Wandsworth belonging to the Guinness corporation and destined for a giant superstore. The protesters beat Guinness in court, built an eco-village and held onto the land for six months.

Related Topics:
Acre - Hectare - Wandsworth - Guinness

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In 1995 Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He has also won the Lloyds National Screenwriting Prize for his screenplay The Norwegian, a Sony Award for radio production, the Sir Peter Kent Award and the OneWorld National Press Award.

Related Topics:
1995 - Nelson Mandela - United Nations - Global 500 Award - Lloyds National Screenwriting Prize - Sony Award - Sir Peter Kent Award - OneWorld National Press Award

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Initially, he was involved with the Respect political party, but he broke with that organisation when it chose to run candidates against the Green Party in the 2004 election to the European Parliament.

Related Topics:
Respect - Green Party - 2004

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He is on the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine.

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Monbiot's father, Raymond, is the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party and Chairman of the National Convention. http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&PersonID=56217 His mother Rosalie is another staunch Tory who led South Oxford district council for a decade. (Daily Telegraph 25 May 1996)

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