April 26

Edward Max Nicholson

Author

David Barnhart
April 26, 2025

Mosaic from Church of the Seven Springs in Tabgha, Israel. 2019. Own photo.

Today marks the death, in 2003, of Edward Max Nicholson, ornithologist, author, conservationist, and co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund (which is now the World Wide Fund for Nature. He studied and organized to create greenways and urban planning that would incorporate parks and preserves.   

Reflection: 

Max Nicholson’s words from the 1960’s articulate the frustration of professional ecologists with political leaders:  

The modern leaders of mankind, Right, Left, or Centre, however much they have defeated one another and disagreed on every policy, have effectively conspired together to create a moral and intellectual vacuum. …the vote of no confidence in the vainglorious religions of big capitalism and big Marxism is too clear to be any longer denied. 

Edward Max Nicholson, quoted in Landmarks in Conservation

Neither capitalism, nor communism, nor Christianity, nor Judaism gave an important enough place in their ideologies for our environment, Nicholson argued.

If we are to survive climate change, all our big dominant worldviews, regardless of their rivalries, will need a massive overhaul in favor of our relationship with the more-than-human world. .

Prayer: Great Creator, we have decimated your creation. Half the Earth’s living creatures have be killed in the last century and replaced with human-made constructions. Inspire in your people a deep respect for all life and a commitment to heal the planet. Amen.