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Richard D NorthJournalist, author, broadcaster and social commentator passed away at the age of 79.
the answer was The Independent’s The first environmental editor and one of Britain’s earliest green commentators, before becoming one of the movement’s most vocal internal critics.
Labeled by bestselling author and cultural commentator Peter York as “our own PJ O’Rourke”, he writes widely on culture, conservation and politics. independent, listener, reviewer, Guardian And many times,
In the 1970s and early 1980s, North was a leading figure in the environmental movement. A regular contributor to Vol – the pioneering magazine founded by journalist Richard Boston and funded by Monty Python’s Terry Jones – he became its last editor. His early books, including wild britain (1983), animal report (1983) and actual cost (1986), explored Britain’s ecosystem and ethical consumption. He also wrote fool for god (1987), a non-believer’s spiritual reflection on monastic life after time spent among the monks on Mount Athos.
North was so principled in those years that, when he found himself sitting next to Bob Marley on a train in 1980, he declined an invitation to “hang out” in Jamaica – refusing to fly on environmental grounds, a decision he later regretted.
By the early 1990s, North had turned a critical eye to the movement he had helped shape. his book life on the modern planet (1995) challenged the Greens’ “tragicism” and argued that ecosystems are not fragile but resilient, capable of sustaining development under good governance. He accused the mainstream Greens of fostering a “culture of contempt” towards progress. Although critics labeled him a turncoat, North insisted that he remained a conservationist – a person who believed that human potential and environmental protection could coexist.
He reveled in contradiction. An “eccentric hippie on the edges”, as one colleague put it, North despised “bossy liberals”, favoring “tough love”, “mutual self-interest” and “meritocratic elitism”. Underlying his countercultural approach was a belief in order, discipline and personal responsibility.
The media fellow, later appointed to the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs and Social Affairs Unit, North, never offered blind allegiance. She called Margaret Thatcher “self-righteous, arrogant, narrow-minded”, but acknowledged that she was “more right than wrong”. He criticized them for reducing the authority of businesses, which he believed weakened institutional life.
His later publications included END THE BBC! (2007), in which he proposed a mixed-funding model for public broadcasting and a scathing pamphlet on Tony Blair’s “messianic politics”. his self published The Right Wing’s Guide to Almost Everything (2012) was praised by historian Andrew Roberts as “witty, hard-hitting and politically cogent”.
In later years, North appeared regularly newsnight, moral maze, big questions and Channel 4 News, defending the unfashionable: GM crops, nuclear power, the fur trade, field sports and liberalism. His personal website, richarddnorth.com, preserves a vast collection of essays and opinions.
North is survived by his wife, Valerie, and their children, Polly, Matty and Emma.