The Centre for Human Ecology is, according to its own website, 'an independent, engaged think-tank. We work with people at the sharp end of ecological and social action to effect practical change and develop new thinking that influences local, national and international policy and practice for ecological sustainability and social justice.'

History

Role at Edinburgh University

The CHE used to be housed in the University of Edinburgh but was shut down in 1996. According to the writer George Monbiot this was because:

:In 1996, Edinburgh University's Centre for Human Ecology was working on ... the political factors leading to environmental destruction and the links between social exclusion and resource depletion. The University didn't like this at all, principally, it seems, because some of its funders were very uncomfortable with the Centre's findings. Within the same fortnight that it decided that Christopher Brand, the so-called 'scientific racist', should stay on, the University shut down the Centre for Human Ecology.

Monbiot notes that:

:They kept the centre together and set it up in a farmhouse thirty miles from Edinburgh. The Centre for Human Ecology is now a desperately-underfunded, independent organisation, whose members rely on social security, donations, and voluntary work from concerned scientists around the world.

Recent developments

In 2005 the CHE entered a partnership with the University of Strathclyde to offer its Masters course in Human ecology.

People

Osbert Lancaster Executive Director

Vérène Nicolas MSc Coordinator

Jennifer Batty EcoProjects Manager

Alastair McIntosh, Visiting professor of Human ecology at the University of Strathclyde

References

Centre for Human Ecology About us, Accessed 6 December 2006.

George Monbiot, ' Science with Scruples Posted January 1, 1997, 1997 Amnesty Lecture.