Michael Charles Tobias (born June 27, 1951) is an American author, environmentalist, mountaineer, and filmmaker.See "Michael Tobias," pp.269–278, People Promoting And People Opposing Animal Rights – In Their Own Words, ed. by John M. Kistler, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 2002. In 1991, Tobias produced a ten-hour dramatic television series, Voice of the Planet, for Turner Broadcasting; the series starred William Shatner. Tobias has written numerous books, most notably World War III: Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium.
Early life and career
In 1977, Tobias received a PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the History of Consciousness, a humanities department.
He directed a mountaineering film in 1984. Called Cloudwalker, it was recorded for the UK's Channel 4. The film chronicled a failed attempt at an ascent on the Moose's Tooth in the Ruth Gorge Amphitheatre of Alaska's McKinley range (now Denali).
Conservation Michael Tobias's PBS film Ahimsa –Nonviolence premiered in the United States on December 25, 1987. Taking three years to make, it was the first major film to portray the life of Jains (a religious group) in India. Southeast Asian religions professor Christopher Chapple said that the film "elegantly portrays several Jain leaders and extols the religion as the great champion of animal rights and nonviolent living".Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life, edited by Christopher Key Chapple, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, Religions of the World and Ecology Series, 2002.
In a cover story for the New York Academy of Sciences publication The Sciences, Tobias called for an Antarctic World Park,"The Next Wasteland: Can the Spoiling of Antarctica Be Stopped?" by Michael Tobias, The Sciences, March/April 1989, pp.18–24 citing threats to the potential area for large-scale habitat preservation. He released a 1987 PBS film entitled Antarctica: The Last Continent with a similar topic, proposing the creation of an "international park" in Antarctica similar to national parks in the US. According to The Christian Science Monitor, the film explores "the discovery of Antarctica and the multinational claims to ownership".
In a Discovery Channel documentary about the Exxon Valdez disaster, named Black Tide, he considered the dilemma of safely using oil resources."'Black Tide'; Discovery's 'Tide' Examines Alaska Oil Spill," by Patricia Brennan, Washington Post Staff Writer, March 18, 1990, The Washington Post Sunday Edition
Tobias has been involved in wildlife preservation efforts. In New Zealand, he has overseen ecological restoration of a peninsula in the far south of the country, adjoining Rakiura National Park."Island fence set to enhance biodiversity," by Phil McCarthy, Southland Times, Invercargill, New Zealand, April 14th, 2005: "It was an important conservation tool to help restore native flora and fauna in a region of outstanding historic biodiversity, " Tobias said.
Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck, first wife of the fourth king of Bhutan, described Tobias's efforts as being "invaluable for policymakers and scientists ... [and] inspiration for the next generation of young ecologists wanting to make a difference in the world".From the Queen of Bhutan's foreword to Sanctuary: Global Oases of Innocence, by Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison, p. ix, Council Oak Books.
Population and environment
Tobias wrote a book about the growing world population, the environment, and the potential for a third world war called World War III: Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium.
The magazine Psychology Today wrote that it "reads like a volcano erupting ... Tobias throws sparks like an evangelist and has the old-fashioned, wide-ranging erudition of a Renaissance scholar".Psychology Today, "What's next?" Scientist Marc Lappé described World War III as "a lengthy and complex treatise that is a distillation of a lifetime of thought and action concerning the human condition. ... It provides a thread of hope, offering a new vision about how humankind may ultimately come to peace with nature." Anthropologist Jane Goodall, writing of the book in 1998, said, "Tobias describes for us a path that we could take – a path mapped out by a combination of scientific, logical, intuitive, and spiritual reasoning – towards a future where all is not, after all, lost." In her foreword to World War III, she also said that Tobias has provided "ample scientific proof of the large-scale habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity that has and continues to take place".p.12, Jane Goodall's foreword to World War III – Population And The Biosphere At The End Of The Millennium, by Michael Tobias, 2nd Edition, Continuum Publishing Company, New York, 1998. In 1994, during the UN International Conference on Population and Development, the Montreal Gazette quoted Tobias: "For purposes of absolute clarity I call it World War III," as The Gazette extrapolated from Tobias's perspective, "the most terrifying problem humanity has ever faced"."Cairo's an apt site for UN population conference," by Mark Abley, The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, September 3, 1994. www.lexisnexis.com/us/Inacademic/frame.do?tokenKey-rsh-20.640961.830
Tobias directed a feature-film documentary called No Vacancy, which is based on his book and also focuses on the growing world population. Journalist Ellen Snortland, writing in the Pasadena Weekly, stated that "No Vacancy, written and directed by Michael Tobias, is to the world's population explosion what Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is to global warming".
Other works Tobias received the international Courage of Conscience Award in 1996.
In 2004, Tobias received the Parabola Magazine Focus Award.Explore the Power of Myth in film at Mythic Journeys [www.mythicjourneys.org/PR_film_festival-rev3.pdf]
He delivered the annual address at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies in March 2012 as the opening for a symposium on conservation biology, animal rights, and comparative religions. Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, described Tobias as "one of the world's great souls". In 2013, Tobias gave an address to the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies, the Research Centre for Sustainable Development, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences at their annual conference in Tianjin and Binhai. He has also given addresses in Monterrey, Mexico, for the Fifth Conference on Worldwide Values, and at the 21st International Meeting of the Club of Budapest in Hungary.
Tobias is an honorary member of the Club of Budapest.
Tobias is a contributing writer for Forbes online.
Teaching From 2001 to 2002, Tobias was Regents Lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Environmental Studies. In 2016, he was a Martha Daniel Newell Visiting Scholar at Georgia College & State University.
Selected works
1973 Dhaulagirideon, IMAJ Publishers, Limited Edition Book, Antioch, Ohio. Fiction. 1974 TSA, IMAJ Publishers, Limited Edition Book, San Francisco, CA. Fiction. 1977 A Biography of Self-Consciousness, Ann Arbor Dissertation Archives. Non-fiction. 1979 The Mountain Spirit, Co-Edited With Co-Editor Harold Drasdo. Overlook/Viking/Penguin, editions, and Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, edition. Non-fiction. 1982 Deva, Avant Books. Fiction. 1983 and 1984 Deep Ecology. Ed., Avant Books, San Diego, CA. Non-fiction. 1984 After Eden– History, Ecology & Conscience, Slawson Communications, San Diego, CA. Non-fiction. 1986 Mountain People, Ed., University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. Non-fiction. 1990 Voice of the Planet, Bantam Books, New York. Fiction. 1991 Voice of the Planet, Special Edition Large Format Illustrated Book. Privately Published in Alaska to accompany the film series, Adrian Malone Productions, Los Angeles, CA. Non-fiction. 1991 Fatal Exposure, Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, Fiction. 1991 Vengzetas Sugarak, Plantan, Budapest. Fiction. 1991 and 2000 Life Force – The World of Jainism, Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley, CA. Non-fiction. 1992 Believe, Co-Author, with William Shatner. Berkley/Putnam. Fiction. 1993 and 1997 Rage & Reason, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, India; and AK Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, and San Francisco. 1993 Environmental Meditation, Crossing Press. Non-fiction. 1994 A Naked Man, Asian Humanities Press. Fiction. 1995 A Parliament of Souls-In Search of Global Spirituality, Co-Edited With Co-editors Jane Gray Morrison and Bettina Gray, KQED/Bay Books. Non-fiction. 1995 A Vision of Nature – Traces of the Original World, Kent State University Press, Kent, OH. Non-fiction. 1995 and 1996 The Soul of Nature – Visions of a Living Earth, Co-Edited With Co-editor, Georgianne Cowan, Continuum/Penguin-Dutton/Plume editions. Non-fiction. 1996 India 24 Hours, Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, India. Non-fiction. 1996 World War III – Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium, Bear & Co.; Canadian audio book - L’Institut National Canadien Pour les Aveugles (Canadian National Institute for the Blind). Spanish edition El Hombre La Contra De Tierra: población y biosfera al final del milenio, Colección de los Cuatro Vientos, Barcelona. Non-fiction. 1997 A Day in the Life of India, Harper Collins, San Francisco, CA. Non-fiction. 1997 Nature's Keepers: On the Frontlines of the Fight To Save Wildlife in America, John Wiley & Sons Publishing, New York. Non-fiction. 1997 The Search of Reality-The Art of Documentary Filmmaking, (Ed.), M. Wiese Publishing. Non-fiction. 1997 Jan & Catharina, Smart Art Press, illustrated novel, with photographs by Rocky Schenk. Fiction. 1997 Ich spürte die Seele der Tiere (I Feel The Soul of Animals), (Ed.) with Co-editor Kate Solisti, Frankh-Kosmos Publishing. 2nd edition-2003. Non-fiction. 1998 Kinship with Animals, Ed., with co-editor Kate Solisti, Beyond Words Publishing. Non-fiction. 1998 World War III –Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium, Revised and Updated Second Edition, Preface By Jane Goodall, Continuum Books, New York. Non-fiction. 1999 A Parliament of Minds - Philosophy for a New Millennium, Co-Editor with Co-Editors Dr. Patrick Fitzgerald and Dr. David Rothenberg, State University of New York Press. Non-fiction. 1999 Voices From the Underground- For the Love of Animals, New Paradigm Books, Hope Publishing. Non-fiction. 2002 TWIMC (To Whom It May Concern), With Co-Author Chris Traub, Verbum Inc., San Francisco, Fiction. 2002 La Leggi di Felham, Nuova Etica Publishers, Turin, Italy. 2003 A Parliament of Science - Science for the 21st Century, Co-Edited with Co-Editors Teun Timmers and Gill Wright, State University of New York Press. Non-fiction. 2003 Dubai 24 Hours, Foreword by Sheikh Hamdan, Motivate Publishing, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Non-fiction. 2005 The Adventures of Mr. Marigold, 1,836 page illustrated ecological epic, Craig Potton Publishing, Photographic illustrations by Craig Potton. Nelson, New Zealand. 2006 Turkish edition of Rage & Reason, Öfke, Versus Kitap, Istanbul. 2006 No Vacancy - Global Responses to the Human Population Explosion, Co-editor with Co-Editors Bob Gillespie, Jane Gray Morrison and Elizabeth Hughes, Hope Publishing. Non-fiction. 2006 Donkey - The Mystique of Equus Asinus, With Co-Author Jane Gray Morrison, Council Oak Books. A Dancing Star Foundation Book. Non-fiction. 2007 Belgesel film yapim sanati, Turkish edition of The Search for Reality: The Art of Documentary Filmmaking, Kolaj Kitapigi, Istanbul. 2008 Chateau Beyond Time, Council Oak Books. Fiction. 2008 2008 Smithsonian FolkLife Festival – Bhutan, Photo Portfolio by Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison, for Ta Dzong/National Museum of Bhutan Exhibition/Permanent Collection: 196 Photographs, Dancing Star Foundation.