Wade Davis

“The idea that the earth is alive, vibrant, responsive to the human spirit and that human beings have a reciprocal obligation to the earth is, in fact, the foundation of this notion of sustainability, and it’s an idea that is common in the human experience.”

– Wade Davis 

An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent over three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups while making some 6000 botanical collections.

Wade Davis has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity” and has been named one of the Explores for the Millennium by the NGS.

In the below video, Wade Davis discusses the reciprocal relationship with the Earth (watch from minute 8).

“Sustainability is not some kind of anomaly; on the contrary, in most human civilizations, it is the norm. And this is why it is so incumbent on us to be aware of the industrial processes that we put into place that are absolutely irrevocable.”