The conservationist Max Nicholson, who has died recently, published "The System" (1967),
an indictment of the inadequacies and bureaucracy of the administrative civil service in the
UK. The book sets out the theory that the (British) establishment has a morbid fear of
facing the future, like the impacts of economic growth in the next millenium.His book "The
Environmental Revolution" was published in 1970. Many of his printed lectures - on
conservation and the next renaissance in 1964, and international economic development
and the environment in 1970 - eerily prefigure today's research on global change and
"sustainable development". The people of the Club of Rome, who published "The limits To
Growth"(1972) certainly were influenced by his work. With Peter Scott and others, he
helped create the World Wildlife Fund in 1961. He was also one of the founders of the
World Conservation Union, currently know as IUCN.
