Thinking Like A Mountain

Book

Nature has been Robert Bateman’s inspiration since he began painting birds from his bedroom window as a young boy. The wildlife he features in the paintings that are treasured by collectors around the world are expressions of his love and respect for the natural world.

A passionate environmentalist who has devoted his life to documenting the awesome power of nature, Bateman is deeply worried about the state of planet Earth and the fate of our natural heritage. Whenever he talks about his paintings, he talks about the environmental messages they convey, and those who have heard him speak have clamoured for a book encapsulating his philosophy.

Thinking Like a Mountain grows out of Bateman’s many years thinking, talking and writing about the world’s growing environmental crisis. Beautifully designed and illustrated with original drawings, it is a gathering of questions, observations, and ideas drawn from the artist’s own life experiences and gleaned from the writings of some of the visionaries who have influenced him.

Thinking Like a Mountain is by turns autobiographical and contemplative, passionate and argumentative, hopeful and inspirational.

Bateman recently turned seventy, and in his rich and varied life he has seen the danger signs of environmental degradation and he has noted the steady erosion of values regarding the natural world, from suburban North American teenagers to rural African villagers. Yet he remains a possibilist who celebrates every morsel of “good news” and holds out hope for the future of our immeasurably varied and impossibly beautiful planet Earth.

As Einstein said, “We cannot solve the problems of today with the same thinking that gave us the problems in the first place.” Only a profound shift in philosophy, Bateman believes, can save our species from extinction.