ENVIRONMENTAL campaigner and journalist Charles Clover has received a honorary degree from the University of Essex in recognition of his work to encourage action to conserve the planet.
A Dedham resident, Mr Clover is founder and executive cirector of Blue Marine Foundation, known as BLUE, Britain’s leading ocean protection charity.
His books, including The End of the Line, have changed attitudes and are persuading people to do more to save our marine eco-systems.
Dr Michael Steinke, senior lecturer in the school of life sciences, gave the oration in honour of Mr Clover.
He said: “Charles has revealed through his environmental journalism the stark threat over-fishing poses to our oceans and to us. But, through his leadership on this issue he is also offering us hope.
“We can take action and the solutions are not as complex as we may think.
“Charles's dedication to making a difference echoes the Essex Spirit, which is so important to our university and influences our research agenda.
“His passionate belief in conservation and message of hope should inspire us all to take action in our own lives.”
Mr Clover was voted national journalist of the year three times by the British Environment and Media Awards.
In 1991, he helped to form the Agricultural Reform Group which brought together leading environmentalists and farmers in the UK, and helped to usher in a new era of policy support for farming and the environment across the whole of the EU.
However, it is his award-winning book from 2004, The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What We Eat, for which he is best known.
Considered the definitive work on the need for sustainable fishing, it won the Guild of Food Writers’ Derek Cooper Award for investigative food writing, an Andre Simon award for food writing, and the Zoological Society of London’s BIOSIS award for communicating zoology.
Mr Clover said: “It is a great honour to be given an honorary doctorate by Essex, a university with which I have had an unconventional relationship, wholly in keeping with the Essex Spirit that the Pro Vice-chancellor refers to.”
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