John's Home Page & Recent Events

Benjamin Life’s essay

When Benjamin Life’s essay:
The Ancient Future at the End of History - The World After Separation was sent to me,
I restacked it with a note that it is “the most important thing I’ve read for years.”
Click Here >>> to see the entire Story

HOW BURGER KING WAS EXPELLED FROM THE RAINFORESTS

Click Here >>> to see the entire Story

John Seed sings “You Can’t Clearcut Your Way to Heaven” University of Florida 2003

Click Here >>> to see the Video & intro to the Song
Click Here >>> to see the entire Presentation

WHAT IS ECOLOGICAL IDENTITY”

Click Here: >>> to see the PDF file.

Goldheist: SPELLBOUND Tour, Day 8: a beautiful rainy morning to sing you JUDY, my little portrait song of Judy Cassab:

Click Here >>> to see the Video

First Nations woman Deb Swan will acknowledge country at 11am and talk about her PhD thesis “Bunya tukka tracks:

investigating traditional travelling routes of Eastern Australia”, I’ll give a 10 minute talk The 3rd Narara Bunya Festival – a Deep Ecology Perspective and sing “No More Bunya Nuts” with River and then the feasting begins – bunya nuts, bunya pesto, falafals, humous, milk, pancakes, sweets you name it and aboriginal elder Tim Selwyn yarning round the campfire. And here’s a short clip from a different kind of bunya festival in Queensland last month - >>> to see the Video

Splendid 80th birthday at Wild Yam Festival:

Click Here >>> to see the Video

An old Yammer friend compiled some old videos projected on a big screen at the party including a sweet message from Bob Brown 6 minutes in:

 Click Here >>> to See the Video

Video Short of The People's Blockade (Rising Tide) Nov. 2025:

At the World's Largest Coal Port! Click Here >>> to See the Video Short of the Action.

Ecological Consciousness: That Which Cannot Be Told, Only Touched:

Click Here >>> to read the Story.

Swimming:

Environmentalist, director of the Rainforest Information Centre, prominent figure of the Deep Ecology movement and recipient of an Order of Australia Medal (OAM), John Seed was arrested on Sunday at the blockade organised by @risingtide.aus.

This is not the first time John has been arrested for taking action for our Earth. I feel so deeply honoured to have this man in my life. I respect him as an elder and a mentor. This month John turns 80 and I am sure we will see him on the frontlines of Non-Violent Direct Action in years to come.

John continues to work in Deep Ecology which is the work that reconnects. I am privileged to be a facilitator of this work and consider the weekend immersions to be the ultimate medicine journey. Check out @johnseed_deepecology for more information. This is truly valuable work. More than anything we need to heal in order to act.
If it wasn't for Rising Tide, I never would have met John Seed and learned about his incredible contributions to the planet and future generations.
Click Here >>> to see the Instagram Feed.

2-hour talk to the Society of Wilderness in Taiwan:

Last Saturday I was invited to give a 2-hour talk to the Society of Wilderness in Taiwan. I haven’t had to work through a translator much since I stopped my international travelling but I got back into that flow. Indeed my last international lecture/activist tour must have been Taiwan in 2012 where Professor Yih-Ren Lin (who hosted this week’s talk) organised an amazing tour of both Universities but also indigenous communities in Taiwan.  These mountain communities were fighting the damming of their rivers and I was able to show:
“Earth First!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRvkutfr7RU&t=1s and tell the story of how direct action stopped the damming of the Franklin River in 1982.

This also gave me the opportunity to revisit  the photo-essay I wrote then https://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/Taiwan.pdf. Earlier that afternoon I had participated in the Before The Tide festival at Narara Ecovillage – first a premier of my 30-miniute Robinson Jeffers poetry set followed by another 30 minute intro to deep ecology. How amazing to live in a world where I can share deep ecology in Narara and Taipei in the same afternoon.

John Seed's Review of the David Attenborough Documentary "OCEAN":

To view the actual Documentary**,
 you will need to be a Disney+ Hulu subscriber (note** they do have free trials)
Here is the link to subscribe: 
https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-a746313c-f585-4d28-86e5-3eccedd49e15

I’m trying to use social media to move deep ecology into the main stream and maybe I’m finally starting to figure it out!
Last week I posted “What is Deep Ecology” to Instagram and it has had 140,000 views, 97% of them from non-followers. If you’d like to help me move deep ecology into the main stream, please follow:

https://www.facebook.com/johnseed.deepecology/

https://www.instagram.com/johnseed_deepecology/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-seed-5148644/

John Seed Deep Ecology:
In noisy times, when bluster swells like a storm front, practice begins small and bodily: breathe with a tree, drink water as river, eat as soil becoming you, and let gratitude stitch the tear......Read On..

Joanna Macy Tribute:
Joanna passed away on July 19, 2025
Click Here for John's Tribute

Deep Ecology Work Shops:
Click here for the Deep Ecology Workshops Update page

There’s just one place left in the Narara workshop next weekend Aug.1 - 3, so if thats for you, you better move fast.

There’ll be another weekend at Narara October 17-19 and near Melbourne September 12-14 and Summer Solstice December 19-21

POEM: by Rainer Maria Rilke on Vimeo

PODCAST: Beyond Being Human: Hosted by Pollyanna Darling
with Special Guest John Seed of the RainForest information Centre

note*John wished to highlight this article...
Click to view>>>The Bradley Method Of Bush Regeneration and Deep Ecology

PODCAST: PLANT and SPIRIT Hosted by Sara Artemisia:

HEALING THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION with John Seed,

In this episode you'll discover:

• How spirituality and ecology are fundamentally interconnected

• A beautiful guided practice that helps us experience our ancient reciprocal relationship with plants

• The remarkable success of his experience in rainforest protection campaigns and understanding the ecological self

• How community-based ecological therapies can help heal our relationship with the living Earth and dispel the illusion of separation

PODCAST: NATURE GUYS: BIODIVERSITY and DEEP ECOLOGY

Bob talks with John Seed who started working on saving rain forests in Australia in 1979. John explains how he learned about biodiversity and Deep Ecology.

Now that Dave Burrows is writing my biography, all this long-forgotten  material is rising from the vaults like the following:

Click here to see the PDF files: Photos and Story

The late Ian Peter who was co-directing the Rainforest Information Centre with me was a very early adopter of the emerging technology that would one day become the internet. In 1989, he launched Pegasus Networks from our RIC offices, the first public Internet service provider in Australia.
Click here to see Ian Peter's Story

PODCAST: Soul Search ABC Radio National

Delighted with the feedback received from my conversation with Meredith Lake on ABC Radio National’s SOUL SEARCH this week. Meredith’s questions were unexpected and exciting - much more personal than I’d been anticipating. Made for an interesting dialogue, very different from any previous interview.

DEEP ECOLOGY AND RECONNECTING WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
How can we navigate the ecological crisis of our time?
And why does it require a shift in how we think about ourselves?  

Rummaging through archives, these pix showed up from

the Rainforest Information Centre’s World Bank action outside Treasury in Canberra in 1986. Recollections from Patrick Anderson and myself below. Click here for the PDF Story

I was invited to talk about my experience in 1979 when Lismore City Council retaliated for my involvement in the Terania Creek forest blockade by putting a demolition order on my (illegal) house. My 10-minute presentation on https://vimeo.com/1064973891/02ed424686 starts at 22’35”

Click Here for the Story and or  View the SlideShow of the 1979 pics

Organizing actions for the Great Koala National Park.

GREAT KOALA NATIONAL PARK (GKNP)

 There will be an action outside:
Forestry Corps HQ, 30 Park Ave, COFFS HARBOUR at:
 10am on Monday 13th Jan
Where we will be banging drums and pots and pans to bring this travesty to peoples’ attention. Later that day, maybe that rage will move to one of the nearby forests where logging is happening.

At the same time there will be another action outside:

NSW State Forestry Corp in SYDNEY
Cnr Cumberland Forest Way and Castle Hill Rd, West Pennant Hills organized by the:

Bob Brown Foundation and the Rainforest Information Centre

Click Here for the PDF Action Flyer

The Forest Way at the foot of the sacred mountain Arunachala asking for help with the cyclone relief work.

I recently received an email from my friends at The Forest Way at the foot of the sacred mountain Arunachala asking for help with the cyclone relief work they’ve been doing since cyclone Fengal wreaked havoc earlier this month.


We have been supporting The Forest Way for 20 years as they continue the work we started in the 1980’s reforesting Arunachala.
See the 12-minute film we made long ago about this work: Reweaving Shiva’s Robes

We at the Rainforest Information Centre have committed $2000 to their cyclone relief work and started a crowdfund where you can help also – tax deductible to Aussie tax payers. As I was thinking about who I could contact to help with this, I was flooded with memories from my last visit to Arunachala and especially the one before that, in 1995.

Here’s an extract about this from an article I wrote 20 years ago: Click for PDF

Please Donate Click Here

Great event in Sydney with HELENA NORBERG-HODGE presenting on ANCIENT FUTURES while I spoke about THE RELIGION OF ECONOMICS.:

Helena’s work has been greatly acclaimed for 4 decades and she has been dubbed 'One of the world's Ten Most Interesting Environmentalists' by the Earth Journal. Regen Sydney hosted us and organised this great video of the event

First time I've been arrested for a forest action since 2002:

Locked on to the harvester for 7 hours yesterday before the Police Rescue Squad ground off the U lock. No logging that day. Gorgeous forest protecting the nationally endangered Greater Glider. First time I've been arrested for a forest action since 2002. Felt exhilerating and empowering, if you have the time and passion, why not go up and help create the friction that will wake this government captured by the timber industry. Native forest logging at a loss, heavily subsidized, stand up for the forests!

https://www.echo.net.au/2024/10/john-seed-oam-arrested-in-bulga-sf/

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1198202254616479

Nature Conservation Council of NSW - Plaque:

John Seed 2014 Nature Conservation Council of NSW,
Allen Strom Hall of Fame

I have been honoured to be the guest on two prominent podcasts released this month:

SOUNDS TRUE “A Cosmic Walk to Discover Your Ecological Identity”
and
THE PHILOSOPHER'S ZONE interview about Deep Ecology on Australian ABC Radio National.

PODCAST with James W. Jesso "Adventures Through The Mind"

“Empowering-our-joy-for-life-through-honoring-our-pain-for-the-world-john-seed”
In this episode of the podcast, we interview deep ecology teacher and rainforest activist John Seed.

Together, we discuss the importance of altering our sense of self such that it includes the natural world, the role psychedelics can play in that process, and how, even if the world as we know it burns and collapses, life itself will thrive through it all as it always has.

PODCAST I did with Skye Mandozay which was released today

“Regeneration Rising S2E9: THINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN” and I must say that it’s the best one I’ve done yet looking at Deep Ecology, Activism and the relationship between them. I’m so inspired by Skye and also by the show’s hosts Daniel Christian Wahl (Author of the acclaimed book “Designing Regenerative Cultures “) and Philipa Duthie (Director of the Royal Society of Arts Oceania).

Previous guests on this excellent show Regeneration Rising have included Fritjof Capra, Nora Bateson, Satish Kumar, Morag Gamble, Jeremy Lent and Paul Hawken.

"John Seed on Cultural Studies Podcast with Toby Miller."
John Seed on deep ecology, Joanna Macy, workshops, indigenous cosmology, the Rainforest Information Centre, the rights of nature, Neville Wran, Rising Tide, and citizenship by Cultural Studies on PodBeam.com

Audio Only Podcast . Listen to the Audio Podcast July 1 2024 Here

"I'm in Melbourne where I'm approaching the home stretch,."
the last of 8 gigs in 10 days Started with the 2nd Deepening, 31 deep ecology alumni at a free weekend of deep ecology with multiple facilitators. Much better than the first but still pretty sketchy, fish-tailing across the ice. I take comfort from words of wisdom from Tim Ferriss: “As they say, writing is rewriting. This is true for nearly everything. In the world of tech, Steve Blank has said, “No plan survives first contact with customers.” Same same. Quality begins with a shitty first draft, so just get started and take the punches. That’s how you press the carbon into diamonds: pressure and time"

6 talks in 4 days, the main reason was this abiding feeling that deep ecology is preparing to pop into the next level and Melbourne is where its going to start. My 4 Melb workshops in the last 12 months all filled with waiting lists, over 400 alumni with another 35 after this coming weekend. So these 6 free hybrid talks (zoom as well as in-person) were an opportunity to find new people, especially in Melbourne interested in deep ecology. Some 650 people in total signed up for one or more of the events, mostly on zoom, mostly from Melbourne and I have their email and location! Now begins the delightful task of copying them into the right address list folders!

The best one was The Religion of Economics. This was based on a book chapter I wrote in 2011 https://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/ecorelig.htm. My growing interest in shining a light on the Atlas Foundation inspired me to dust this off, bring it up to date and add an Atlas rave, concluding with some posters  that  Melbourne Extinction Rebellion put together as part of their great “Atlas Lies – Planet Dies" protest a few months ago. See June 2024 Video Page List Here

"Yesterday I had the good fortune to find myself at this meeting."
So important to hear the history and pre-history of the place where we live and to get a copy of  the Pearl Beach Aboriginal History Group’s splendid volume:

Click to View Photo of the Volume

John Seed presents
"DEEP ECOLOGY AND THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE"
Zoom call at the Narara Ecovillage

Click to View Video

PGAP podcast Apr 2024"
PGAP Post-Growth Australia Podcast For the final episode of season 5, PGAP welcomes special guest John Seed (OAM). John is founder and director of Australia’s Rainforest Information Centre and is an Australian figurehead for the Deep Ecology Movement.

Listen to the Audio Podcast Here: >>Click

Article in DEEP TIMES magazine
Deep Ecology and the Conservation of Nature
by John Seed

View the News Article Here: >>Click

or

This article is an edited transcription of a talk given by John at
the Gaian Gathering of the Work That Reconnects Network
in November 2023. A video of the full talk is available
Here: >>Click

Beautiful testimonial from Ecophilosopher Freya Matthews
(author of The Ecological Self)  which I used in my defense at Newcastle Court today after being arrested last year for blockading coal ships at the world’s largest coal port (see Nov 7 2023 below). I pleaded “not guilty” and used the “Necessity” defence (“I had to do it to protect the Earth and the future from climate catastrophe) and the magistrate gave me a section 10A.s

A Section 10A order (often referred to as "10A" or "conviction with no other penalty") in New South Wales is a sentencing option under Section 10A of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. It allows a court, upon finding a person guilty of an offence, to record a conviction but impose no further penalty (such as a fine, community service, or jail time).”

Click for: >>Freyas Testimonial in Full

See the Slide show of the Rising Tide Event  >>Click

New years  2024 at the Wild Yam Festival
with 5  Pitjantjara artists from Uluru: Rene Kulitja, Charmaine Kulitja, Selina Kulitja, Peggy Naylon and Elaine Woods

More Photos to come Here: >>Click

One of the great days of my life, arrested with over 80 others after blockading the Port of Newcastle for 32 hours and stopping over half a million tonnes of coal being shipped out.
Click to see some of the Video footage of the Event

Being processed for hours in the police compound was the high point chanting back and forth with our supporters thronging outside the fence, Violet Maree CoCo on the megaphone outside "Tell me what democracy looks like - THIS is what democracy looks like". So great to have my 10-year-old River at his first blockade watching 15 year olds speaking from the stage along side old mate Bob Brown. I'm feeling so inspired and empowered. Next year we'll be 10,000. WE ARE THE RISING TIDE! My 9 year-old son River, participating in his first blockade, suggested that we should fine the cops for littering" for allowing our kayaks to just drift away down the river after hauling the protestors onto their Darth Vader craft. Interesting that the police response was so polite and gentle, obviously ordered from above to be on best behaviour, this was the only criticism that I can make of their conduct. As one of the 109 arrested (and having been arrested at many direct actions over the last 43 years) I was impressed. Given NSW Police Minister Catley saying last week ahead of the protest: I applaud people for getting involved, I think that it's important that people are having these discussions we all know where things are headed, I'm wondering if there may be elements of the government who want our movement to grow so that they have any chance to withstand the power of the Murdoch Press and the corporations? When Leonard Cohen sang: "The widowhood of every government" surely he is pointing to the death of the citizen without whom the government is powerless to withstand the brute force of corrupt media and vested interests. After the sweet young cop arresting me had said his piece I replied: "You and I are both tiny bit players in the theatre of social change. The only difference is that you're getting paid double time for working on Sunday while I'm doing it for love and for the sake of your grand children as well as mine". Click here for the RisingTide website

Megan, River and I are off with our kayaks to join over 1000 others blockading the world's largest coal port this weekend. https://www.risingtide.org.au/blockade

Things are changing fast even the NSW Police Minister applauded this event https://youtu.be/r-nvV1AWdwg
but will it be fast enough? Its up to you and me.
Please support Rising Tide Climate Defense. Click here to the Support link

John Seed teaching "Deep Ecology" in the rain forest.

ABC CENTRAL COAST: *When the forests die, we will perish, according to John Seed, but with people like John on the planet they won't go without a fight.
John recently took on a multinational mining company to save a protected forest in South America and won the battle.
Organising his legion of followers around the globe from his home at Narara Eco Village John Seed continues the campaign to stop
 the logging of our native forests in NSW and the destruction of forests worldwide,
as he explains to Scott Levi in Central Coast Conversations. Credits Scott Levi, Presenter*
Click here to Listen to the Presentation:

END NATIVE FOREST LOGGING FESTIVAL

So great to join a marquee full of Mid north coast activists at Nambucca Heads for the Bob Brown Foundation's "END NATIVE FOREST LOGGING" festival yesterday. Here I am with Bob, Uncle Miklo who welcomed us to country and Sue Higginson MLC.

John Seed's intro to the "END NATIVE FOREST LOGGING" festival

Watch the Video Click Here

The Beginning and the End: Robinson Jeffers's Epic Poem About the Interwoven Mystery of Mind and Universe

I get great inspiration and uplift from Maria Popova's regular treasures and just found her The Beginning and the End: Robinson Jeffers's Epic Poem About the Interwoven Mystery of Mind and Universe. I hadn't read this poem for decades and what a delight to have it light up so many parts of me that weren't around decades ago and then to hear the long excerpt read by Natalie Batalha. Well, how could I not get distracted from the long list of other delights clamouring for my day?
I allowed Jeffers to seduce me again and found the,
 full text of The Beginning and the End [note: when the page loads click each page to move thru the book] and that, of course, was nestled among the rest of The Beginning and the End and Other Poems” published in 1963, a year after his death. Ahh, how to find the balance between order and spontaneity? How to allow that tension to weave my path through this gift of life? Walker, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more. Walker, there is no road, the road is made by walking. Walking you make the road, and turning to look behind you see the path you never again will step upon. Walker, there is no road, only foam trails on the sea. - ANTONIO MACHADO

Mother Nature Cambodia

We first started supporting the work of the Mother Nature Cambodia around 2010 - see the 5 minute clip we made in defense of the largest rainforest remaining in SE Asia. Today they were awarded the "alternative Nobel Prize" - The Right Livelihood Award. Our Colleague there, Alex Davidson wrote: "Great news for many reasons, mainly because it should minimize risks of further jail time for our activists. Here's an excellent article about it. I am once more reminded of the support you and your team / supporters provided to us back in the day, over 10 years ago now my god! You guys were the very first ones to support us and believe in us, and we have come such a long way since. I can't possibly thank you enough for that support, it meant so much and made me / us realize so many things. Cambodia's nature is still immensely under threat, but at the very least certain areas of it are still hanging in there, thanks to the amazing campaign of activists such as the ones from MNC.

Koalas are on a trajectory to be functionally extinct by 2050

I'm suddenly called to prevent this and gathering allies for a social media campaign. To stop the logging of koala habitat in my home state of New South Wales and to persuade the NSW Government to honor their election promises and to gazette the Great Koala National Park.

"Save Koala" rally, Narara Ecovillage Hall

Back in 1981, blockading Mt Nardi to stop the loggers, we'd sit around the fire at night singing and composing songs. One night a Maori guy called Frog came up with a beauty! We liked it so much we headed straight up the mountain then over to Pholi's Gap overlooking where the loggers were camped down in Grier's Scrub far below. We started the concert with a blast on a rusty saxophone. The loggers came stumbling out of their trailers and caravans waving flashlights cursing and then we regaled them with "Tonka Toys". This clip is me and my son River at the "Save Koala" rally, Narara Ecovillage Hall. Click Here to View

At the Rainforest Information Centre, we first started supporting the reforestation of the sacred mountain Arunachala in the late 1980's

A film about our early work may be found here. For the last 20 years our efforts have been less hands-on and more supporting our friends at The Forest Way who continue to do such outstanding work. We've just sent them $11,500, over 1/3 of a year's budget. Please contact me if you'd like to make a donation - tax-deductible in Australian or US tax-payers. Compare this photo of Arunachala in 1988 with ones taken this year.

Here are the recordings of the two webinars in the series that Skye Cielita Flor and I made for the Work That Reconnects Network.

Honoring-our-pain-for-the-world-a-webinar-with-john-seed-and-skye-mandozay. If you want to join us but missed the first in the series in May Experiential Deep Ecology,
you can watch the recordings at
1 Experimental Deep Ecology Click Link to View the Video:
2 Honoring-Our-Pain-for-the-World Click Link to View the Video:

John Seed - Australian Earth Laws Alliance with Pat Fleming

"This week Pat Fleming and I'll be doing a webinar for the Australian Earth Laws Alliance. I'll be speaking about The Work That Reconnects and the precedent setting court case we won before the Ecuadorean Constitutional Court where the Rights of Nature clause in the Ecuadorean constitution was used for the first time to eject mining companies from our Los Cedros Biological Reserve. Click Here for the Link.

John Seed - 'Hearing Inside ourselves, the Sounds of the Earth Crying

"My first serious bit of writing for years has been published in The Great Turning Times: "Hearing Inside ourselves, the Sounds of the Earth Crying"

John Seed - 'DEEP ECOLOGY'
(AND THE POWER OF ETHNOBOTANICAL PLANTS)
Entheogenesis Australis is a charitable educational organisation established in 2004. Through our conferences and workshops, we aim to celebrate the culture, art, politics and community around medicine plants in the hope to better wellbeing for humankind and the planet. To find out more about what we do, head over to our organisational website,   Click here for the Video Clip

Joanna Macy age 93 talks about finding Deep Ecology

Click here for the Video Clip

Letter from Larry Buell (Earthlands) with John's Reply

Click here for the Letter and the Reply