Peter Stephen Berg (October 1, 1937 – July 28, 2011) was an environmental writer, best known as an advocate of the concept of

bioregionalism Bioregionalism is a philosophy that suggests that political, cultural, and economic systems are more sustainable and just if they are organized around naturally defined areas called bioregions, similar to ecoregions. Bioregions are defined throug ...

. In the early 1960s, he was a member of the

San Francisco Mime Troupe The San Francisco Mime Troupe is a theatre of political satire which performs free shows in various parks in the San Francisco Bay Area and around California. The Troupe does not, however, perform silent mime, but each year creates an original ...

and the

Diggers The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with agrarian socialism. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from ...

. He is the founder of the Planet Drum Foundation.

Early life and education

Born on October 1, 1937, in

Jamaica, Queens Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis to the east; St. Albans, Springfi ...

, New York, Berg was raised in Florida after moving there at age six, which was where he first became interested in the environment as a child. He began attending the University of Florida at age 16, after winning a scholarship to study psychology. He dropped out at age 17, hitchhiked to San Francisco, and then enlisted and served in the army. After his discharge, he moved back to New York. After becoming active in the civil rights movement, he hitchhiked to San Francisco in 1964. In San Francisco, he joined the

and met Judy Goldhaft. He also became a founder of the Artists Liberation Front and the

. According to the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' in 2011, he "was the primary writer for the Diggers, penning terse, scathingly funny anticapitalist position papers and exhorting the city to prepare for the coming mass arrival of young hippies now known as the Summer of Love." In ''The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage'', Todd Gitlin recounts Berg leading a small group of Diggers in June 1967 to disrupt a speech by

Tom Hayden Thomas Emmet Hayden (December 11, 1939October 23, 2016) was an American social and political activist, author, and politician. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring th ...

at a gathering for the Students for a Democratic Society, with Berg declaring "Property is the enemy, burn it, destroy it, give it away," while other Diggers shut out the lights and recited poetry. In 2007, Berg told ''

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

'', "The media, to a large extent had created this 'hippie' who was a person making a 'V for Victory' sign with a silly grin, and wearing 50 buttons that said this and that. That wasn't what a lot of us were doing."

Bioregionalism and Planet Drum

In 1969, Berg, Goldhaft, and their daughter traveled around the United States. In the 2006 book '' Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s'', Berg told oral historian Jeff Kisseloff, "More and more it occurred to me that the most important question to consider was the position of human beings in natural systems." After Berg attended the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Environment, he developed

as a concept. He defined a bioregion as "a geographic area defined by natural characteristics, including watersheds, landforms, soils, geological qualities, native plants and animals, climate, and weather... hichincludes human beings as a species in the interplay of these natural characteristics." He wrote books and essays about how the concept relates to environmental sustainability. He founded Planet Drum in 1973, which became an organization that engages in education programs and urban graden and sustainability projects. Planet Drum networks bioregional groups, both in the United States and internationally.

Personal life and death

Judy Goldhaft was his life partner. After suffering from lung cancer, he died from pneumonia in 2011.

Selected work

*''Envisioning Sustainability, Discovering Your Life-Place: A First Bioregional Workbook'' (2009) *''A Green City Program for the San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond'', Planet Drum Foundation/

Bookpeople BookPeople is an independent bookstore in Austin, Texas, and the largest bookstore in the state of Texas. It was founded in 1970 and has been voted the best bookstore by the Austin Chronicle every year since 1995 . BookPeople was voted ''Publis ...

, (1987) *''Figures of Regulation: Guides for Re-Balancing Society with the Biosphere'' (1982) *''Reinhabiting a Separate Country: A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California'' (1978)

References

External links