Alastair McIntosh

British writer and academic

Alastair McIntosh is a Scottish writer, academic and activist. He was brought up in Leurbost on the Isle of Lewis and is married to Vérène Nicolas. He is involved with Scottish land reform especially on Eigg and campaigned successfully against the Harris superquarry in Lingerbay. He is a fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology, an Honorary Fellow of the Schumacher Society, and helped to set up the Govan based GalGael Trust of which he is Treasurer and a non executive director. In 2006 he was appointed to the honorary position of Visiting Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde (Department of Geography & Sociology) – the first such post in Human ecology in a Scottish university. Alastair also features on Nizlopi's mini album 'Extraordinary' on the track titled 'Homage To Young Men'.

He holds a BSc in geography, submajoring in moral philosophy and psychology from the University of Aberdeen (1977), a financial MBA from the University of Edinburgh (1981), and in 2008 the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages (of which he is a Visiting Fellow) at the University of Ulster approved the award of PhD by Published Work based on Soil and Soul and twelve supporting publications presented with a short linking thesis, 'Some Contributions of Liberation Theology to Community Empowerment in Scottish Land Reform 1991 2003'. Parts of this were published in 2008 as Schumacher Briefing No. 15: 'Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality'.

His best known work is his 2001 book Soil and Soul: People Versus Corporate Power. In 2006 he published his collected poetry, Love and Revolution. His 2008 book on the psychology and spirituality underlying climate change "Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition" was described by Michael Russell MSP, Minister for the Environment in the Scottish Government as "a profoundly important book, just as Soil and Soul was a profoundly important book."