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Dr Haydn Washington

Dr Haydn Washington

Adjunct Lecturer
Science
Biological, Earth & Env Sci

Dr. Haydn Washington is an adjunct lecturer at UNSW. He has a forty year history as an environmental scientist, writer and activist. He has a degree in ecology, a Masters of Science in eco-toxicology (heavy metal pollution), a Dip. Ed., and a Ph.D. 'The Wilderness Knot' in Social Ecology (2007). Haydn was worked in CSIRO, as Director of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, as an environmental consultant, and as a Director of Sustainability in Local Government. He is the Co-Director of the NSW Chapter of the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy. Haydn has written several books on environmental issues, the most recent being ‘Demystifying Sustainability’ (2015), ‘A Sense of Wonder Towards Nature’ (2019), ‘What can I do to Help Heal the Environmental Crisis?’ (2020) and ‘Ecoreciprocity: Giving Back to Nature’ (2021). He is lead editor of ‘A Future Beyond Growth’ (2016), ‘Positive Steps to a Steady State Economy’ (2017) and ‘Ecological Economics: Solutions for the Future’ (2020). Haydn is also keenly interested in geodiversity, especially the pagoda rock formations of the western Blue Mountains.

Expertise and research interests:

  • Environmental science
  • Plant Ecology
  • Climate change denial
  • Wilderness conservation and philosophy
  • Sense of wonder towards nature
  • Human dependence on nature
  • Sustainability
  • Solving environmental problems
  • Ecocentrism and ecological ethics
Location

Room 413,  Level 4 
Electrical Engineering Building (G17)
Kensington Campus, UNSW

Phone

(02) 9385 5730

Email

h.washington@unsw.edu.au

  • Washington, H. (2021) Ecoreciprocity: Giving Back to Nature, independently published via lulu.com.

    Washington, H. (2020) What can I do to Help Heal the Environmental Crisis? London: Routledge.

    Washington, H. (2019) A Sense of Wonder Towards Nature: Healing the Planet through Belonging. London: Routledge (2019)

    Washington, H. (2017) Positive Steps to a Steady State Economy. Sydney: CASSE NSW, see:Ìý.

    Washington, H. and Cook, J. (2011) Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, London: Routledge

    Washington, H. and Cook, J. (2011) Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand, London: Routledge.

    Washingon, H. (2009) The Wilderness Knot:ÌýRemoving the Confusion, VDM Verlag

    Washington, H. (1991) Ecosolutions: Environmental solutions for the world and Australia, Tea Gardens: Boobook Publications.
  • Washington, H.; Piccolo, J.; Gomez-Baggethun, E.; Kopnina, H.; Alberro, H. (2021) ‘The Trouble with Anthropocentric Hubris, with Examples from Conservation’. Conservation, 2, 285–299.
  • Washington, H., Chapron, G., Kopnina, H., Curry, P., Gray, J. and Piccolo, J. (2018) Foregrounding ecojustice in conservation. Biol. Con., 228, 367-374.
  • Washington, H., Taylor, B., Kopnina, H., Cryer, P. & Piccolo J. (2017) ‘Why ecocentrism is the key pathway to sustainability’. Ecol. Citizen, 1, 35-41.
  • Washington, H. (2016) ‘Sustainability: time to move past waffle and denial?’, Walter Westman Lecture on Sustainability, Humanity and the Environment, Sydney Uni, 2016. See:
  • Mary White Address at Bellingen  Writers Festival, June 6, 2014. PDF download and Listen to AUDIO Mpg3
  • Washington, H.G., Interview on beyond ZERO emmissions radio: Steady State Economy  
  • Washington, H. (2014) ‘Denial as a key obstacle to solving the environmental crisis’, in Goldie, J. and Betts, K. (eds) Sustainable Futures: Linking population, resources and the environment, Australia: CSIRO Publishing
  • Washington, H. (2014) ‘Economic sustainability – What should it be?’ in the 2013 Proceedings of the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics 
  • Haswell-Elkins, M. and Washington, H. (2014) ‘Not so cheap: Australia needs to acknowledge the real cost of coal’, The Converstation, June 9th 2014, see:
  • Washington, H. (2014). Economic sustainability: what should it be? Opportunities for the Critical Decade: Enhancing well-being within Planetary Boundaries. Presented at the Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics 2013 Conference, The University of Canberra and Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics, Canberra, Australia. Conference proceedings are at
  • Washington, H. G. and Wray, R.A.L. (2011) The Geoheritage and Geomorphology of the Sandstone Pagodas of the North-western Blue Mountains Region (NSW) [online] Proceedings of the Linnean. Society of New South Wales, Vol 132 2011: 131-143
  • Washington, H.G. (2008). The Wilderness Knot.  In: Watson, Alan; Dean, Liese, Sproull, Janet, comps. 2005. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress symposium; 2005 September 30 – October 6; Anchorage, AK. Proceedings RMRS-P—000. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
  • See also website ‘Wilderness Truths’: