Philip Wheeler Conkling is the founder and former president of the Island Institute, a membership-based nonprofit organization located in
Rockland, Maine
Rockland is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Maine, United States. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the town population was 6,936. The city is a popular tourist destination. It is a departure point for the Maine S ...
that serves as a voice for the balanced future of the islands and waters of the
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northea ...
, especially the 15 year-round island communities along the Maine coast. Conkling also serves as an alternate commissioner of the
Roosevelt Campobello International Park
Roosevelt Campobello International Park preserves the house and surrounding landscape of the summer retreat of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and their family. It is located on the southern tip of Campobello Island in the Canadian prov ...
, and is on the Maine state board of the Conservation Law Foundation. He lives in the small coastal town of
Camden, Maine
Camden is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,232 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The population of the town more than triples during the summer months, due to tourists and summer residents. Camden is ...
.
Early life and education
Conkling completed his B.A. from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1970.
He completed his M.F.S. at the
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Yale School of the Environment (YSE) is a professional school of Yale University. It was founded to train foresters, and now trains environmental students through four 2-year degree programs ( Master of Environmental Management, Master of Environ ...
in 1976.
Conkling was awarded an honorary degree from the
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College ( ) is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. It was chartered in 1794.
The main Bowdoin campus is located near Casco Bay and the Androscoggin River. In a ...
in 2013.
Career
Conkling founded the non-profit Island Institute in 1983 to preserve the islands of Maine with
Peter Ralston.
He founded ''Island Journal.
''
Conkling is a Advisory Council member of the Conservation Law Foundation. He is a board member of the Fox Island Wind.
He is the President of Philip Conkling & Associates, based in Camden, Maine.
Bibliography
* ''The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change'' (2011) co-authored with
Richard Alley
Richard Blane Alley (born 18 August 1957) is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. He has authored more than 240 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth's cryo ...
, Wallace Broecker and George Denton, with photographs by Gary Comer
MIT Press
The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
* ''Lobsters Great and Small-How Fishermen and Scientists are Changing Our Understanding of a Maine Icon'' (2001)
* ''From Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy-An Environmental Atlas of the Gulf of Maine'' (1995).
*
Islands in Time, A Natural and Cultural History of the Islands of the Gulf of Maine' (published first in 1981, revised in 1999, with a new, expanded edition published in 2011)
* ''Green Islands Green Sea: A Guide to Foraging on the Islands of Maine'' (1980)
*
See also
*
Greenland ice sheet
The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...
References
American company founders
Harvard University alumni
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies alumni
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
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