Kaarlo Pentti Linkola (7 December 1932 – 5 April 2020) was a prominent Finnish deep ecologist, ornithologist, polemicist, naturalist, writer, and fisherman. He wrote widely about his ideas and in Finland was a prominent thinker. Linkola was a year-round fisherman from 1959 to 1995. He fished on Keitele, Päijänne and the Gulf of Finland, and since 1978 he fished on Vanajavesi. Linkola blamed humans for the continuous degradation of the environment. He promoted rapid population decline to combat the problems commonly attributed to overpopulation. Biography Linkola was born on 7 December 1932. He grew up in Helsinki and summered in Kariniemi in Tyrväntö at the farm of his maternal grandfather, Hugo Suolahti. His father, Kaarlo Linkola, was a botanist, phytogeographer, and the Rector of University of Helsinki, and his grandfather Hugo had worked as the chancellor of that same university. Linkola's half-brother, Anssi, was killed during the Continuation War against the Soviet Union in 1941, at the age of 20. One year after Anssi died, Kaarlo died of prostate cancer. Hugo then died in 1944 due to a heart attack. Linkola had an elder sister, Aira, and a younger brother, Martti. After he graduated from Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu in 1950, Linkola studied biology for half a year, then became a researcher. He lived in Signilskär in Åland and made ornithological observations. Although he was one of Finland's most famous ornithologists, Linkola gave up his research career to live an austere life as a fisherman, as this was in line with his teachings. He was involved in the Koijärvi Movement that started in 1979, but his views proved too radical for mainstream Green politics. In 1995, Linkola founded the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation (), which concentrates on preserving the few ancient forests still left in southern Finland and other nature conservation. The foundation receives donations from private individuals and companies, then purchases forest areas deemed unique enough to deserve protection. By 2017, the foundation had purchased 62 protected areas, spanning in total. On the 101st anniversary of Finland's independence, Linkola was announced as the winner of a poll conducted by the national broadcaster Yle to determine who had done the most to preserve Finland's natural heritage. Linkola was married from 1961 to 1975, and had two children. He died in his sleep at his home in Sääksmäki on 5 April 2020. Ideas Linkola's views have been sometimes described as "ecofascist". He