AbstractThis paper is about the philosophies created by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). The purpose is to show the high degree of similarities between Thoreau?s and Nietzsche?s philosphy.At first glance, it seems far-fetched to suggest an affinity between them; the differences in style and choice of subjects, have most certainly contributed to the fact that very few comparisons so far have been made. There is no evidence that one experienced any influence over the other, neither writer seems to have been aware of the other. Also their different areas of use during the 20th century, may have influenced the almost total lack of search for affinity.

In this essay I have tried to present the ideas and thoughts of the Swedish author Rolf Edberg (1912-1997), journalist, ambassador and county governor. By many regarded as an environment philosopher and the introducer of deep ecology into Sweden. The essay emphasizes Edberg as a modern renaissance man of important knowledge with a rhetorical force to present and generalize the problems the planet Earth is meeting. The paper compares him with Henry Thoreau but also finds a close but perhaps unintended relationship with the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel although Edberg himself claimed to be a Darwinist at heart.The essay stresses on four characteristic features in his authorship namely 1) a holistic view of nature and man, rejecting dualism for monism; 2) a cosmic relationship within the whole universe and also between organic and inorganic matter; 3) the planet Earth is in a crisis due to an uneven and unjust distribution of the resources of the Earth, the nuclear weapon threat and the overpopulation; 4) the evolution and not the religion has the answer to our existential questions..