Edward Goldsmith
Encyclopedia
Edward René David Goldsmith (November 8, 1928, Paris
, France – August 21, 2009, Siena, Italy), widely known as Teddy Goldsmith, was an Anglo-French environmentalist, writer and philosopher.
The eldest son of Major Frank Goldsmith
, and elder brother of the financier Sir James Goldsmith, Edward Goldsmith was the founding editor and publisher of The Ecologist
. Known for his outspoken views opposing industrial society and economic development, he expressed a strong sympathy for the ways and values of traditional peoples
.
He co-authored the influential Blueprint for Survival
with Robert Prescott-Allen, becoming a founding member of the political party "People" (later renamed the Green Party
), itself largely inspired by the Blueprint. Goldsmith's conservative view of environmentalism put him at odds with the socialist currents of thought that came to dominate the British Green Party.
A deep ecologist and systems theorist, Goldsmith was an early proponent of the Gaia hypothesis
, having previously developed a similar cybernetic concept of a self-regulating biosphere
.
A talented after-dinner speaker and raconteur, Goldsmith was an articulate spokesman and campaigner, receiving a number of awards for his work protecting the natural world and highlighting the importance and plight of indigenous peoples
, including an honorary Right Livelihood Award
and the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
, and French mother, Marcelle Mouiller.
He entered Millfield School, Somerset as a crammer student, and later graduated with honours in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford
(1947–1950). While studying at Oxford, Goldsmith rejected the reductionist and compartmentalised ideas taught at the time, and sought a more holistic worldview with which to study societies and the problems facing the world at large.
After fulfilling his National Service
as a British Intelligence Officer in Hamburg and Berlin, Goldsmith involved himself, unsuccessfully, in a number of business ventures, while devoting most of his spare time to the study of the subjects which were to preoccupy him for the rest of his life.
Throughout the 1960s he spent time travelling the world with his close friend John Aspinall
witnessing firsthand the destruction of traditional societies, concluding that the spread of economic development
, and its accompanying industrialisation, far from being progressive
as claimed, was actually the root cause of social and environmental destruction.
), Goldsmith teamed up with the fund’s treasurer Robert Allen, the explorer Jean Liedloff
, and a writer from World Medicine, Peter Bunyard, to found The Ecologist in 1969.
, the holism
of the early academic ecologists, and the functionalism
employed by many anthropologists. His theory would later be published, in its final form, as The Way: an ecological world view. (see below)
Early on, Goldsmith had formulated a concept of the biosphere as an integrated cybernetic entity, the self-regulating parts (of which he included tribal societies) cooperating, largely unconsciously, for the mutual benefit of the whole—a view which anticipated aspects of the Gaia thesis, of which he was to become a leading proponent.
Goldsmith was also a critic of neo-Darwinism
. He claimed that it is a reductionist theory and that if we wish to understand evolution
we have to "abandon the reductionistic and mechanistic paradigm of science".
, and Peter Bunyard, Goldsmith was to use the journal as a platform for his theoretical concerns with regular articles appearing under the heading "Towards a Unified Science". The journal also became an important forum for the early Green movement
, with articles focusing on the relevance and survival of hunter-gatherer societies, alternative technology, and organic farming, together with prescient articles about climate change, resource depletion, and nuclear accidents. These were accompanied by the usual gamut of articles examining pollution, overpopulation, deforestation, soil erosion, corporate power, large dams, and not least the World Bank
's alleged role in "financing the destruction of our planet".
, Sir Frank Fraser Darling
, Sir Peter Medawar
, Sir Peter Scott
, and C. H. Waddington—Goldsmith and his fellow editor Robert Allen made headlines in January 1972 with A Blueprint for Survival.
The Blueprint was a far reaching proposal for a radical transition
to a largely de-centralised and de-industrialised society—an attempt to prevent what the authors referred to as “the breakdown of society and the irreversible disruption of the life-support systems on this planet”. It became a key text for the early Green movement, selling over half a million copies, and translated into 16 different languages. In many ways it anticipated the concerns taken-up by today's Transition Movement
.
Goldsmith and Allen argued that rather than devise imaginary utopia
s, as did Marxist and liberal political theorists of the time, they should instead look to the example of existing tribal peoples
, where the authors claimed there existed real-life working models of societies perfectly adapted to their long term survival needs, and the needs of the living world on which they depended. These tribal peoples alone, the authors argued, had demonstrated a viable means by which the most pressing problems facing humanity could be answered successfully.
Such societies were characterised by their small, human-scale communities, low-impact technologies, successful population controls, sustainable resource management, holistic and ecologically integrated worldviews, and a high degree of social cohesion, physical health, psychological well-being and spiritual fulfilment of their members.
,) which invited Goldsmith to stand for the Eye
constituency in Suffolk as their candidate in the February 1974 general election
.
The campaign focused on the threat of desertification from the intensive farming practised in the area, which Goldsmith emphasised with the help of a Bactrian camel
supplied by Aspinall. Goldsmith was in turn accompanied by bearded supporters dressed in the garb of Arab sheiks—the implication being that if modern oil-intensive farming practises were allowed to continue the camel would be the only viable means of transport left in Suffolk. Goldsmith lost his deposit
, but his unorthodox campaign succeeded in attracting the media's attention, and highlighted the issues. He again stood for the (now renamed) Ecology Party at the European Elections in 1979, this time winning a more respectable portion of the vote.
’s The Limits to Growth in the same year—Goldsmith and his editorial team moved from their offices in London to relocate to rural Cornwall in the far west of England. Here Goldsmith and his colleagues bought themselves farms, and for the following seventeen years attempted to form a small-scale, relatively self-sufficient community of their own, while The Ecologist continued to be produced on-site, in between their other chores.
Later, in 1977 when the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) threatened to site a nuclear reactor on farmland in Luxulyan
, Cornwall, Goldsmith was among those who organised a continuous sit-in of the land, with local people blocking the entrance and staffing round-the-clock garrisons to prevent CEGB contractors from commencing their drilling work. An early example of an environmental protest camp
, the High Court
of England and Wales eventually awarded in favour of CEGB allowing the drilling to go ahead. The CEGB never went on to develop the site however.
) movement with the Ecology movement in Europe. This led Goldsmith to forge close links with Indian environmental activists, in particular with the Chipko movement—including Sunderlal Bahuguna and Vandana Shiva
. This was to have a major influence on Goldsmith's approach to environmental activism, and led to a special issue of The Ecologist on the subject.
and World Bank which Goldsmith and his colleagues accused of financing the destruction of the planet.
In one episode, Goldsmith wrote an open letter to the then President of the World Bank, Alden Clausen
, demanding that the bank “stop financing the destruction of the tropical world, the devastation of its remaining forests, the extermination of its wildlife and the impoverishment and starvation of its human inhabitants”. At the time, the connection between large-scale development projects and social and environmental destruction had not been widely recognised within the environmental movement.
with its detrimental effects on indigenous cultures, biodiversity and global climate
. The campaign raised over 3 million signatures which were taken in wheelbarrows to the UN's headquarters in New York. Goldsmith and a party of activists subsequently occupied the main lobby, refusing to move until the Secretary General (Perez de Cuellar) agreed to see them. The group demanded that he call an extraordinary general meeting of the Security Council
to tackle the global crisis of deforestation
. Although failing in this, the campaign managed to organise a meeting in the United States Senate
with a group of senators, headed by Al Gore
, whom the activists called upon to end their support of the World Bank.
, Goldsmith left the editorship of The Ecologist to Nicholas Hildyard, while taking time off to write his philosophical magnum opus The Way: an ecological worldview. The Way (1992) was the culmination and synthesis of more than four decades of theoretical development, embodying a "coherent worldview" by which Goldsmith would attempt to explain the self-inflicted problems facing the world, and to propose a way out of them. Much of this work was already mature in Goldsmith's mind by the time he published the first issues of The Ecologist in 1970.
He continued to attend key meetings around the world, and involved himself with a variety of campaign organisations—becoming President of the Climate Initiatives Fund, Richmond, UK; a board member of the International Forum on Globalization, San Francisco, USA; a founder member of Marunui Conservation Ltd., Mangawhai, New Zealand (1987); and a founder member and vice-president of ECOROPA, a European ecological club and think-tank (1975).
(ISEC) to act as the editorial team. His nephew Zac
, who was then working for ISEC, eventually took over the editorship on their behalf.
The split with Hildyard led to a period of often bitter criticism from some members of the political left in the environmental movement, which, compounded with failing health, resulted in a period of isolation from the British scene.
Goldsmith was accused of having affiliated himself with the Nouvelle Droite
, an intellectual voice of the European "New Right", after addressing a symposium on Green issues organised in Paris by the GRECE (Research and Study Group on European Culture), a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist
. It was the attending of this and another similar event that had led to rising tensions with his colleague Nicholas Hildyard. The title of Goldsmith's contribution in Paris being simply "Une société écologique: la seule alternative" (An ecological society: the only alternative).
Later, in a controversial article for the Guardian newspaper entitled "Black Shirts in Green Trousers", George Monbiot
(a co-founder of the left-wing political party Respect) accused Goldsmith of having "advocated the enforced separation of Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda and Protestants and Catholics in Ulster, on the grounds that they constitute 'distinct ethnic groups' and are thus culturally incapable of co-habitation" (a point rejected by Goldsmith). This, along with other attacks, eventually led Goldsmith to counter his critics with his indepth rebuttal My Answer.
Goldsmith's close association with his brother Sir James Goldsmith, his lifelong friendship with the controversial casino owner and conservationist John Aspinall, along with his anti-modernist
stance and support for indigenous peoples
, ensured that Goldsmith had many detractors throughout his life. Yet despite this, Goldsmith received affectionate support and respect from across the full spectrum of the environmental movement, as well as from many of the people whose views and preoccupations were the focus of his theoretical and philosophical critique.
Goldsmith’s message continued to be sponsored around the world, in particular through his work with the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), and, regardless of their previous acrimony, Hildyard and Goldsmith went on to restore their former friendship.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France – August 21, 2009, Siena, Italy), widely known as Teddy Goldsmith, was an Anglo-French environmentalist, writer and philosopher.
The eldest son of Major Frank Goldsmith
Frank Goldsmith
Francis Benedict Hyam Goldsmith was a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1918...
, and elder brother of the financier Sir James Goldsmith, Edward Goldsmith was the founding editor and publisher of The Ecologist
The Ecologist
The Ecologist is a British environmental publication founded in 1970 by Edward Goldsmith. It addresses a wide range of environmental subjects and promotes an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinion articles. The Ecologist encourages its readers to...
. Known for his outspoken views opposing industrial society and economic development, he expressed a strong sympathy for the ways and values of traditional peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
.
He co-authored the influential Blueprint for Survival
Blueprint for Survival
A Blueprint for Survival was an influential environmentalist text that drew attention to the urgency and magnitude of environmental problems....
with Robert Prescott-Allen, becoming a founding member of the political party "People" (later renamed the Green Party
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
), itself largely inspired by the Blueprint. Goldsmith's conservative view of environmentalism put him at odds with the socialist currents of thought that came to dominate the British Green Party.
A deep ecologist and systems theorist, Goldsmith was an early proponent of the Gaia hypothesis
Gaia hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
, having previously developed a similar cybernetic concept of a self-regulating biosphere
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
.
A talented after-dinner speaker and raconteur, Goldsmith was an articulate spokesman and campaigner, receiving a number of awards for his work protecting the natural world and highlighting the importance and plight of indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
, including an honorary Right Livelihood Award
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...
and the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
Early life
Edward Goldsmith (widely known as Teddy) was born in Paris in 1928 to a German-Jewish father, Frank GoldsmithFrank Goldsmith
Francis Benedict Hyam Goldsmith was a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1918...
, and French mother, Marcelle Mouiller.
He entered Millfield School, Somerset as a crammer student, and later graduated with honours in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
(1947–1950). While studying at Oxford, Goldsmith rejected the reductionist and compartmentalised ideas taught at the time, and sought a more holistic worldview with which to study societies and the problems facing the world at large.
After fulfilling his National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
as a British Intelligence Officer in Hamburg and Berlin, Goldsmith involved himself, unsuccessfully, in a number of business ventures, while devoting most of his spare time to the study of the subjects which were to preoccupy him for the rest of his life.
Throughout the 1960s he spent time travelling the world with his close friend John Aspinall
John Aspinall (zoo owner)
John Victor Aspinall was a British zoo owner and gambler. He was born in Delhi, India, but was a citizen of the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
witnessing firsthand the destruction of traditional societies, concluding that the spread of economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
, and its accompanying industrialisation, far from being progressive
Postdevelopment Theory
Postdevelopment theory holds that the whole concept and practice of development is a reflection of Western-Northern hegemony over the rest of the world...
as claimed, was actually the root cause of social and environmental destruction.
The Primitive People’s Fund
In London, at meetings of the Primitive People’s Fund (the committee that founded Survival InternationalSurvival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
), Goldsmith teamed up with the fund’s treasurer Robert Allen, the explorer Jean Liedloff
Jean Liedloff
Jean Liedloff was an American author, born in New York, and best known for her 1975 book The Continuum Concept....
, and a writer from World Medicine, Peter Bunyard, to found The Ecologist in 1969.
Theory of a Unified Science
After rejecting what he saw as the excessively reductionist and compartmentalised approach of mainstream academia, Goldsmith spent much of his time researching and developing his own theories for the unification of the sciences. The Theory of a Unified Science was heavily influenced by cybernetics, as well as the General Systems Theory of Ludwig von BertalanffyLudwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian-born biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory . GST is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, applicable to biology, cybernetics, and other fields...
, the holism
Holism
Holism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
of the early academic ecologists, and the functionalism
Structural functionalism
Structural functionalism is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions...
employed by many anthropologists. His theory would later be published, in its final form, as The Way: an ecological world view. (see below)
Early on, Goldsmith had formulated a concept of the biosphere as an integrated cybernetic entity, the self-regulating parts (of which he included tribal societies) cooperating, largely unconsciously, for the mutual benefit of the whole—a view which anticipated aspects of the Gaia thesis, of which he was to become a leading proponent.
Goldsmith was also a critic of neo-Darwinism
Neo-Darwinism
Neo-Darwinism is the 'modern synthesis' of Darwinian evolution through natural selection with Mendelian genetics, the latter being a set of primary tenets specifying that evolution involves the transmission of characteristics from parent to child through the mechanism of genetic transfer, rather...
. He claimed that it is a reductionist theory and that if we wish to understand evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
we have to "abandon the reductionistic and mechanistic paradigm of science".
The Ecologist
Having established The Ecologist in 1969 with founding editors Robert Allen, Jean LiedloffJean Liedloff
Jean Liedloff was an American author, born in New York, and best known for her 1975 book The Continuum Concept....
, and Peter Bunyard, Goldsmith was to use the journal as a platform for his theoretical concerns with regular articles appearing under the heading "Towards a Unified Science". The journal also became an important forum for the early Green movement
Green Movement
The Green Movement refers to a series of actions after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office...
, with articles focusing on the relevance and survival of hunter-gatherer societies, alternative technology, and organic farming, together with prescient articles about climate change, resource depletion, and nuclear accidents. These were accompanied by the usual gamut of articles examining pollution, overpopulation, deforestation, soil erosion, corporate power, large dams, and not least the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
's alleged role in "financing the destruction of our planet".
A Blueprint For Survival
Signed by over thirty of the leading scientists of the day—including Sir Julian HuxleyJulian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
, Sir Frank Fraser Darling
Frank Fraser Darling
Sir Frank Fraser Darling was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author, who is strongly associated with the highlands and islands of Scotland.-Early life:...
, Sir Peter Medawar
Peter Medawar
Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CBE FRS was a British biologist, whose work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants...
, Sir Peter Scott
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman....
, and C. H. Waddington—Goldsmith and his fellow editor Robert Allen made headlines in January 1972 with A Blueprint for Survival.
The Blueprint was a far reaching proposal for a radical transition
Transition Towns
Transition Towns is a grassroots network of communities that are working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability...
to a largely de-centralised and de-industrialised society—an attempt to prevent what the authors referred to as “the breakdown of society and the irreversible disruption of the life-support systems on this planet”. It became a key text for the early Green movement, selling over half a million copies, and translated into 16 different languages. In many ways it anticipated the concerns taken-up by today's Transition Movement
Transition Towns
Transition Towns is a grassroots network of communities that are working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability...
.
Goldsmith and Allen argued that rather than devise imaginary utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
s, as did Marxist and liberal political theorists of the time, they should instead look to the example of existing tribal peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
, where the authors claimed there existed real-life working models of societies perfectly adapted to their long term survival needs, and the needs of the living world on which they depended. These tribal peoples alone, the authors argued, had demonstrated a viable means by which the most pressing problems facing humanity could be answered successfully.
Such societies were characterised by their small, human-scale communities, low-impact technologies, successful population controls, sustainable resource management, holistic and ecologically integrated worldviews, and a high degree of social cohesion, physical health, psychological well-being and spiritual fulfilment of their members.
The People Party
The Blueprint was a major inspiration for the embryonic political party called "People" (later to become the Green PartyGreen Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
,) which invited Goldsmith to stand for the Eye
Eye (UK Parliament constituency)
Eye was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election...
constituency in Suffolk as their candidate in the February 1974 general election
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
.
The campaign focused on the threat of desertification from the intensive farming practised in the area, which Goldsmith emphasised with the help of a Bactrian camel
Bactrian camel
The Bactrian camel is a large, even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of central Asia. It is presently restricted in the wild to remote regions of the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts of Mongolia and Xinjiang. A small number of wild Bactrian camels still roam the Mangystau Province of southwest...
supplied by Aspinall. Goldsmith was in turn accompanied by bearded supporters dressed in the garb of Arab sheiks—the implication being that if modern oil-intensive farming practises were allowed to continue the camel would be the only viable means of transport left in Suffolk. Goldsmith lost his deposit
Deposit (politics)
A deposit is a sum of money that a candidate must pay in return for the right to stand for election to certain political offices, particularly seats in legislatures.-United Kingdom:...
, but his unorthodox campaign succeeded in attracting the media's attention, and highlighted the issues. He again stood for the (now renamed) Ecology Party at the European Elections in 1979, this time winning a more respectable portion of the vote.
Cornwall
In 1973, buoyed by the success of the Blueprint and a sudden rise in public awareness of ecological issues—partly brought about by the Stockholm Conference and the publication of the Club of RomeClub of Rome
The Club of Rome is a global think tank that deals with a variety of international political issues. Founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and...
’s The Limits to Growth in the same year—Goldsmith and his editorial team moved from their offices in London to relocate to rural Cornwall in the far west of England. Here Goldsmith and his colleagues bought themselves farms, and for the following seventeen years attempted to form a small-scale, relatively self-sufficient community of their own, while The Ecologist continued to be produced on-site, in between their other chores.
Later, in 1977 when the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) threatened to site a nuclear reactor on farmland in Luxulyan
Luxulyan
Luxulyan , also spelled Luxullian or Luxulian, is a village and civil parish in central Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village lies four miles northeast of St Austell and six miles south of Bodmin...
, Cornwall, Goldsmith was among those who organised a continuous sit-in of the land, with local people blocking the entrance and staffing round-the-clock garrisons to prevent CEGB contractors from commencing their drilling work. An early example of an environmental protest camp
Protest camp
Protest camps are physical camps that are set up by activists, to either provide a base for protest, or to delay, obstruct or prevent the focus of their protest by physically blocking it with the camp...
, the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
of England and Wales eventually awarded in favour of CEGB allowing the drilling to go ahead. The CEGB never went on to develop the site however.
The Gandhi Peace Foundation
In 1974, Goldsmith spent four months with the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi, comparing the Gandhian (SarvodayaSarvodaya
Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'. The term was first coined by Mahatma Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's tract on political economy, Unto This Last, and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy...
) movement with the Ecology movement in Europe. This led Goldsmith to forge close links with Indian environmental activists, in particular with the Chipko movement—including Sunderlal Bahuguna and Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva , is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D...
. This was to have a major influence on Goldsmith's approach to environmental activism, and led to a special issue of The Ecologist on the subject.
The World Bank
In 1984, together with his colleague Nicholas Hildyard, Goldsmith authored a multi-volume report on the destructive effects of large-scale, hydroelectric dams. This was the beginning of a long drawn-out attack directed at the International Monetary FundInternational Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
and World Bank which Goldsmith and his colleagues accused of financing the destruction of the planet.
In one episode, Goldsmith wrote an open letter to the then President of the World Bank, Alden Clausen
Alden W. Clausen
Alden Winship "Tom" Clausen is a former President of the World Bank.-Education:He was born in Hamilton, Illinois to a family of Norwegian ancestry and graduated from Carthage College in 1944 with a B.A., again in 1970 with a LL.D.; from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1949 with a LL.B.;...
, demanding that the bank “stop financing the destruction of the tropical world, the devastation of its remaining forests, the extermination of its wildlife and the impoverishment and starvation of its human inhabitants”. At the time, the connection between large-scale development projects and social and environmental destruction had not been widely recognised within the environmental movement.
Forests campaign
In 1989 Goldsmith helped to organise an international campaign calling for an immediate end to the destruction of the world's remaining forestsDeforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
with its detrimental effects on indigenous cultures, biodiversity and global climate
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. The campaign raised over 3 million signatures which were taken in wheelbarrows to the UN's headquarters in New York. Goldsmith and a party of activists subsequently occupied the main lobby, refusing to move until the Secretary General (Perez de Cuellar) agreed to see them. The group demanded that he call an extraordinary general meeting of the Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
to tackle the global crisis of deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
. Although failing in this, the campaign managed to organise a meeting in the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
with a group of senators, headed by Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, whom the activists called upon to end their support of the World Bank.
The Goldsmith Foundation
In 1991, with the financial support of his brother James, Goldsmith established the Goldsmith (JMG) Foundation supporting a diverse range of non-governmental organisations campaigning against environmentally destructive activities, along with organisations providing sustainable alternatives.The Way
In 1990, urged on by Arne NæssArne Næss
Arne Dekke Eide Næss was a Norwegian philosopher, the founder of deep ecology. He was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo....
, Goldsmith left the editorship of The Ecologist to Nicholas Hildyard, while taking time off to write his philosophical magnum opus The Way: an ecological worldview. The Way (1992) was the culmination and synthesis of more than four decades of theoretical development, embodying a "coherent worldview" by which Goldsmith would attempt to explain the self-inflicted problems facing the world, and to propose a way out of them. Much of this work was already mature in Goldsmith's mind by the time he published the first issues of The Ecologist in 1970.
Later life
In addition to the UK Ecologist, Goldsmith later helped to found and support The Ecologist as independent enterprises in many parts of the world, including—- Brazil (in Portuguese); France (in French); Asia (India); Italy (in Italian); Greece (in Greek); The Pacific (New Zealand); Lebanon (in Arabic); Latin America (in Spanish); and Columbia (in Spanish).
He continued to attend key meetings around the world, and involved himself with a variety of campaign organisations—becoming President of the Climate Initiatives Fund, Richmond, UK; a board member of the International Forum on Globalization, San Francisco, USA; a founder member of Marunui Conservation Ltd., Mangawhai, New Zealand (1987); and a founder member and vice-president of ECOROPA, a European ecological club and think-tank (1975).
Philosophy
- Degrowth
- HolismHolismHolism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
- Human scaleHuman scaleHuman scale is the set of physical quantities, and quantities of information, characterizing the human body, its motor, sensory, or mental capabilities, and human social institutions.- Science vs...
- Neotribalism
- Perennial PhilosophyPerennial philosophyPerennial philosophy is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truths on the nature of reality, humanity or consciousness .-History:The idea of a perennial philosophy has great...
Controversies
In 1997, after an acrimonious split with his editorial team—most notably with his former friend and colleague Nicholas Hildyard—Goldsmith was left to run The Ecologist on his own. Having been absent for some years, he brought in the International Society for Ecology and CultureInternational Society for Ecology and Culture
The International Society for Ecology and Culture is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to raise awareness about what it identifies as the root causes of contemporary social, environmental and economic crises....
(ISEC) to act as the editorial team. His nephew Zac
Zac Goldsmith
Frank Zacharias Robin "Zac" Goldsmith, MP is an English environmental journalist, entrepreneur and Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Richmond Park since winning the seat at the 2010 general election.Goldsmith is the middle child of the late financier Sir...
, who was then working for ISEC, eventually took over the editorship on their behalf.
The split with Hildyard led to a period of often bitter criticism from some members of the political left in the environmental movement, which, compounded with failing health, resulted in a period of isolation from the British scene.
Goldsmith was accused of having affiliated himself with the Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...
, an intellectual voice of the European "New Right", after addressing a symposium on Green issues organised in Paris by the GRECE (Research and Study Group on European Culture), a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...
. It was the attending of this and another similar event that had led to rising tensions with his colleague Nicholas Hildyard. The title of Goldsmith's contribution in Paris being simply "Une société écologique: la seule alternative" (An ecological society: the only alternative).
Later, in a controversial article for the Guardian newspaper entitled "Black Shirts in Green Trousers", George Monbiot
George Monbiot
George Joshua Richard Monbiot is an English writer, known for his environmental and political activism. He lives in Machynlleth, Wales, writes a weekly column for The Guardian, and is the author of a number of books, including Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain and Bring on the...
(a co-founder of the left-wing political party Respect) accused Goldsmith of having "advocated the enforced separation of Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda and Protestants and Catholics in Ulster, on the grounds that they constitute 'distinct ethnic groups' and are thus culturally incapable of co-habitation" (a point rejected by Goldsmith). This, along with other attacks, eventually led Goldsmith to counter his critics with his indepth rebuttal My Answer.
Goldsmith's close association with his brother Sir James Goldsmith, his lifelong friendship with the controversial casino owner and conservationist John Aspinall, along with his anti-modernist
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
stance and support for indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
, ensured that Goldsmith had many detractors throughout his life. Yet despite this, Goldsmith received affectionate support and respect from across the full spectrum of the environmental movement, as well as from many of the people whose views and preoccupations were the focus of his theoretical and philosophical critique.
Goldsmith’s message continued to be sponsored around the world, in particular through his work with the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), and, regardless of their previous acrimony, Hildyard and Goldsmith went on to restore their former friendship.
Awards
- EMCI, Natura Uomo Ambiente, 8th Symposio Ecologico International, Napoli 1979
- Right Livelihood AwardRight Livelihood AwardThe Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...
(a.k.a. "Alternative Nobel Prize"), 1991 - Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, 1991 (French knighthood)
- Premios Internacionales Vida Sana (Spanish organic association), 1991
- Best Book of the Year Award for Ecological and Transformational Politics, awarded by the American Political Science Association, for The Case Against the Global Economy: and for a turn towards the local, co-edited with Jerry Mander, 1997
- Council for International Affairs and Human Rights (Shiva statue)
- Gandhi Millennium Award, 2001
- International Forum on Globalization, Lifetime Achievement Award, Feb 24, 2007
Influences
- tribal peoplesIndigenous peoplesIndigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
- Ludwig von BertalanffyLudwig von BertalanffyKarl Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian-born biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory . GST is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, applicable to biology, cybernetics, and other fields...
- Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North WhiteheadAlfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...
- Karl PolanyiKarl PolanyiKarl Paul Polanyi was a Hungarian philosopher, political economist and economic anthropologist known for his opposition to traditional economic thought and his book The Great Transformation...
- Michael PolanyiMichael PolanyiMichael Polanyi, FRS was a Hungarian–British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and the theory of knowledge...
- Gandhi
- Eugene OdumEugene OdumEugene Pleasants Odum was an American scientist known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology. He wrote the first ecology textbook: Fundamentals of Ecology....
- C. H. Waddington
- Paul Alfred WeissPaul Alfred WeissPaul Alfred Weiss was an Austrian biologist who specialised in morphogenesis, development, differentiation and neurobiology...
- William Homan ThorpeWilliam Homan ThorpeWilliam Homan Thorpe FRS was Professor of Animal Ethology at the University of Cambridge, and a significant British zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist....
- Placide TempelsPlacide TempelsPlacide Frans Tempels was a Belgian missionary who became famous for his book Bantu Philosophy.-Life:...
- Alfred Radcliffe-BrownAlfred Radcliffe-BrownAlfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown was an English social anthropologist who developed the theory of Structural Functionalism.- Biography :...
- Roy RappaportRoy RappaportRoy A. Rappaport was a distinguished anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.-Biography:...
- Richard St. Barbe BakerRichard St. Barbe BakerRichard St. Barbe Baker was an English forester, environmental activist and author, who contributed greatly to worldwide reforestation efforts. As a leader, he founded an organization, still active today, whose many chapters carry out reforestation internationally.-Early years:He was born in...
Associates
- John Aspinall (zoo owner)John Aspinall (zoo owner)John Victor Aspinall was a British zoo owner and gambler. He was born in Delhi, India, but was a citizen of the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
- Jerry ManderJerry ManderJerold Irwin "Jerry" Mander is an American activist and author, best known for his 1977 book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television...
- Helena Norberg-HodgeHelena Norberg-HodgeHelena Norberg-Hodge is an analyst of the impact of the global economy on cultures and agriculture worldwide, a pioneer of the localisation movement, and the articulator of the core ideas of Counter-development...
- Vandana ShivaVandana ShivaVandana Shiva , is a philosopher, environmental activist, and eco feminist. Shiva, currently based in Delhi, has authored more than 20 books and over 500 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She was trained as a physicist and received her Ph.D...
- Mae-Wan HoMae-Wan HoMae-Wan Ho is a geneticist known for her critical views on genetic engineering. Ho has authored or co-authored a number of publications, including 10 books, such as The Rainbow and the Worm, the Physics of Organisms , Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare? , and Living with the Fluid Genome...
- John PapworthJohn PapworthJohn Papworth After being reared in an orphanage, the Reverend John Papworth has been at various times a baker, journalist, economist - London University graduate, ecologist, a self proclaimed 'futurist' and Church of England priest...
- Eugene OdumEugene OdumEugene Pleasants Odum was an American scientist known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology. He wrote the first ecology textbook: Fundamentals of Ecology....
- Gerardo Reichel-DolmatoffGerardo Reichel-DolmatoffGerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff was an anthropologist, known for his holistic approach and his in-depth fieldwork among tropical rainforest cultures .- Early life :...
- Richard Willson
- Lawrence Hills
- Richard St. Barbe BakerRichard St. Barbe BakerRichard St. Barbe Baker was an English forester, environmental activist and author, who contributed greatly to worldwide reforestation efforts. As a leader, he founded an organization, still active today, whose many chapters carry out reforestation internationally.-Early years:He was born in...
- James LovelockJames LovelockJames Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
- The Prince of Wales
Personal life
- First wife, née Gillian Marion Pretty—two daughters and a son
- Second wife, née Katherine Victoria James—two sons
- Sir James Goldsmith (brother)
- Clio GoldsmithClio GoldsmithClio Goldsmith is a French former actress, appearing mostly as Femme fatale, call girl or prostitute in the early 1980s. She is the daughter of ecologist Edward Goldsmith....
(daughter) - Zac GoldsmithZac GoldsmithFrank Zacharias Robin "Zac" Goldsmith, MP is an English environmental journalist, entrepreneur and Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Richmond Park since winning the seat at the 2010 general election.Goldsmith is the middle child of the late financier Sir...
(nephew) - Jemima Khan (niece)
- Ben GoldsmithBen GoldsmithBenjamin James Goldsmith is an English financier and environmentalist.- Career :Goldsmith is a founding partner of a venture capital fund that invests in clean technologies, and of its sister company...
(nephew) - Mark ShandMark ShandMark Roland Shand , is a British travel writer and conservationist.Shand is the son of Bruce Shand MC and his wife the Hon Rosalind Maud Cubitt, daughter of the 3rd Baron Ashcombe and the former Sonia Keppel. His elder sister is HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. He was educated at Milton Abbey School...
(son-in-law) - Carlo Alessandro Puri NegriPirelliPirelli & C. SpA is a diverse multinational company based in Milan, Italy. The company, the world’s fifth largest tyre manufacturer, is present in over 160 countries, has 20 manufacturing sites around the world and a network of around 10,000 distributors and retailers.Founded in Milan in 1872,...
(former son-in-law) - Peter Lorrimer WhiteheadPeter Lorrimer WhiteheadPeter Lorrimer Whitehead is an English filmmaker who documented the counterculture in London and New York in the late 1960s...
(former son-in-law)
Author
- The Stable Society (Wadebridge Press, 1978).
- The Great U-Turn: De-industrialising Society Green Books, 1988
- The Way: an ecological world view (Rider 1992; Revised Edition, Green Books 1996).
- Les sept sentiers de l'écologie (The seven paths of ecology) (Editions Alphée, 2006).
Co-author
- A Blueprint for Survival (Penguin, 1972)
- The Doomsday Funbook (Joys Of Apocalypse) 1977
- The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams (Wadebridge Ecological Centre):
- Volume I (1984)
- Volume II (1986)
- Volume III (1992)
- 5,000 Days to Save the Planet. (Hamlyn, 1990)
- The Doomsday Fun Book New Edition. (John Carpenter, 2006)
Editor
- Can Britain Survive? (Part author. Tom Stacey, 1971).
- La Médecine à la Question (Fernand Nathar, France 1981).
- The Earth Report (Mitchell Beazley, 1988).
- Gaia, the Thesis, the Mechanisms and the Implications (Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1988).
- Gaia and Evolution (Co-editor with Peter Bunyard. 1990).
- The Case Against the Global Economy: and for a turn towards the local (Co-editor with Jerry Mander. Sierra Book Club, 1996)
- Le Piège se Referme (The trap snaps shut again) (France 2001).
Essays (selection)
- My answer
- Towards a biospheric ethic
- The fall of the Roman Empire
- The family basis of social structure
- How to feed people under a regime of climate change
- Can the environment survive the global economy?
- Development and colonialism
- The myth of flood control
- Religion at the Millennium
- Art and ethics
Further reading
- Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain by Meredith Veldman. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
- The Godfather of Green by Paul Kingsnorth
- The Way: an ecological worldview by Edward Goldsmith
External links
- The Green Revolutionary 1990 documentary film
- New Lamps for Old (1992 filmed interview with Satish KumarSatish KumarSatish Kumar is an Indian, currently living in England, who has been a Jain monk and a nuclear disarmament advocate, and is the current editor of Resurgence, founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies and of The Small School...
) - Globalisation and Maori (1998 documentary film)
- edwardgoldsmith.org - English archive
- edwardgoldsmith.net - English links page
- teddygoldsmith.com - Italian archive
- teddygoldsmith.org - French archive
- The Ecologist (online archives)
- International Society for Ecology and Culture
- International Forum on Globalization