Articles in The Ecologist

The Godfather of Green - having launched The Ecologist 37 years ago, Teddy Goldsmith has been instrumental in everything from the setting up of the world's first political green party to being the first to expose many of the problems associated with global development, such as giant dams and nuclear power. Now 79, he is as vociferous as ever, but finally the rest of the world is beginning to catch up. By Paul Kingsnorth, former deputy editor of The Ecologist. Published in The Ecologist Volume 37 Issue 2, March 2007.

The Doomsday Funbook - Introduction. The Doomsday Funbookis Edward Goldsmith's most recent book, a collection of editorials from The Ecologist illustrated by the incomparable Richard Willson. Published by Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006. Order the book from this page and get free P&P.

Does development create or mitigate poverty? - Clare Short MP and Teddy Goldsmith discuss. Published in The Ecologist, April 2005.

Whatever happened to ecology? - a critique of the reductionist, mechanistic science of ecology which has turned against the living world. Written in 2002, this is a greatly extended and updated version of an article first published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 3, 1985.

How can we survive? - 30 years ago in 1972, as the first Envrionment Summit took place in Stockholm, The Ecologist published A Blueprint for Survival. So why, on the eve of the Johannesburg Summit and in the face of mounting environmental crises, has nothing changed? Published in The Ecologist Vol. 32 No. 7, September 2002.

A question of survival - why the fight against climate change should take precedence over all other priorities. Published in The Ecologist Special Report on climate change, November 2001.

Why development creates poverty - "Development ... is above all the gradual disembedding from their social context of all such functions that were previously provided for free, their monetization and takeover by the state and the corporations... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 32 No. 6, July / August 2001, under the title "Poverty, the child of progress".

Killing off small farms in Brazil - Jose Lutzenberger tells Teddy Goldsmith about the regulatory obstacles he faces on his organic farm in Rio Grande do Sul. Published in The Ecologist Report, June 2001.

Can the environment survive the global economy? - "To increase trade is justified because it is seen to be the most effective way of increasing economic development, which we equate with progress, and which in terms of the world-view of modernism, is made out to provide a means of creating a material and technological paradise on Earth ... ". Too bad about the planet. First published as Chapter 7 of The Case Against the Global Economy, June 2001. This extended version appeared in The Ecologist Vol. 27 No. 6, November / December 1997.

Unhygienic - or just small-scale? (long version) - first published in The Ecologist Special Report June 2001. Republished in Rivista di Biologia (Biology Forum) Vol. 94 No. 3, September / December 2001 pp. 511-533. This essay explores the way in which food hygiene regulations are pushing small, safe, traditional high quality food producers out of business by imposing inappropriate and wildly expensive requirements - while industrial food producers reap the benefits.

Hell on Earth: mankind and the environment - Humanity has transformed the planet almost unrecognisably, now we talk of re-engineering ourselves to fit ... how we can miss the point so dramatically? Published in The Ecologist Vol. 30 No. 7, October 2000.

The Prague summit - In September 2000, Prague was the venue for the joint annual meeting of the World Bank and the IMF. This article describes how the "Maoist" economic prescriptions of these twin institutions create poverty and dependence among their client nations. Editorial for The Ecologist Special Report, September 2000.

The fight must go on - Goldsmith looks back to the Blueprint for Survival, published in 1972, and finds that the core messages have only become more relevant and pressing with the passing of time. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 30 No. 5, July / August 2000.

Is science neutral? - a debate between Edward Goldsmith and Professor Lewis Wolpert. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 30 No. 3, May 2000.

Archaic societies and cosmic order - a summary - an edited version of Chapter 61 of The Way: towards an ecological world view. This version published in The Ecologist Vol. 30 No. 1, January / February 2000. "Across the world, from the beginnings of prehistory, the belief that society must follow a certain path - or 'Way' - in order to maintain itself, and the wholeness of the world around it, has been a common theme running through many societies and cultures... ."

Religion at the Millennium (short version) - "The relevance of the religion of primal people is that they are totally reconcilable with the principle that the destruction of the environment is a sin, more so, it is their most fundamental teaching. Indeed primal religio-culture is concerned above all with the preservation of the order of the cosmos and hence with that of its constituent families, communities, and ecosystems ...".. Introduction to The Ecologist's special issue on Cosmic Religion, November 1999.

The economic cost of climate change - "Industrialists who continue to lobby governments to prevent them from taking the necessary action to combat climate change try to persuade themselves that inaction is in the best interests of their businesses and the economy itself. Given the enormous financial costs climate change will inflict, such an attitude is short-sighted in the extreme ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 29 No. 2, March / April 1999.

The Crash Programme: a solution-multiplier - "The crash programme required to restabilise global climate can be funded by mobilising funds that are either currently wasted or used in destructive ways. The real cost for humanity is negative since the programme has to be undertaken in any case to solve nearly all the other critical problems that confront us today ... " Published in The Ecologist Vol. 29 No. 2, March / April 1999.

Technology - a false religion - a review of Why things bite back by Edward Tenner. "Edward Tenner's book is truly blasphemous. Its thesis is that our technological efforts to manage the world of living things are not working out too well. At first they may seem magically successful, but then comes what Tenner calls their 'revenge effect', which at best transforms acute problems into chronic ones, at worst gives rise to all sorts of new problems, often more serious than whatever problem was targeted in the first place ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 5, September / October 1998.

My fears about GM food crops In this introduction to "The Monsanto Files", The Ecologist's special issue on Monsanto, Edward Goldsmith engages with the problems of corporate control of the food chain as well as the potential health issues associated with genetic modification. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 5, September / October 1998.

Did God really do such a bad job? - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 3, May / June 1998. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "Underlying the world view of the secular Religion of Progress is the fundamental assumption that the world is badly designed. God did a bad job, and it is incumbent on man, armed as he is with all his science, technology, industry and free trade, to transform it in accordance with his vastly superior design ... "

Why not, we've got a licence? - A leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 3, May 1998. Revised in January & February 2000, and republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

The lessons of traditional irrigation - "Modern irrigation schemes in tropical areas are, almost without exception, social, ecological and economic disasters. They necessarily lead to the flooding of vast areas of forest and agricultural land, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and the spreading of waterborne diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis ...". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 3, May-June 1998.

Scientific superstitions, or "The cult of randomness and the taboo on teleology". This article is an extended version of a combination of three chapters, 5, 26, and 27, of The Way: an ecological world view. Also published in The Ecologist Vol. 27 No. 5, September / October 1997.

Development as colonialism - this important essay exposes modern-day 'development' as colonialism repackaged and ferociously applied through transnational corporations, compliant local elites and global institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF - and backed by the threat of military force. It was published in The Ecologist Vol. 27 No. 2, March / April 1997, and as Chapter 1 of The Case Against the Global Economy by Edward Goldsmith and Jerry Mander (Earthscan 2001).

Cynicism, food and power - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 26 No. 6, November / December 1996, by The Editors. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "As the peasant movement Via Campesina has pointed out, 'Food Sovereignty can only be achieved through solidarity and the political will to implement alternatives.' Acting together to create such political will offers the best hope of ensuring that the 400 million people written off by the World Food Summit do not starve. "

Eggs, eugenics and economics a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 24 No. 2, March / April 1994, by The Editors. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "What makes the new reproductive technologies different is the way they fragment human tissue itself into factors of mass production and commodities - all being enclosed and transformed into scarce resources circulating in a highly centralised market system ... placing new forms of power in the hands of influential economic actors "

In praise of the "seely spider" (short version) - a review of Nature's Web: an exploration of ecological thinking, by Peter Marshall. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 23 No. 3, May / June 1993.

FAO's plan to feed the world - Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard critique the FAO's main policy document, World Agriculture: Toward 2000, and the whole model of capital-intensive, industrialised, export-oriented agriculture which it promotes. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 21 No. 2, March-April 1991.

FAO's projections for livestock - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is envisaging huge increases in livestock numbers and meat production worldwide. But nowhere does it stop to ask, what the impacts will be on the environment, or on the rural poor. Written with Patrick McCully. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 21 No. 2, March / April 1991.

Evolution, neo-Darwinism and the paradigm of science - "Neo-Darwinism does not provide a satisfactory explanation for evolution and however resilient it may prove to criticism, it must eventually give way to a more realistic theory ..." Published in The Ecologist Vol. 20 No. 2, March / April 1990.

Scotland's white revolution - a review of The Highland Clearances by John Prebble. Penguin, London 1969, reprinted 1989. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 19 No. 3, May / June 1989.

Gaia and evolution - "Is it not apparent that neo-Darwinists, still more so sociobiologists, have got it completely wrong; that they have failed to distinguish between pathology and physiology: between the growth of a malignant tumour and the development of differentiated tissue - between anti-evolution and evolution?". This key paper was presented in November 1988 at the Wadebridge Ecological Centre's Second Annual Symposium on "Gaia and her implications for evolutionary theory", and published in The Ecologist Vol. 19, No. 4, 1989.

The Way: an ecological world view - a major article setting out the key principles of ecological thinking that, four years later, developed into the book of the same name. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 18 No. 4/5 1988. "What I propose to do in this essay (if what follows can be thus termed) is to propose a very tentative world-view or cosmology in the form of a set of 67 laws or principles, which are seen as governing the Cosmos and the cosmological process ... ".

A currency for every community - "To reconstitute local economies is an imperative if we are to prevent misery and chaos when the global economy collapses. We need them in any case to reduce our environmental impact and to render possible local co-operation and solidarity ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 4, July / August 1998. Co-written with Perry Walker.

The need for an ecological world view - "The 'technospheric' world view of modernism needs to be replaced with a new 'ecological' world view - but to achieve this, green thinkers must concentrate on the great principles that unite them, not on the doctrinal minutiae that divide them. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 18 No. 4 / 5, 1988.

Aid - enlightened self-interest or gun-boat politics? - a quizzical look at the politics and economics of international aid. Editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 18 No. 2, 1988. "Those with a superficial knowledge of the development process often remain convinced that aid is designed to help the peoples of the Third World. Even many environmental institutions still appear to believe this and persist in campaigning for increased aid ... "

Gaia: some implications for theoretical ecology - paper for the Wadebridge Ecological Centre's Conference: "Gaia: Theory, practice and implications", Camelford, Cornwall, October 1987. It was also published in The Ecologist Vol. 18 No. 2/3, 1988.

Tropical forests: a plan for action - "deforestation spells cultural death for the millions of tribal peoples who depend on the forests for their livelihood. It threatens to condemn to extinction 50 to 90 percent of the world's species of plants, animals and insects ... ". Editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 17 No. 4/5, 1987.

You can only be judged on your record - a second Open Letter to Barber Conable, President of the World Bank, calling on him to make good on his and his predecessors promises of progress on the social and environmental impacts of the Bank's lending. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 17 No. 2, 1987.

Denis de Rougement - the famous Swiss thinker and writer and chairman of Ecoropa (Ecological Action for Europe), died on the 6th December 1985 at the age of 79. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 16 No. 2/3, 1986.

An open letter to Mr Clausen to Mr Alden Clausen, Retiring President of the World Bank, and Mr Barber Conable, President Elect, reflecting on the disastrous social and environmental record of the World Bank, and its consistent inability to advance beyond the mere rhetoric of reform. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 16 No. 2/3, 1986.

Misleading the public - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 16, 1986, by Peter Bunyard and Edward Goldsmith. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "Today, much of the information supplied by government and industry on key environmental issues is designed to rationalize current practices and policies. To that end, numerous public statements have been made which can only be described as downright lies ... "

The illusion of our time - review of In the Name of Progress: the underside of foreign aid, by Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon. Published in The Ecologist Vol 15 No 5/6 1985. "... aid programmes are not designed to help the people of the Third World, they are designed instead to help unrepresentative and usually tyrannical governments, in whose present interest it is to undertake vast agricultural and industrial projects... "

Obituary: Edouard Kressmann - the founder of Ecoropa, who "was not only well known in European ecological circles but also in Bordeaux where he lived and where, until the day of his death, he could often be seen bicycling furiously to meetings where he would systematically oppose any local development project which he regarded as destructive, dangerous or wasteful ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 5/6, 1985.

Worshipping at the altar of economic pragmatism - The World Bank has suspended, on environmental grounds, a loan of $256 million for the Polonoroeste Project in Brazilian Amazonia. But the Bank's President, Alden W. Clausen, continues to "worship at the altar of economic pragmatism". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 4, 1985.

Understanding tropical ecosystems - a review of Ecology of Tropical Plants, by Margaret L. Vickery. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 3, 1985.

Colonising the plant world - a review of Insects on Plants: Community Patterns and Mechanisms by D. R. Strong PhD, J. H. Lawton PhD, Sir Richard Southwood PhD, DSc, FRS. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 3, 1985. "The authors, keen to accentuate the importance of the individual components of the plant community, as opposed to that of the community itself, are necessarily committed... to accentuate the importance of competition as a determinant of what community structure they accept, and to under-playing co-operation... ".

Ecological succession rehabilitated - the science of ecology has become reductionistic, mechanistic and quantified. To achieve this has meant seeking to discredit the basic principles of ecology including that of 'ecological succession'. The motive is for this has been ideological and political, in seeking to force ecology to conform to the world view of modernism. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 3 1985.

Dam starvation - editorial article from The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984 (co-written with Nicholas Hildyard). This article examines why politicians' promises that superdams will produce plenty for all turn, all to literally, to dust, poverty and hunger.

The myth of the benign superdam - "Are dams inevitably destructive? Some critics have argued that if stringent conditions are laid down before a dam is authorised, the devastation of the past decades could be avoided. A careful consideration of the suggested conditions, however, shows that few, if any, dams could pass the test...". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984.

The politics of damming - shows how giant dam projects are invariably driven by powerful political motives that override all other concerns. "Dams are never built in a political vacuum. For politicians they mean votes and prestige. To criticise dam projects is thus to face an uphill battle against the power of the state-one that is nearly impossible to win...". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984. Co-written with Nicholas Hildyard.

Enemies of society? - the Greens are the true conservatives, argues Goldsmith. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984.

Agricultural development: changing directions - a review of Environmental Management in Tropical Agriculture, by Robert J. A. Goodland, Catherine Watson and George Ledec. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6 1984. Major changes in agricultural practice "will be politically difficult and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, they appear inevitable if large-scale disaster is to be avoided."

A question of climate - a review of Climate and Development, edited by Asit K Biswas, Natural Resources and the Environment Series. An agronomical analysis of why tropical countries cannot follow the agro-industrial model of the developed North. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984.

Industrial pollution: getting away with the crime - in the UK, there is little effective legal sanction against even the most egregiously criminal industrial polluters. But in the USA, aggressive prosecutors armed with effective environmental laws have achieved remarkable successes. This editorial article, co-written with Peter Bunyard, was published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 4 1984.

Misguided investment - a review of Developing Electric Power - thirty years of World Bank experience by Hugh Collier. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1984. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 3, 1984.

Damning dams - a review of Long-Distance Water Transfer - A Chinese Case Study and International Experiences, edited by Asit K. Biswas, Zuo Dakang, James E. Nickum and Liu Changming. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 2, 1984. "The academic contributors to this book accentuate the terrible social and ecological disruption which is likely to be caused by China's proposed water transfer scheme. The bureaucrats, on the other hand, grossly exaggerate the benefits to be derived from the project and hardly mention the social and environmental consequences ..."

High technology euphoria - review of The Awakening Earth - our next evolutionary leap, by Peter Russell. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 13 No. 5, 1983. "The author recognises the extent of the ecological problems faced by the world today. He recognises too that something drastic has to be done to prevent massive catastrophes. This is as far as I go along with him. In fact, I disagree with just about every other point he makes ... ".

Richard St Barbe Baker: a tribute - "I picture village communities of the future living in valleys protected by sheltering trees on the high ground. They will have fruit and nut orchards and live free from disease and enjoy leisure, liberty and justice for all, living with a sense of their one-ness with the earth and with all living things ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 4, July / August 1982.

The unfolding of Darwin's thought - review of The development of Darwin's theory natural history, natural thology and natural selection 1838-1859, by Dov Ospovat, Cambridge University Press 1981. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 4, July / August 1982. "The transformation in the biological thinking of the times, in which Darwin played a key role ... transformed a paradigm that was suitable for a land based aristocratic society, into one which very much better satisfied the requirements of our fast developing urban-based industrial world ... "

The retreat from Stockholm - editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 3 May / June 1982. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). Goldsmith muses on the progress of UNEP and concludes: "It is difficult to avoid agreeing with Sir Frank Fraser Darling that 'we are all doomed'."

The super-informed society or "Many paths to nonsense: information theory applied to the living world". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 3, May / June 1982. Information theory may be useful for modern communication but is it relevant to the world of living things?

An Environment Programme - but for whom and what? - an abbreviated version of Edward Goldsmith's critique of the UNEP document, ref: UNEP/GC(SSC)/2. "If it wants a real function over and above that of offering palliatives, UNEP must have the courage to tell the truth - to tell industrialised and developing countries alike that it is development that is the scourge of mankind and destroyer of worlds..." Published as an editorial in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 2, March-April 1982.

France - country of the atom - if nuclear power seems cheap in France, it is because half the costs have been ignored. An accurate accounting of costs, direct and indirect, reveals France's massive nuclear electricity programme as a ruinously expensive folly. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 11 No 6, December 1981.

Superscience: its mythology and legitimisation - A new breed of scientist sees no contradiction between 'solving' our present ecological crisis and calling for the development of such superstar technologies as fusion and genetic engineering. But, whilst intellectually elegant, the theory underpinning their Brave New World is sadly lacking. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 11 No. 5, September / October 1981.

Thermodynamics or ecodynamics? - Scientists and philosophers have seized on the Second Law of Thermodynamics and hailed it as the key to unravelling the secrets of the Universe. But can the behaviour of the natural world really be understood through the Entropy Law, originally formulated to explain the workings of a steam engine? Published in The Ecologist Vol. 11 No. 4, July / August 1981.

The cover-up society - it is right and proper for civil servants to conspire to deceive the public over the manifold dangers inherent in the manufacture of nuclear bombs. But to tell the truth? That is quite another thing. Editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 10, December 1980.

Man-made famines - a review of The Geography of Famine, by William A. Dando. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 10, December 1980.

The ecology of health - modern health services have failed to deliver the promised goods, argues Edward Goldsmith. He attrributes this failure to the "chemical warfare" approach to treating disease and our decision, as a society, to subordinate health needs to the imperatives of the economy and industry. Originally published in The Ecologist Vol 10 Nos. 6/7, July-September 1980, then in La Medecine à la Question 1981 (France). A revised version was later released in 1988 as Chapter 4 of The Great U-Turn.

Ethnocracy: the lesson from Africa - this controversial article sets out the roots of Africa's continuing wars, strife and poverty as the outcome of the colonial powers' creation of artificial borders that defy ethnic and religious boundaries. Now frozen in the modern nations of Africa, these boundaries combined with the tribalisation of politics have created a mess from which it will be near impossible for Africa to emerge. But the federal system of Germany and the Cantons of Switzerland offer a model for a more peaceful and secure future. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 4, April / May 1980.

The scapegoat principle - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 3, March 1980, by The Editors. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

Under control? - Do the laws regulating pesticide use in Britain really protect our health and environment? Far from it. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 3, March 1980.

Pesticides create pests - Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 3, March 1980. "Natural selection assures that the fittest survive ... Those that have become the fittest and will now become selected to the exclusion of all others, are those that have developed resistance to the pesticide used... "

Ecologists in a distorting mirror - a review of Systems Ecology by H. H. Shugart and R. V. O'Neill. Goldsmith writes of "the gulf that separates professional mathematical ecologists (with a small e) from Ecologists (with a big E) such as myself who regard ecology as an approach - one that basically involves looking at problems in their total temporal and spatial context, rather than in isolation from each other as is currently the practice among most modern scientists... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 1/2 January / February 1980.

The importance of being average - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 8/9, November / December 1979. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). To calculate average exposures to pollutants, and average susceptibilities to their ill-effects, is all very well. Except that "Mr. Average does not exist. He is but a figment of the statistician's imagination."

False perspective - review of A Perspective of Environmental Pollution by Martin W. Holdgate, Cambridge University Press. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 8/9, November / December 1979.

Sir Frank Fraser Darling - a tribute to this great pioneer of ecology and conservation, who lived from 1903 -1979. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 8/9, November / December 1979. "

Can pollution be controlled? - this is a discussion of the multitude of pollutants, chemical and radiological, that are being pumped into the environment in the name of progress and development, and the failure of regulators to tackle the growing problem as to do so would challenge the principle of never-ending economic growth that threatens the entire biosphere. It was originally published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 Nos. 8 / 9, October-December 1979. This revised version appeared in 1988 as Chapter 5 of "The Great U-Turn".

A man of the trees - an indefatigable champion of forests, Richard St Barbe Baker has travelled worldwide persuading governments and people of the value of trees. He has battled on behalf of the Redwoods of California and planted trees in the Sahara in an attempt to halt the encroaching desert. Recently he visited Cornwall. Edward Goldsmith talks to him... Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 7, October / November 1979.

The need for a New Economics - "Economists can no longer predict the course of our economy. The limits of their discipline are now apparent. A broader economic theory is required to deal with the post-industrial age...". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 6, September 1979.

The future of tree diseases - What has caused the epidemics that are currently decimating our trees? The factors involved are intimately linked to economic development - and the only hope for our trees lies in de-industrialisation. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9, Nos. 4-5, August 1979.

The steady state economy - "A few of our more enlightened scientists and economists have rightly accepted that economic growth is now neither feasible ... nor desirable. Rather than allow growth to come to a halt by itself, we should seek instead purposefully to achieve a 'Steady State Economy' or an 'Equilibrium Society' ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 3, June 1979.

Genetic engineering - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 3, January / February 1979, by The Editors. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "It has always been a major plank of those who support genetic engineering that today's laboratory techniques are so sophisticated that the risks of an accident involving recombinant DNA are now almost infinitesimal ... "

Cap La Hague: chaos reigns supreme - a stinging critique of lax management and poor safety standards at France's nuclear re-processing centre. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 8 No. 6, November / December 1978.

Mellanby versus theory and fact - The attack on Professor Kenneth Mellanby, which began in "What makes Kenny run?", continues. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 8 No. 5, September / October 1978.

The hammer-bashing society - an allegory of the futility of industrialism. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 8 No. 4, July / August 1978. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

What makes Kenny run? - a critique of Professor Kenneth Mellanby, with his response. "A man of distinction, erudition and considerable personal charm ... he has a big reputation in the academic world and passes for an ardent environmentalist." Yet he is here portrayed as a cynical, self-interested collaborator in global ecocide. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 8 No. 3, May / June 1978.

Complexity and stability in the real world - does an ecosystem become more stable as it becomes more complex? Many do not think so. The problem, however, is that ‘stability' and ‘complexity' have never been defined. Published in The Ecologist Quarterly, Winter 1978.

Reprocessing the Truth - The Ecologist analyses the Windscale Report. By Edward Goldsmith, Peter Bunyard, and Nicholas Hildyard. Published by The Ecologist as a pamphlet, 1978.

The family basis of social structure - the family in its various forms is the universal basis of all human societies. However the modern family has so weakened that society has become "simply a mass of socially unrelated individuals among whom a semblance of order, however superficial, can only be maintained by means of increasingly powerful external or asystemic controls: bureaucracies, dictators ... ". This version was published as Chapter 2 of "The Stable Society" by Edward Goldsmith, The Wadebridge Press 1978. It was originally published in two parts in The Ecologist, Vol. 1 No. 1 and Vol. 1 No. 2, 1976.

De-developing the Third World - reflections following the United Nations Conference on Desertification. Development is not the solution but the problem, as it forces the sacrifice of the ecosphere in return for short term increases in material production. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 7 No. 9, November 1977.

The future of an affluent society - the case of Canada - Part Three - this article examines in depth how even Canada, a vast country blessed with abundant resources and with a realtively small population, is far from immune to the problems arising from industrialism and its associated social and economic disruption. It was published in The Ecologist vol. 7 no. 5, June 1977.

The future of an affluent society - the case of Canada - Part Two - this article examines in depth how even Canada, a vast country blessed with abundant resources and with a realtively small population, is far from immune to the problems arising from industrialism and its associated social and economic disruption. It was published in The Ecologist vol. 7 no. 5, June 1977.

The future of an affluent society - the case of Canada - Part One - this article examines in depth how even Canada, a vast country blessed with abundant resources and with a realtively small population, is far from immune to the problems arising from industrialism and its associated social and economic disruption. It was published in The Ecologist vol. 7 no. 5, June 1977.

De-industrialising society - five years after A Blueprint for Survival, Edward Goldsmith updates and reaffirms the original message, that we must create "an economically and politically de-centralised post-industrial society". The article was originally published in The Ecologist Vol. 7 No. 4, May 1977. This slightly revised version was published as Chapter 7 of The Great U-Turn.

Planning for starvation - Editorial article, The Ecologist Vol. 7 No. 2, March 1977. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

Jus Animalium - review of The Best of Friends, by John Aspinall. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 10, December 1976.

What is an electric toothbrush? - editorial article in The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 10, December 1976. An attack on reductionist science, and its insistence on the atomisation and isolation of whatever it examines. "Today's scientists wince at the suggestion that the behaviour of natural systems is purposive or directive, that, in fact, they have been designed to do particular jobs like electric toothbrushes. This, they maintain, implies 'teleology' - which is, surprisingly enough, still one of the principal taboos of the Religion of Science ... ".

Wildlife and systems theory - "Lord Zuckerman appears to regard wild animals as an amenity and nothing more. Their extermination is quite justified if this serves a higher social purpose such as combating starvation or paying for school meals ... ". Editorial article, The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 7, August - September 1976.

Oiling the wheels of the Doomsday machine - editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 6, July 1976. Some of the dire predictions made here have not been realised on the timescale anticipated. But it may only be a question of of time ...

Letter to the directors of FAO - The FAO is pursuing with zeal its aim to increase African meat and livestock production through the mass spraying of insecticide, intended to eradicate the tsetse fly. The most probable outcome is famine and the decimation of Africa's wildlife. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 6, July 1976.

Value judgements - can they be scientific? - leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 2, February 1976. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

The two Ecologies - published in The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 10, December 1975. Edward Goldsmith predicts the rise of a radical 'ecological' subculture that "rejects the industrial world because of its mediocrity, its ugliness, its unnaturalness and its hypocrisy - in fact because it fails to satisfy basic social, aesthetic and spiritual needs". Intrinsic to this movement will be a rethinking of the 'scientific' method that pervades the modern world view, and the false science of 'ecology'.

A stateman of world importance - Edward Goldsmith shows how Indira Gandhi has betrayed the Gandhiism of the Mahatma in pursuing India's industrialisation and urbanisation, and most recently in imprisoning J P Narayan, political leader of the Sarvodaya Movement. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 7, August / September 1975.

The fall of the Roman empire - in this powerful essay, Edward Goldsmith concludes that internal moral and political decay and unsustainable agriculture underlie the fall of the Roman Empire, while the Barbarian invasions were merely the coup de grace. The comparisons with our own society and misguided sense of permanence are unsettling. It was published as Chapter 1 of The Great U-Turn, also published in The Ecologist, July 1975, and Le Sauvage (France), April 1976.

Heads you win, tails I lose! - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 6, June 1975. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "After some serious thought on the global shortage of food, Drs. Reed and Tolley have come up with an undeniably original suggestion, that we put human faeces on the menu. Faeces are, apparently, 'not unpalatable after homogenisation followed by steam sterilisation, oven drying and finally, cooking.' ... "

Strategy for tomorrow - editorial article published in The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 2, February 1975. Commentary on the second Club of Rome report.

The test tube fixation - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 1, January 1975. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

Naïve correlation - published in The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 1, January 1975. A discussion of the confusions between causes, effects and coincidences that have guided Government policy on industry, health and other topics - and which have totally failed to produce the desired outcome.

How to live in cloud cuckoo land and justify it - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 4 No. 8, August 1974. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "Researchers have made the amazing discovery that there is plastic waste in the sea. Since in the UK alone we consume 1.5 million tons of plastic a year, and since our principal method of getting rid of all waste products is to dump them into the sea, one would not have expected this discovery to have caused quite so much astonishment ... "

The ecology of war - this article explains how traditional wars were ritualised conflicts in which mortality was minimised, in contrast to the mass death and destruction of modern industrial modes of warfare. Originally published in The Ecologist in May 1974, then in Le Sauvage in April 1975 (France). A revised version appeared as Chapter 6 of The Great U-Turn in 1988.

The suntan diversion - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 4 No. 6, June 1974. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "Scientific research has just revealed that battery eggs are as good as free range ones. Measurements published in Nature have shown that they only differ in their vitamin B12 content. Any difference in taste, we are assured, is without scientific basis and must therefore be purely imaginary. This is a perfect illustration of both 'The Lamp Post Lark' and 'The Suntan Diversion' - associated variants of the same basic fallacy ... "

The caviar chimera - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 4 No. 3, March 1974. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

The ecology of unemployment (original version) - A leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 4 No. 2, February 1974. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). As industry becomes ever more capital-intensive, mass unemployment becomes inevitable - unless we reverse the direction of 'development'.

Pollution by tourism - one of the first-ever critiques of mass tourism, revealing its many under-estimated impacts. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 4 No. 2, February 1974. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

The ecology of unemployment (extended version) - This short essay explains how the industrial system we live under not only creates unemployment, but created the very idea of unemployment. It was first published in The Ecologist Vol. 4 No. 2, February 1974, then in Everyman's of February 9 1975 (India). This revised version later appeared in 1988 as Chapter 3 of The Great U-Turn.

Education - what for? - this essay explores the paradox that the more we are educated, the more literacy has declined, while traditional knowledge essential for the transmission of culture to new generations is lost. Mass education, Edward Goldsmith argues, is doomed to fail in its essential task of socialising increasingly alienated younger generations. First published in The Ecologist, January 1974, then in PHP (Japan), December 1975) and Oko Journal (Switzerland), February 1975. This revised version appeared in 1988 as Chapter 2 of The Great U-Turn.

You've never had It so good - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 3 No. 11, November 1973. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "We have all been taught since our most tender childhood that science, technology and industry are enabling us to create a materialist paradise on Earth from which the basic human problems of poverty, unemployment, disease, ignorance, war and famine will have been eliminated once and for all. It is increasingly evident, however, that this is not happening ... "

Adam and Eve revisited - In this article Edward Goldsmith spells out the principles which he believes govern the behaviour of social systems, and which none - including industrial society - can violate with impunity. These principles indicate that primitive man is the only one who is actually living a sound and completely ordered existence.

Better pick the edelweiss - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 3 No. 8, August 1973. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "The balance of payments is excellent, the standard of living is high, therefore everything must be fine and our prospects excellent ... homelessness, delinquency and general demoralisation - is of little interest "

Asbestos and cancer - presenting the overwhelming case for the total prohibition of asbestos. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 3 No. 8, August 1973.

What is need? - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 3 No. 1, January 1973. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "One thing is certain: industrialisation creates needs faster than it satisfies them ... "

The priesthood of industrial society - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 2 No. 10, October 1972. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "if a proposition is classified as 'scientific', then it must be true, indeed incontestable; if on the other hand it is branded as 'unscientific', then it must be the work of a charlatan. This has provided the Scientific Priesthood with the power to prevent any undesired deviation from scientific orthodoxy, just as the Catholic establishment of the Middle Ages could excommunicate ... "

A model of behaviour - A paper originally presented to the International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems, 30 August 1972, on behalf of the Unified Science Institute, 73 Kew Green, Richmond, Surrey. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 2 No. 12, December 1972.

You can′t get there from here - Edward Goldsmith reviews the Planning and Management of Human Settlements for Environmental Quality report. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 2 No. 6 June 1972.

The social structure of the environment - Published in the "Towards a unified science" column, The Ecologist Vol. 2 No. 3 March 1972.

A Blueprint for Survival was published in January 1972, occupying all of The Ecologist Vol. 2 No.1, in advance of the world's first ever Environment Summit in Stockholm. So great was demand for the Blueprint that its was subsequently republished in paperback by Penguin books. It was written by Edward Goldsmith, Robert Allen and others.

We are all addicts - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 18, December 1971. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "I once saw a film of a European doctor teaching Samoans how to brush their teeth. Particularly striking was the fact that their teeth were white and shiny, while his were black ... "

The disintegration of pre-Islamic society in North Arabia - The decline of the many municipal religions of the city-states of North Arabia created the opening for the establishment of Islam as the national religion of the Arab people. Published in the "Towards a unified science" column, The Ecologist, Vol. 1 No. 18, December 1971.

The sanctity of life - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 15, November 1971. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "We have been taught since childhood to fear anything connected with death and decay. A corpse fills us with horror, while the scavengers that eat it and the bugs and bacteria that decompose it are among the most despised of creatures. Yet death and decay are as essential as life and growth - one would not be possible without the other ... "

So far, so good - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 16, October 1971. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "The experts assure us that current levels of lead in our air and water are safe. Scientific endeavour, it would appear, is something that confers on a proposition some measure of credibility - perhaps even downright certainty. If so, how is this achieved? ... "

Chickenowski's chicken - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 15, September 1971. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006).

The vessel without a pilot - A leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 14, August 1971. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "Unfortunately control mechanisms can occasionally break down, and this is what has happened in our society. It is increasingly out of control, and can be likened to a vessel without a pilot, whose course is determined by the random play of winds and currents ... "

Grammatical realism - Language does not merely determine how we formulate out thoughts - it underlies our entire world view. People whose mind set has been formed by different languages may have a profoundly different understanding of things. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 14, August 1971.

We can't have our cake and eat it - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 13, July 1971. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). " When, in time of drought, a tribal rainmaker fails to bring about the required rain, the tribesmen, sadly surveying their parched fields and ailing crops, do not question the efficacy of the magical rites that they performed in vain. Age-old tradition has conferred on the rainmakers a respectability that no individual failures can possibly impair ... "

Social disorganisation and its causes - Edward Goldsmith examimes the underlying causes of social breakdown, drawing from examples across the sweep of history. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 13, July 1971.

The influence of words on the study of religion - Published in the Towards a Unified Science Section in The Ecologist Vol 1 No 13 July 1971. "... 'God' means something very different to different peoples. To a Japanese he is above all the supreme ancestor. To the early Christians, he was undoubtedly a big anthropomorphic father. To the Jews of the Old Testament he was a strict, cruel and jealous supertribal chieftain. To the educated Christian of today, he is an undefinable and abstract force... "

What of Britain′s future? - this prescient article was originally published as the concluding chapter of Can Britain Survive?, published by Tom Stacey, London, 1971, and Sphere Books, London, 1971 (paperback). The book is a selection of articles from The Ecologist, together with original papers and articles from other periodicals, collected and edited by Edward Goldsmith while Editor of The Ecologist. The article was reprinted two years later in The Ecologist Vol. 3 No. 11, November 1973, with the following introductory paragraphs.

The prostitute society - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 6, December 1970, by The Editors. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "By insulting our rivers, desecrating our cities, degrading our countryside, killing off our wildlife, endangering our health with pollutants and helping to exterminate two million of our fellows, we have doubtless made quite a bit of money. What are we going to do with it? ... "

Can science be reformed? - Can science be reformed in such a way that it can contribute to the long-term benefit of mankind? The author argues that this could be so if the different disciplines into which it is at present divided were integrated into a single unified science, but such a task requires a new methodology and a new theory of knowledge. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 5, November 1970.

Is pesticide science based on false assumptions? - a leading article for The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 5, November 1970. Republished in The Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006). "The scientist is under attack. His image is deteriorating fast. No more do we see a benevolent sage whose infinite wisdom is leading to man's conquest of nature, to the elimination of disease, poverty, misery and everything else that afflicts us. Instead, to more and more, he has become an ogre who, to satisfy his own curiosity, is concocting vile poisons that are bound to get us all in the end ... "

The stable society - can we achieve it? - a sustainable society can only be stable - but how is our structurally unstable, indeed chaotic society and economy to make the transition? Published in The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 6, 1970.

Living with nature - editorial in the first ever issue of The Ecologist Vol.1 No. 1, July 1970.