Edward Goldsmith
This article may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. (June 2022) |
Edward
Goldsmith | |
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Goldsmith | |
Awards | Right Livelihood Award |
Website | www |
Edward René David Goldsmith (8 November 1928 – 21 August 2009), widely known as Teddy Goldsmith, was an Anglo-French environmentalist, writer and philosopher.
He was a member the prominent
He co-authored the influential A Blueprint for Survival with Robert Allen, becoming a founding member of the political party "People" (later renamed the Green Party), itself largely inspired by the Blueprint. Goldsmith's more conservative view of environmentalism put him at odds with socialist currents of thought which came to dominate within the Green Party.
A
A talented
Early life
Goldsmith (widely known as Teddy) was born in Paris in 1928 to a German Jewish father, Frank Goldsmith, and French mother, Marcelle Mouiller.[2]
He entered
After fulfilling his
Throughout the 1960s, he spent time travelling the world with his close friend,
Work
Primitive People's Fund
In London, at meetings of the Primitive People's Fund (the committee that founded
"Theory of a Unified Science"
After rejecting what he saw as the excessively reductionist and compartmentalised approach of mainstream academia, he spent much of his time researching and developing his own theories for the unification of the sciences.
Early on, Goldsmith had formulated a concept of the biosphere as an integrated cybernetic entity, the self-regulating parts (in which he included tribal societies) co-operating, largely unconsciously, for the mutual benefit of the whole,[8] a view that anticipated aspects of the Gaia thesis,[9] of which he was to become a leading proponent.[10]
Goldsmith was also a critic of
The Ecologist
Having established The Ecologist in 1969 with founding editors Robert Allen,
A Blueprint For Survival
Signed by over thirty of the leading scientists of the day, including Sir Julian Huxley, 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
Goldsmith and Allen argued that rather than devise imaginary utopias, as did Marxist and liberal political theorists of the time, they should instead look to the example of existing tribal peoples, who, the authors claimed, were real-life working models of societies perfectly adapted to both their long-term survival needs and the needs of the living world on which they depended. The tribal peoples alone, the authors argued, had demonstrated a viable means by which the most pressing problems facing humanity could be answered successfully.[3][dead link][18]
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.[19][20][21]
The People Party
The Blueprint was a major inspiration for the embryonic political party called "People" (later to become the Green Party,[22]) 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
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
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 starting their drilling work.[2] 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.
The Gandhi Peace Foundation
In 1974, Goldsmith spent four months with 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. It was the beginning of a long attack against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which Goldsmith and his colleagues accused of financing the destruction of the planet.[26]
In one episode, Goldsmith wrote an open letter to the then President of the World Bank, Alden W. 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".[27] At the time, the connection between large-scale development projects and social and environmental destruction had not been widely recognised, even within the environmental movement.
Forests campaign
In 1989, Goldsmith helped to organise an international campaign calling for an immediate end to the
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.[2]
The Way
In 1990, urged on by Arne Næss,[7] 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.[28] The Way (1992) was the culmination and synthesis of more than four decades of theoretical development,[7] 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 the work was already mature in Goldsmith's mind by the time that he published the first issues of The Ecologist in 1970.[29][30]
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:
- 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 Colombia (in Spanish).[2]
He continued to attend key meetings around the world[2] and involved himself with a variety of campaign organisations by becoming President of the Climate Initiatives Fund, Richmond, London;[2] a board member of the International Forum on Globalization, San Francisco, USA;[2] a founder member of Marunui Conservation Ltd., Mangawhai, New Zealand (1987);[2] and a founder member and vice-president of ECOROPA, a European ecological club and think tank (1975).[2]
Philosophy
- Degrowth
- Holism
- Human scale
- Neotribalism
- Perennial Philosophy
Controversies
In 1997, after a political split with the editorial team of The Ecologist, Goldsmith was left to run the magazine on his own. Having been absent for some years, he brought in the
The split led to a period of often-bitter criticism from some members of the political left in the environmental movement,[31][32][33] which, compounded with failing health,[34] 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",[citation needed] after addressing a symposium on Green issues organised in Paris by the GRECE (Research and Study Group on European Culture),[35] a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist.[36] It was the attending of that and another similar event[37] that had led to rising tensions with the editorial team at The Ecologist.[28] The title of Goldsmith's contribution in Paris being simply "Une société écologique: la seule alternative" (An Ecological Society: The Only Alternative).[38]
Later, in a controversial article for the Guardian newspaper, entitled "Black Shirts in Green Trousers",
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. Still, Goldsmith received affectionate support and respect from across the full spectrum of the environmental movement and from many of the people whose views and preoccupations were the focus of his theoretical and philosophical critique.[1][24]
Goldsmith's message continued to be sponsored around the world, in particular through his work with the International Forum on Globalization (IFG).
Awards
- EMCI, Natura Uomo Ambiente, 8th Symposio Ecologico International, Napoli 1979
- Right Livelihood Award "for his uncompromising critique of industrialism and promotion of environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives to it," 1991[41]
- 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, 24 February 2007
Influences
Associates
- John Aspinall (zoo owner)
- Jerry Mander
- Helena Norberg-Hodge
- Vandana Shiva
- Mae-Wan Ho
- John Papworth
- David Fleming
- Eugene Odum
- Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff
- Richard Willson Archived 6 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- Lawrence Hills
- Richard St. Barbe Baker
- James Lovelock
- The Prince of Wales
- Martin von Hildebrand
Personal life
With his first wife, Gillian Marion Pretty (later wife of "Comte" Jean-Baptiste
- Clio Goldsmith, married firstly Carlo Alessandro Puri Negri, secondly Mark Shand;
- Dido Goldsmith, married Peter Whitehead.
- Alexander Goldsmith
With his second wife, Katherine Victoria James, he had two sons: Benedict Goldsmith and Zeno Goldsmith.
He had a brother, James Goldsmith, through whom he is the uncle of Zac Goldsmith, Jemima Khan and Ben Goldsmith.
Bibliography
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 Ltd, 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 Toward the Local (Co-editor with ISBN 0-87156-865-9)
- 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
- Development as Colonialism
Notes and references
- ^ a b Schwarz, Walter (27 August 2009). "The Guardian Obituary: Edward Goldsmith". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "curriculum vitae". Edward Goldsmith. Archived from the original on 22 August 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f "The Godfather of Green by Paul Kingsnorth". Edwardgoldsmith.com. n.d. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b c Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain by Meredith Veldman. Cambridge University Press, 1994. pp.28–9
- ^ "Uncle Teddy by Fred Pearce, 1991". Edwardgoldsmith.com. 10 January 1991. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ The Stable Society by Edward Goldsmith. The Wadebridge Press, 1978. p iv
- ^ a b c The Way: an ecological worldview by Edward Goldsmith, University of Georgia Press, 1998. Introduction
- ^ "A Blueprint for Survival, The Ecologist Vol. 2, No. 1. Appendix A". Theecologist.info. 14 September 1972. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ "Teddy Goldsmith: a tribute by Peter Bunyard. "The Ecologist Online", 1st September, 2009". Theecologist.org. n.d. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ Gaia, the Thesis, the Mechanisms and the Implications, edited by Peter Bunyard and Edward Goldsmith. Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1988.
- ^ The Ecologist Vol. 20 No. 2, March–April 1990 Online Archived 6 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Ecologist Vol. 1 No. 1
- ^ The Ecologist Vol. 2 No. 1
- ^ Can Britain Survive? Edited by Edward Goldsmith. Tom Stacey, 1971
- ^ The Ecologist Vol.1, Nos 1–18.
- ^ "A Blueprint for Survival, The Ecologist Vol. 2, No. 1. Preface". Theecologist.info. 14 September 1972. Archived from the original on 7 September 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b c d "Edward Goldsmith—the Green Revolutionary. Goldhawk Films, 1990". Archived from the original on 31 March 2008. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain by Meredith Veldman. Cambridge University Press, 1994. p229-30
- ^ "A Blueprint for Survival, The Ecologist Vol. 2, No. 1". Theecologist.info. 14 September 1972. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ The Stable Society by Edward Goldsmith. The Wadebridge Press, 1978.
- ^ The Way: an ecological worldview by Edward Goldsmith, University of Georgia Press, 1998.
- ^ "A short history of the Green Party of England and Wales by Derek Wall, 1993". Another-green-world.blogspot.com. 9 October 2006. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain by Meredith Veldman. Cambridge University Press, 1994. p239
- ^ a b "The Daily Telegraph Obituary: Edward Goldsmith". The Daily Telegraph. 25 August 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ The Ecologist Vol. 5 No. 8
- ^ "The Social and Environmental Effects of Large Dams by Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard. Wadebridge Ecological Centre, 1984". Edwardgoldsmith.com. Archived from the original on 30 August 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ "The Times Obituary: Edward Goldsmith". The Times. n.d. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ a b c "The Ecologist Magazine 1970–2007: a case study" Master's thesis Kristen Harding. University of Plymouth, September 2007
- ^ Towards a Unified Science. The Ecologist Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol. 3
- ^ "A Blueprint for Survival, The Ecologist Vol. 2, No. 1. Appendices A & B". Theecologist.info. 14 September 1972. Archived from the original on 31 August 2009. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ Hildyard, Nicholas (n.d.). ""Blood" and "Culture" by Nicholas Hildyard". Thecornerhouse.org.uk. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b "Black Shirts in Green Trousers by George Monbiot". Monbiot.com. 30 April 2002. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ a b "Goldsmith: My answer". Archived from the original on 15 December 2009. Retrieved 26 August 2009.
- ^ "The ecogardeners from Tuscany by Caroline Donald". The Times. n.d. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ "Eléments pour la Civilisation Européenne", quarterly issue 81, p. 51. November 1994, Paris
- ^ "Actes des Colloques nationaux du GRECE (with Alain de Benoist) including: États-unis: danger, Paris, December 1992: Les Enjeux de l'Ecologie (The Challenges of Ecology), Paris, November 1994
- ^ ""Cooking up rightwing connections", "The Guardian", 18 July 2000". Edwardgoldsmith.com. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ "Actes du XXVIIIème colloque national du GRECE: "Gauche-Droite: la Fin d'un Systeme", Paris. Published in December 1995
- ^ Tempest, Matthew (18 February 2004). "Monbiot quits Respect over threat to Greens". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ Goldsmith, Edward (30 April 2002). "Letter to the Guardian". Edward Goldsmith. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ "Edward Goldsmith". The Right Livelihood Award. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
Further reading
- Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain by Meredith Veldman. Cambridge University Press, 1994. ISBN 0521466652
- The Godfather of Greenby Paul Kingsnorth Archived 4 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- 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 Kumar)
- Globalisation and Maori on YouTube(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 Archived 16 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- International Forum on Globalization