Opposing industrialism

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.

For the oil industry, human survival is just not economic - an article by Edward Goldsmith and Simon Retallack for the Doomsday Funbook (Jon Carpenter Books, February 2006); written in March 1997, and updated on 22 November 2002. "International attempts to control climate change have been a primary target for corporate lobbyists. Their aim throughout has been to delay, damage and, if at all possible, destroy the rather feeble measures that have been proposed. Perhaps the most damaging response has come from oil industry chiefs like Lee Raymond, President of Exxon-Mobil ... "

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.

Gaia and the global corporations (original version) - the keynote address delivered to the International Forum on Globalization in April 1998. It argues for "a network of loosely connected local economies ... rooted in a particular society to which they are accountable economically, socially, ecologically, and morally, and catering largely, though not entirely, for local and regional markets ... ".

The Tory Record - Introduction - This is the introduction to The Tory Record - an assessment, published by Jon Carpenter Publishing in 1997 on behalf of The Commission for Assessing the Conservative Record. The booklet was inspired by Teddy Goldsmith, who also wrote the introduction, while cartoons were by the incomparable Richard Willson. It contains 18 additional chapters by respected campaigners in their fields.

Green Revolutionary - Part 2 - The Solution: people and planet - a TV documentary by Edward Goldsmith, first broadcast on Channel 4 (UK) in 1990 as part of the Fragile Earth series. "Teddy Goldsmith is the grandfather of the modern environmental movement. He argues that the planetary crisis facing us today cannot be solved by further economic progress and technological innovation. Planet Earth can only be saved from geocide through the co-operative efforts of ordinary people guided by their faith in traditional wisdom."

Green Revolutionary - Part 1 - The Problem: industrial society - a TV documentary by Edward Goldsmith, first broadcast on Channel 4 (UK) in 1990 as part of the Fragile Earth series. "Teddy Goldsmith is the grandfather of the modern environmental movement. He argues that the planetary crisis facing us today cannot be solved by further economic progress and technological innovation. Planet Earth can only be saved from geocide through the co-operative efforts of ordinary people guided by their faith in traditional wisdom."

The costs of modernization - Part One of the introduction to Green Britain or Industrial Wasteland by Edward Goldsmith and Nicholas Hildyard (Polity Press, February 1988).

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 costs of modernisation - "There is a direct, historical link between the increasingly serious environmental problems we are experiencing today and the 'modernisation' of our economic activities ... ". Co-authored by Nicholas Hildyard, co-editor of The Ecologist this article is the Introduction to Green Britain or Industrial Wasteland (Polity Press, 1986).

A theoretical non-disciplinary approach to environmental education - "If environmental education is to succeed in preventing people from destroying their natural environment, then it must consist of very much more than communicating to our youth apparently value-free scientific knowledge of the importance of preserving what remains of it ... ". Unpublished, 1985.

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.

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.

Maintenance: a limit to growth - Editorial article by Edward Goldsmith published in the Ecologist Quarterly, autumn 1978. While we press on with ever-greater expenditures on new capital plant and infrastructure, we are increasingly unable to finance the maintenance of what we already have, and thus "Our growing inability to maintain the physical infrastructure of our industrial society constitutes in itself, yet another limit to growth."

Blind mans buff - this article published in the Ecologist Quarterly of Spring 1978, argues that "Seek not, and ye shall not find" is the new mantra of the industrial - scientific research complex when it comes to the possibility of discovering inconvenient truths about the dangers of pesticides, food additives, agricultural antibiotics, radiation, and sugar.

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 Reykjavik Conference on the Environmental Future - a group of eminent scientists whose specialised work has led them to consider different aspects of the environmental crisis met at Reykjavik. This account of their meeting, and the uncompromising conclusions they reached, was published in The Ecologist Vol. 7 No. 6, July 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.

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).

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 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.

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).

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 ... "