Edward Goldsmith

Who was Edward Goldsmith?

Edward René David Goldsmith, 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 A Blueprint for Survival with Robert Prescott-Allen, becoming a founding member of the political party "People", 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.