Wellington celebrates life of Edward Goldsmith

Edward Goldsmith

The life of Edward Goldsmith, pioneering ecologist and critic of free markets and globalisation, will be celebrated at a memorial service at St James Church in Piccadilly London on December 1, and here in Wellington at Crossways on December 3. Widely known as Teddy, Edward Goldsmith's New Zealand connection came through his marriage to New Zealander, Katherine Victoria James, and with her he made many friends here. He contributed to the Green Party in NZ and to Green parties around the world and in 2002 he set up Pacific Ecologist in Wellington , a magazine he enjoyed for its similarity in style to the early UK Ecologist. He also gave radio interviews and spoke at public meetings around NZ, once exhorting New Zealanders to dig up genetically modified crops.

His sense of humour and concern for humanity are shown in his most recent collection of short articles with cartoons in “The Doomsday Funbook,” epitomised by one article titled, “For Exxon-Mobil, human survival is just not economic.” He founded The Ecologist in the UK in 1969, and continued to lecture and write extensively, including “Green Britain or Industrial Wasteland” (1988) and The Case Against the Global Economy and for a return to the local (2001). His great philosophical discourse “The Way: towards an ecological world view” appeared in 1998. Teddy perceived high-consuming industrial societies dependent on finite fossil fuels as essentially short-lived and aberrant. He believed only small-scale, low-consuming societies are truly viable and opposed the World Bank’s plans to impose the industrial development model on remaining traditional societies in the third world. He also took direct action against large dams, nuclear power stations and once presented the UN with a petition signed by three million people calling attention to rainforest destruction.

He was a champion of conservation and organic farming and was the elder brother of billionaire Sir James Goldsmith, who died before him. For over 40 years Teddy continued a relenteless critique on the destruction of the natural world by industrial society. He died aged 80 on August 21 in his house in Tuscany, a converted convent, overlooking one of his favourite places in the world, the mediaeval city of Siena . The Siennese acknowledged Teddy as one of their own, so when word got out he was unwell only days before his death, people flocked from the City to pay their respects to a man they admired for his wisdom, humanity and also his sense of fun. A Celebration of Edward Goldsmith’s life will take place at Crossways, 5 Roxburgh Street , Mt Victoria , on December 3 from 5.30 to 7.00pm. For more information phone 04) 389 5384 or email the editor of Pacific Ecologist, Kay Weir at pirmeditor[at]paradise.net.nz

ENDS

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