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The Ecologist

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The Ecologist

The Ecologist was a British environmental journal/magazine, published from 1970 to 2009. Founded by Edward Goldsmith, it addressed a wide range of environmental subjects and promoted an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinion articles. The Ecologist encouraged its readers to tackle global issues on a local scale. After cessation of its print edition in July 2009, The Ecologist continued as an online magazine. In mid-2012, it merged with Resurgence magazine, edited by Satish Kumar, with the first issue of the new Resurgence & Ecologist appearing in print in September 2012. The Ecologist was based in London.

The Ecologist emerged from the first wave of environmental awareness that followed the seminal book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which highlighted the dangers of bio-accumulative pesticides within food chains, and that culminated in the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment at Stockholm in 1972. This period also saw the establishment of leading environmental organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

The Ecologist was created in 1970 by Edward Goldsmith as a forum for himself and other academics to publish papers that were deemed too radical to be published in other magazines or the mainstream press. It progressed from a small academic journal with an initial circulation of only 400, to one of the world’s leading environmental affairs magazines with monthly sales (including subscriptions and newsstand) of 20,000.

As the magazine grew, its coverage became broader and its style more journalistic. The Ecologist covered topics including food, climate change, news, corporate affairs, chain stores, chemicals, pesticides and the corporatisation of the mass media. It was accused of being both left and right wing in its agenda, but did not follow the doctrine of any specific movement. It claimed to help readers ‘rethink basic assumptions’ about the world.

On 8 April 2009, The Ecologist announced that it was relaunching solely online and that the July issue would be its last print edition. The website launched on 19 June 2009. Publication of The Ecologist's online, monthly newsletters ceased with the May 2012 issue.

In June 2012 The Ecologist merged with Resurgence Magazine. A new, merged Resurgence & Ecologist print publication appeared in September 2012. The Ecologist continues to publish online with new articles added daily.

As global concern and campaigning around climate change has increased, The Ecologist has focused more firmly on climate change and its consequences, becoming more 'activist' in its approach and orienting its content towards campaigners for climate justice. Its 2023-6 Strategy document outlines:

The environment movement has, because of climate breakdown, become increasingly aware and concerned about the impacts of the fossil fuel economy on society and on nature. The Ecologist provides information that is vital to all the campaigns attempting to end the fossil fuel economy and usher in an era of renewable energy and regenerative alternatives from degrowth policies to Green New Deals.

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