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When Resurgence magazine was first published in 1966 not a single government had a ministry of the environment. No newspaper had a correspondent covering environmental issues. Not a single wind turbine was producing renewable electricity in the UK. A plant-based diet was a rarity.
The past 60 years have seen a steady and significant increase in ecological awareness and action. In 1970 The Ecologist magazine was launched. Friends of the Earth UK and Greenpeace were established in 1971. The first UN conference on the environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. The Green Party was founded in the UK (under a different name) in 1972, and in Germany in 1980. These are just a few examples and some of the highlights to show how the green movement has grown. At the grassroots level tens of thousands of individuals and groups around the world have been active in initiating projects and taking actions to address the challenges facing our precious planet Earth.
At Resurgence we have seen how the ecological challenges facing our planet are closely connected with the social, scientific and spiritual challenges of our time. Many great thinkers and visionaries have come forward with new insights and ideas that have helped to deepen and broaden our understanding of the ecological crisis. E.F. Schumacher wrote a famous essay on Buddhist economics, published in Resurgence magazine in 1968.
James Lovelock came up with the groundbreaking hypothesis of Gaia: the Earth as a living organism. He announced this idea in 1972 in Atmospheric Environment journal. He said to me, “Gaia, our mother Earth, doesn’t belong to us. We belong to Gaia, the Earth!”
What Lovelock did in scientific ecology, Arne Naess did in philosophical ecology. In 1973 he published his profound paper contrasting deep ecology with shallow ecology, and that gave the environment movement a new dimension and a unique perspective on human–Nature relationships. At that point it became clear that Nature has intrinsic value. Nature is a community of living beings.
These three thinkers became the pioneers of a holistic approach to ecology, which was further advanced and expanded by many scientists, philosophers and visionaries. In 1991 Schumacher College was established to bring these ideas into practice and into public dialogue. Fritjof Capra, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Rupert Sheldrake, Caroline Lucas, Joanna Macy, Jane Goodall, Vandana Shiva and many others have been the champions of this new ecological worldview, as explored at Schumacher College, in Resurgence and worldwide.
We will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of Resurgence in September this year at Wadham College, Oxford. I hope to see many of you there.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude, appreciation and thanks to all our members, readers, contributors, colleagues and donors, who have supported, cherished and are companions on this journey of transformation.
Yes, it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness! Every one of us can be a candle and can light a candle. One candle can light another candle. Let there be countless candles in the world!
