To anyone who breathes air, drinks water, eats food, and enjoys
nature, the Ecologist is a reliable and long-standing
British friend, covering environmental issues with dogged
assurance. The 37-year-old magazine publishes gutsy activist
journalism that takes on agrigiants like Monsanto; sharp and
soundly argued commentaries; unvarnished green consumer advice; and
revealing, deeply researched features such as the recent
explication of all the environmental costs of a BLT sandwich.
The Ecologist‘s British provenance occasionally shines
through in words like barmy and yobbishness, but
even when it celebrates the local, it draws links to the global.
And the casual stateside reader would never know that the
magazine’s editor, Zac Goldsmith, is the young scion of a blueblood
family, a conservative who’s advising the Tory party on
environmental matters, and a headline-generating rake who loves
poker and, according to recent news stories, extramarital
relations.
And perhaps all that doesn’t really matter any more than the
fact that Al Gore flies on jumbo jets. After all, the
Ecologist stands on its own merits, and Goldsmith has only
made it better since he bought it from his Uncle Teddy in 1997. As
for his Tory ties, maybe he and his magazine can help the
environmental movement broach the partisan divide. ‘A conservative
who is not also in his heart an environmentalist cannot really
legitimately be described as a conservative,’ he has said, and we
wholeheartedly agree.
Subscriptions: $44/yr. (12 issues); 718/354-1326;
www.theecologist.org.
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