Founded by Edward Goldsmith,[2] it addressed a wide range of environmental subjects and promoted an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinion articles.

[5] 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.

The Ecologist covered topics including food, climate change, news, corporate affairs, chain stores, chemicals, pesticides and the corporatisation of the mass media.

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.

[9]It has also developed a more explicit anti-capitalist line than under Goldsmith's leadership, with its 2023-6 Strategy document arguing: "the impacts of unregulated capitalist economies on the natural environment globally are devastating, representing an existential threat to human societies and life itself in the medium to long term.

With the inheritance left to him by his father, Major Frank Goldsmith, Edward fulfilled his idea of creating a magazine which doubled as a platform for academic writers who were concerned about the world around them.

When Hildyard left in 1997, Edward Goldsmith’s initial intention was that the Board of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), directed by Helena Norberg-Hodge, should manage The Ecologist.

In the 10 years that Zac Goldsmith was editor, he developed The Ecologist into a more conventional-looking publication that could compete visually with other current affairs titles, while still maintaining its diverse content.

His influence continued in supporting The Ecologist financially but Goldsmith stepped down as editor in June 2007, saying, "The magazine has to remain impartial and feel free to have a go at the Government and at the Conservatives.

[1] Contributors to The Ecologist have included Jonathon Porritt, Mark Lynas, Paul Kingsnorth, who was the magazine's deputy editor from 1999 to 2001, Tom Hodgkinson, Joss Garman, Chris Busby and Georgina Downs.