“Terre à Terre” on 5 September had a rerun of an interview with Teddy Goldsmith, an Anglo-French activist who founded The Ecologist and whose co-edited The Case Against the Global Economy. He died on 21 August.

He had an apocaplyptic view of the consequences of climate change and his rejection of cities reminded me of Derrick Jensen’s thoughts in “Endgame”, basically that cities are unsustainable social structures.

I liked his independence of mind. I am, however, skeptical to his friendship with James Lovelock. I attended a conference with Lovelock two years ago and his support of nuclear power is disturbing, not to mention his arrogance when I expressed some criticism.

The part that caught my attention the most was Goldsmith’s criticism of modern science as opposed to the science of Plato and Arisotle. Modern scientists are specialising in specific fields and do not reflect about the consequences of their work. That was precisely one of my main areas of concern when I was working as a researcher. Unless you’re a genius the pressure to produce articles is too big that you can spend time on “unproductive” activities. In a way, researchers are a modern form of assembly-line-workers.