60 Transformative Years

60 Transformative Years
Issue 354 • January/February 2026

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 was launched. Friends of the Earth UK and Greenpeace were established in 1971 and the first UN conference on the environment was held in Stockholm in 1972. 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 insights that have helped to deepen our understanding of the ecological crisis.

We invited some of our green champions to reflect and narrate their stories, including Rupert Read, Francesca Price, John Elkington, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Paul Allen and Jonathon Porritt. These authors and activists are messengers of hope from the bottom up. Real change in the world will come from you and me. We are the leaders of change. 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!

In this special anniversary issue, we celebrate 60 truly transformative and remarkable years.

Highlights
A messenger of hope: David Lorimer
Dare to dream: Tim Smit
A love economy: Satish Kumar
Building a movement of movements: Francesca Price
One island – many visions: Anna Gillespie