Green politics
[1][2][3] It began taking shape in the western world in the 1970s; since then green parties have developed and established themselves in many countries around the globe and have achieved some electoral success.
[6] The term political ecology is sometimes used in academic circles, but it has come to represent an interdisciplinary field of study as the academic discipline offers wide-ranging studies integrating ecological social sciences with political economy in topics such as degradation and marginalization, environmental conflict, conservation and control and environmental identities and social movements.
[11][12] These people influenced green thought in their advocacy of long-term seventh generation foresight, and on the personal responsibility of every individual to make moral choices.
[13] The philosophical roots of environmentalism can be traced back to enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau in France, and later the author and naturalist Thoreau in America.
[14] Organised environmentalism began in late 19th-century Europe and the United States, as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution with its emphasis on unbridled economic expansion.
[15] "Green politics" first began as conservation and preservation movements, such as the Sierra Club, founded in San Francisco in 1892.
[20] The first political party to be created with its basis in environmental issues was the United Tasmania Group, founded in Australia in March 1972 to fight against deforestation and the creation of a dam that would damage Lake Pedder; whilst it only gained three percent in state elections, it inspired the creation of Green parties all over the world.
They started as a provisional coalition of civic groups and political campaigns which, together, felt their interests were not expressed by the conventional parties.
The first Canadian foray into green politics took place in the Maritimes when 11 independent candidates (including one in Montreal and one in Toronto) ran in the 1980 federal election under the banner of the Small Party.
In 2001, they reached an agreement to end reliance on nuclear power in Germany, and agreed to remain in coalition and support the German government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the 2001 Afghan War.
Van der Bellen placed second in the election's first round with 21.3% of the vote, the best result for the Austrian Greens in their history.
refer to productivism, consumerism and scientism[citation needed] as "grey", as contrasted with "green", economic views.
Some currents of green politics place automobile and agribusiness subsidies in this category, as they may harm human health.
eco-capitalists, on the other hand, believe that the free market system, with some modification, is capable of addressing ecological problems.
According to its adherents, it is crucial that citizens play a direct role in the decisions that influence their lives and their environment.
Therefore, green politics seeks to increase the role of deliberative democracy,[28] based on direct citizen involvement and consensus decision making, wherever it is feasible.
Indeed, many green parties emphasize individual and grassroots action at the local and regional levels over electoral politics.
Some Greens advocate new ways of organizing authority to increase local control, including urban secession, bioregional democracy, and co-operative/local stakeholder ownership.
Academics Stand Against Poverty states "it is paradoxical for universities to remain invested in fossil fuel companies".
Thomas Pogge says that the fossil fuel divestment movement can increase political pressure at events like the international climate change conference (COP).
[35][36] Green politics mostly opposes nuclear fission power and the buildup of persistent organic pollutants, supporting adherence to the precautionary principle, by which technologies are rejected unless they can be proven to not cause significant harm to the health of living things or the biosphere.
[37] Green platforms generally favor tariffs on fossil fuels, restricting genetically modified organisms, and protections for ecoregions or communities.
[citation needed] The Green Party supports phasing out of nuclear power, coal, and incineration of waste.
[38] However, the Green Party in Finland has come out against its previous anti-nuclear stance and has stated that addressing global warming in the next 20 years is impossible without expanding nuclear power.
As such, the ideal Green Party is thought to grow from the bottom up, from neighborhood to municipal to (eco-)regional to national levels.
Ingrid Betancourt and the party's Campaign Manager, Claire Rojas, were kidnapped by a hard-line faction of FARC on 7 March 2002, while travelling in FARC-controlled territory.
Bob Brown, the leader of the Australian Greens, went to Colombia, as did an envoy from the European Federation, Alain Lipietz, who issued a report.
Green Parties attended from Australia, Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, Mauritius, Uganda, Cameroon, the Republic of Cyprus, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, the US, Mexico and Chile.
