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romanticism. This suggests that environmental awareness is merely a temporary reaction to industrial progress and is likely to be restricted to the young and the materially affluent. Finally, perhaps the most daunting challenge confronting ecologism is the very scale of the changes it calls for. It does not merely demand economic transformation or the reordering of political power; it seeks to establish nothing less than a new mode of being, a different way of experiencing and understanding existence.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
y y How does an ecocentric perspective challenge conventional approaches to politics? y y Is ‘enlightened’ anthropocentrism a contradiction in terms? y y Why have ecological thinkers been ambivalent about science? y y Should all thinking strive to be ‘systematic’? y y What are the features of a sustainable economy? y y How has ecologism extended conventional moral thinking? y y Do we have obligations to young people and future generations, and if so, how far do they extend?
y y Why and how have green theorists rethought the nature of human fulfilment? y y Which political ideologies are most compatible with ecological thinking, and why? y y To what extent can the goals of ecologism only be achieved through radical social change? y y Does deep ecology constitute the philosophical core of green political thought? y y Can ecologism ever be electorally and politically viable? Gabrielson, T. et al. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory (2016). The most authoritative text compiling the latest scholarship and research on green ideology, and its interactions with other ideologies. Solutions Journal www.thesolutionsjournal.com. This open access peer-reviewed journal profiles environmental policy solutions as well as commentary and ideas on contemporary issues from a green standpoint.
FURTHER READING
Carter, N. The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy , 3rd edn (2018). An excellent general introduction to environmental politics and its application in activism and government. Dobson, A. Green Political Thought (2007). An accessible and useful account of the ideas behind green politics; a classic text on the subject. Dyzek, J. & Schlosberg, D. Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader , 2nd edn (2005). A broad collection of readings highlighting key issues, debates and perspectives within environmental political discourse.
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