#ecopolitics

Green politics, or ecopolitics as some may call it, is a political philosophy which aims to push towards a sustainable environmental, in which all living organisms on this planet, as well as the planet itself, will be able to live in peace with one another. The Green movement evolved from the Green party that was originally formed in Germany in the 1970s. The ideology of green politics goes hand in hand with that of famous ethics propagators such as Ghandi and Spinoza, along with enlightenment thinkers such as the French philosophers, Rousseau and Diderot, who shared certain key environmentalist viewpoints.

   The first political party to be created with the basis of green politics was known as the United Tasmania Group, which began in Australia in 1972, in the pursuit of fighting against deforestation. That same year, New Zealand established its own group called the Values Party, which was the first countrywide green party in the world to have contested Parliamentary seats nationally. A year later, the U.K created the first green party in Europe, known as the Ecology Party.

   A key concept to green politics revolves around the idea of participatory democracy, where people must all think on a global spectrum and act locally before thinking of making broader contributions to the environment. It also focuses largely on the importance of the human well being with subsequently corresponds to the health of the planet. Along with individualized local movements around the world, various important global organizations emerged through green politics, one of which was the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. In this conference, 28 nations attends in hopes of finding a common ground upon which they could make advancements in their pursuit for conserving and protecting the planet’s natural resources and land.

   Today, green politics incorporates many other groups, such as green anarchism, green libertarianism, and peace moments, all of which share a common desire of helping the environment as well as the future of humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom. “Left wing” greens tend to adhere to eco-socialistic principles, which follow a sort of Marxist ideology claiming that it is the fault of capitalist nations for the destruction of our planet, because of their over industrialization and exploitation of resources to the masses.

By: Amy LaGuardia

Gray, Nelson.   “Binging Blood to Ghosts: English Canadian Drama and the Ecopolitics of Place.”

 Ecocentric plays: “plays that situate human actions not as isolated social phenomena, but as profoundly connected to ecological community” (23).

 Herman Voaden: “There must be keen observation, sympathetic study, and patient ‘awareness’ of a new environment” (Introduction, xv) (24). Walt Whitman’s ability to derive distinct literary forms from the specifics of their lands. Respond to the natural.

 The plays he discusses engage with physical surroundings – home, dwelling. Discussions of nature. What is the relationship with the land? Play as parable, nature as metaphor. The role of nature in characterization, in where strength comes from or what strength is pitted against. “a conquering relation to place” (26). Estrangement to or from the land. Master nature? Subjugate indigenous people/traditions/culture? Evince emerging environmental awareness? Reciprocal relationship with the land? Are attempt to subjugate nature unwise and dangerous? Exile? Displacement from land? For whom is the land life itself? How specific is place? Connect to a context of environmental injustice? Place-making?

 “The four plays discussed in this chapter prompt us to consider whether a reaffirmed relationship with the nonhuman physical world might offer a way to move beyond the fears and suspicions associated with difference and toward a more heterogeneous community committed to a respect for what we share: our place as members of the biosphere and our ultimate dependence on it. Otherwise, it looks as if we are fated to fall in line with Darwin’s observations that successful species, as they continue to expand, will use up more and more of the resources around them until, in the face of scarcity, they turn upon one another” (31).

 An ecopolitics of place