Week 12

Green Politics or Ecology as Ideology

Deadlines:

Quizzes and Part A Question:   Wednesday 11/13 at 11:30 pm in Webcourses.

Part B Tasks:                                 Wednesday 11/13 at 11:30 pm in Yellowdig.

ASSIGNED MATERIALS

View: Oil on Ice, 57 minutes, available for online streaming from the UCF Library, at:

https://go.openathens.net/redirector/ucf.edu?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvideo.alexanderstreet.com%2Fwatch%2Foil-on-iceLinks to an external site.

Read: Suzuki, Declaration of Interdependence (1 page), in Files under Assigned Readings.

Read: Ball et al. chapter 9. Green Politics

PRESENTATION

Past students in this course have often expressed the views that they never thought of green politics (or political ecology) as an ideology. Well, it is one! Green politics fulfills the four functions defined in chapter one for an ideology: explanation; evaluation; orientation; definition of a political program. It is also patterned on the triadic model of freedom.

This short chapter (19 pages) is supplemented by one short reading (Suzuki) and one-hour long documentary produced by the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the U.S.

David Suzuki’s Declaration of Interdependence provides a forceful statement of the core idea of green politics: all life forms are interdependent; abusing one life form undermines all others, including human life.

Suzuki is a prominent Canadian hard science academic and environmental activist. He also has been leading for years the science TV program titled The Nature of Things on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (Overview available at: https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/Links to an external site.Links to an external site.)

The video documentary, Oil on Ice, articulates the green ideological viewpoint on a concrete issue: to drill or not to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)? That issue has raged on the federal political agenda on and off for decades. The video was produced in 2004. Until recently, environmentalists succeeded in blocking pressure to open ANWR for oil drilling. However, with the election of Donald Trump to the White House and Republican control over both chambers of Congress, the protected area within ANWR was opened to drilling by legislative change in early 2017.

More recently, President Biden issued an executive order suspending the permission to drill oil in the refuge. (See: www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/biden-suspends-oil-drilling-leases-alaska-s-arctic-refuge-n1269270Links to an external site.Links to an external site.)

The saga goes on: the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to facilitate further oil exploitation in ANWR.

The discussion of the relation between green politics and democracy in Ball et al. (pp. 331-2) must be taken with a large grain of salt. One strain of green politics does indeed put its faith in decentralized grass-roots democracy. But that is one strain only. Like any ideology, green politics comes in many variants. Other strains of green politics have little faith in decentralized governance and look at national states and international cooperation for forums of green action and governance. That strain is neglected by Ball et al.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Describe the green critique of the other ideologies examined in preceding chapters.
2. Describe the main features of an emerging green ideology
3. Describe key differences within the green movement.
4. Explain how problems of time horizons and collective action are especially troublesome for environmentalists.
5. Discuss what a “green” democracy might look like.

PART A TASKS in Webcourses

See Tips for Posting in Part A in Files.

Q-0:  Is there an idea or a claim expressed in the readings that you find difficult, confusing, or unclear? If so, tell us which idea this is. Cite the document title and page where you encountered this idea. We cannot help you if the description of what is unclear is overly broad. You do not need to answer this question. If everything is clear, there is not point in answering. Q-0 is NOT for issues or ideas you understand but disagree with. It is only for ideas or claims you do not understand. If you have a disagreement or simply a doubt about an idea contained in the readings, you make that the basis of your critical question in Part B (Packback). Another student might answer your question there.

Q-1: Which idea(s) or claim(s) expressed in the readings (and viewing) did you find the most interesting or meaningful? Summarize that idea, claim or piece of information. Explain why you found it meaningful. Does it clarify something important in your mind? If so, what? Does it change something important in your thinking? If so, again what?

200 words minimum. State your word count.

 NOTE: In answering the question in Part A, you must strive to demonstrate that you reflected on the meaning of the readings and viewing. There is no right or wrong answer. There are only answers demonstrating shallow and perfunctory or serious and deep reflections on the material. We want to see the latter.

Your Part A answer is graded 50% for thoughtful content and 50% for proficient writing.

PART B TASKS in Yellowdig

Week 12 Instructor’s Question:

Are the Greens really in favor of Freedom?

Advocates of Green politics usually claim to stand for freedom and democracy. Why then do they argue for limiting in a variety of ways people’s freedom to do as they please without regard for the environment? What kind of freedom is that? Is Green ideology then self-contradictory?

Or does green ideology appropriately respond to the interdependence between all life forms, human and non-human? Indeed, can liberty properly understood remain oblivious to constraints imposed by reality? Are we unfree when we adjust our behavior to necessity? Is the person claiming he/she can jump from the tenth floor and land safely on the ground by flapping both arms like a bird truly a free person? Or merely a lunatic? Here is a better example: is the person abusing alcohol freer than the person moderating his or her consumption to levels compatible with keeping in good health and long life? (Alcohol generates a pleasurable state of mind but it is also detrimental to good health.)