Category:Green Politics

Going Green

Green Politics, Environmental Security

Protecting Communities, Protecting the Future

GreenPolicy360 Siterunner:

Green politics in the form of an international Green Party started up in the 1970s and '80s at the frontlines of the Cold War.

The beginnings of green politics can be found in its focus as a peace movement and anti-nuclear weapons voice calling for moving beyond the Cold War and toward a "peace dividend".

As the Cold War of the 20th Century shifted in the 1990s, a new version of nuclear weapons escalation began and is now fully upon us and again has become a critical, existential political issue.

GreenPolicy360 renews a green politics of peace, environmental security, and a vision of global, national and local politics that brings shared "indivisible" security together with national and community security.

Green politics and our GreenPolicy360 network looks to new definitions of national and global security as a rising threat looms.

Green politics is, in its contemplation, discernment, its 'vita activa', a modern environmental movement.

Green politics is about hopeful vision, democratic participation, and nonviolent action.

Join in, make a positive difference, be a planet citizen, become your full self.

Planet Citizens

'Out in Front' | Local & Global

As environments change, we change, communities change in order to survive. 'Nature's strategy of survival is diversity' as it has been said by those who look ... and adaptation is a smart strategy to adopt when we face challenges that go beyond what is sometimes called 'quotidian', the day to day. When it comes to seeing the big picture, an extended horizon and a larger struggle presenting itself -- politics that concerns of future generations.

Today's human responsibility is to look to the future -- Earth is in our hands -- and politics, narrow or deep and diverse will shape how our generation is judged...

Over the years, your GreenPolicy360 siterunner has spoken and written of a "politics of values" and "values-based politics. Ethics, eco-ethics, preserving and protecting a 'Living Earth' is at the forefront of green politics...

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Eco-ethics

https://greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Living_Earth.png

From 'Transcendentalists', to Conservationism, to a Modern Environmental Movement

In December 1968, a first image, "Earthrise", of our blue-green Planet Earth from Apollo 8 opes a generation's eyes

Never before seen photos, shown in news around the world, inspire new politics, green politics

Generation Green

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Generation_Green

Environmental movement

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Environmental_movement

Beginnings of the Modern Environmental Movement

* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/1969_beginnings_of_the_modern_environmental_movement.pdf

* https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Day_Memories_on_the_50th_Anniversary

GreenPolicy360 and our associate Strategic Demands call for a move away from orthodoxy -- seeing security in military terms -- and re-envisioning security in terms of generational survival.

Climate Problems, Climate Solutions

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_Problems,_Climate_Solutions

"We have to identify the problem, then act in many ways to solve the problem. Global warming is the threat of our times."

-- Jerry Brown, California Governor

"We’re going to need to use every tool in the toolbox if we’re going to solve this problem."

-- Michael E. Mann

Climate Change, a Global Crisis, a Global Challenge

Climate Policy

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Planet Citizen Action

New Definitions, New Visions of Security

New Definitions of National Security

Environmental Security

Environmental Security - National Security

Visit our associated research organization, Strategic Demands / StratDem, for more on the politics of shared, common security

• http://www.strategicdemands.com

Strategic Demands ... Security is Indivisible

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Strategic_Demands

Green Politics: In the 1970s/80s Out in Front of Nuclear Weapons Reduction

Decades of Advocacy for Sane Nuclear Arms Treaties and Non-proliferation Controls

https://strategicdemands.com/nuclear-issues-cold-war-2-0/

https://strategicdemands.com/costsofwar/

https://strategicdemands.com/new-definitions-of-security/

https://strategicdemands.com/surviving-victory-from-the-archive/

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Each of us can make a positive difference ....

Be a 'Planet Citizen'

Earth Is In Our Hands

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Anthropocene

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Science_Vital_Signs

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Right_Now

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of “nonviolent weapons” at their disposal. Listed below are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.

A description and historical examples of each can be found in volume two of The Politics of Nonviolent Action, by Gene Sharp

• https://www.aeinstein.org/nonviolentaction/198-methods-of-nonviolent-action/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Sharp

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Politics_of_Nonviolent_Action

File:Methods of Nonviolent Action.pdf

198 Methods of Political Nonviolent Action (Listed)

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Green Politics, Going Green in Every Community

Community-to-Community

Green Best Practices

A Whole Earth Point of View

* http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Whole_Earth

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GreenLinks/Permalink

Green Politics International

Green parties are described often as politically "neither left nor right but out in front"

Green values on environmental, social justice and peace politics, and Green parties around the world are creating new and visionary ways to approach political issues and strive toward new definitions of environmental security...

Green parties are diverse in their political formations and are established and active in approximately 1/2 of the countries of the world...

Green parties bring forward political action based on a foundation of values:

Green Values / Four Pillars of the Green Party

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Green Party in the United States

Opportunities and Setbacks

See more about success and setbacks here -- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Green_Party

Early History of the US Green Party

“The goal of our founding platform was to have a Green Party policy foundation on which Green candidates could run ‘serious, credible, platform-based campaigns’, that is, to succeed in the goal of effective political campaigning taking the Green Party positions in the platform and turning them into reality.”

- Steven Schmidt, Green Platform chair 1995-2001

GreenPartyplatform cover of founding-platdoc-2000 s.png

US Green Party National Platform - Official National Platform

Approved in 2000 / National Green Party Convention / Denver, CO

• http://gpus.org/committees/platform-committee/2000-platform/

Green Party founding platform / 2000 / PDF

Founding U.S. Green Platform and First Presidential Campaign

– Presented by Steven Schmidt to the German Historical Institute Conference in Washington DC

Founding US Green Party Platform and First Presidential Campaign via Green Institute

The Ten Key Values of the Green Party of the US_'the KVs' of Founding Platform approved in Denver, CO, 2000

The U.S. Green Party "Ten Key Values"

https://www.scribd.com/doc/253446615/The-Ten-Key-Values-of-the-Green-Party-of-the-US-the-KVs-of-Founding-Platform-approved-in-Denver-CO-2000

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As I look back at the drafting of the U.S. Green Party's Key Values adopted formally as I presented them to the 2000 national Green Party Convention in Denver, along with the founding Green Party national platform, it remains for future greens, whether formally affiliated with the Green Party in the US or greens who share core values of Green parties to do their best in bringing the values and positions of green thought into reality.

The politics of the present era clearly demand the independent, future-oriented vision of green, environmentally focused 'planet citizens'...

-- SJS March 2015

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Far Beyond Green Party Politics, Green Politics Carries the Message

The green message goes well beyond political parties and, at its best moments, touches all of our lives. A authentic green politics is connected and makes connections across political parties. Green activism connects through a rainbow of political groups, coalitions, organizations and political actions. Going green is everyday politics, individual and global.

Green Connections Across the Spectrum

GreenLinks (PDF) - Dec2016

Green Networking

A 360° Interconnected World

http://www.planetcitizen.org

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Anthropocene

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Overview_Effect

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Greens and the World Wide Web, New Interconnections and Internet

'Eco Operating System', by Steven Schmidt

Digital Rights Movement

Earthviews 360

Climate News

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_News

Climate Action 360 / "Thin Blue"

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Look_at_how_thin_our_atmosphere_is

New Definitions of Security, Local/National and Global

Nuclear Nonproliferation

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Nuclear_Nonproliferation

(Via GreenPolicy360's Associate - Strategic Demands)

Eco-nomics, a "New Economy" Movement

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https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Your_vote.png

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Going Green

PlanetCitizen

SJS / Siterunner:

Going green begins with a decision, a decision to go where you want to go, a step at a time at first, choosing to create waves, waves that ripple out to create more waves...

Being green is to be a planet citizen.

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Reaching Out: The US Green Party Platform Committee Presents a Proposed 'common Ground Platform

SJS / GreenPolicy360 Siterunner: Our formative U.S. Green Party, after the 1996 campaign, reached out to European Green parties and I worked via our new Platcom to draft a first-ever "Common Ground" document articulating core, shared U.S./European Green party values and positions. Following is what we presented as was approved and passed in Paris in 1999.

ASGP*/EFGP* GREEN COMMON GROUND STATEMENT

The Association of US State Green Parties* and European Federation of Green Parties Approve a First-Ever "Common Ground Platform"*

Presented by Steven Schmidt, US Green Platform Chairperson/Passed at the 2nd Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties - February 1999

*The ASGP is now the Green Party of the United States -- http://www.gp.org

*The EFGP is now the European Green Party -- http://europeangreens.eu/front

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US-EUROPEAN GREEN PARTIES 'COMMON GROUND PLATFORM' TEXT

INTRODUCTION

The evolving relationship of the U.S. Greens and European Federation of Green Parties is cause for great optimism. The partnership of the Association of U.S. Green Parties (ASGP) and Committee of the European Federation (EFGP) is in its initial formative stages. As we continue to grow in strength and numbers, we submit that the future of political thought will look to our Green ideas and values as a foundation for political action.

Our responsibility is to challenge conventional wisdom and create a climate of political change. As humankind approaches the beginning of a new millennium, Greens globally will continue to press for comprehensive expansion of rights, for social justice, peace and the protection of our common heritage and environment.

At this historic moment, with vision and purpose, we advance our first mutual platform document - a U.S./European "Green Common Ground Statement".

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HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS

We believe that the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

We recognize that clean air, clean water, fertile soil, diverse plant and animal life, and the ability to derive a living from the bounty of the earth is a birthright of all living beings.

We believe that all people have a right to food, housing, education, medical care, a living wage job and support in times of hardship.

We oppose all forms of discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, age, or sexual orientation. We support the rights of all individuals, regardless of ability, to strive for personal fulfillment and to live with dignity.

We support civil liberties that are the basis of individual freedom: freedom of speech and information; the right to peaceful assembly; freedom of religion; the right to vote in democratic elections; the right to fair public trial and open, humane and accountable legal processes.

We support a woman's right to full reproductive choice.

We support the right to asylum and refugee status.

We condemn the use of torture and the death penalty.

We condemn child labor and the oppression of women through forced prostitution and sterilization.

PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

We believe the ever-growing expansion of unregulated, inappropriate-scale profit-making interests, the limits of the resource base that these interests are trying to control, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction pose a dire and imminent threat to world peace. As technology and commerce increase the depth and complexity of global relations, individual nations need to work together to develop multi-national responses to global issues that spring from shared values of peace, justice, community, democracy and ecological sustainability.

We call for international relations that favor cooperation and support over competition and exploitation. We believe that, as a matter of principle, considered diplomacy should always be favored over recourse to military intervention and violence.

We support the formation of international alliances and non-governmental organizations to work to find peaceful and sustainable solutions to the global problems of war, environmental degradation, oppression and poverty.

We support immediate decommissioning of all nuclear weapons production facilities, date-specific destruction of all nuclear weapons, and the signing of oversight treaties calling for drawing down of nuclear stockpiles.

We call for a ban on the development, production, sale and use of land mines, chemical and biological weapons, and other weapons that bring indiscriminate destruction to civilians and the environment.

We oppose the use of economic sanctions which bring suffering and death to innocent civilians.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

We call for benchmark social and environmental standards to be goals at all levels of economic decision-making -- local, national, and international.

We support the right of local governments to set higher social and environmental standards than those set by international trade organizations and treaties.

We support the right of workers to form collective bargaining units; the right to a fair living wage; and right to safe, healthy working conditions.

We reject agreements that negotiate downward our basic environmental, human rights, health, safety and labor standards, and prohibitions against child and forced labor.

We reject trade agreements negotiated in secret and/or unduly influenced by mega-corporate interests such as the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Treaties such as these are threats to local autonomy, and limit the participation of citizens in decisions affecting the economic and environmental health of their communities. Increased mobility of capital and commodities is being coupled with decreased mobility of people. National and local authorities are losing power to an international "empire of wealth". We call for a vigorous international campaign for economic democracy -- political change that supports environmentally and socially sustainable economic systems.

It is our belief that the massive debt owed by the Third World is causing immense misery and environmental destruction. Foreign aid must be addressed in the context of retiring this debt and in this regard "structural adjustments" must not be forced on the economies of the underdeveloped world via the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and World Bank.

We demand that international loans be conditional on human and labor rights records, social and environmental impact statements, and the providing of basic health and education.

We believe in the right of self-determination of indigenous peoples. We recognize the essential importance of balancing economic development in the Third World with a respect for traditional culture and economies.

On the national, state and local levels, we call for a diverse economic system that is based on a combination of private businesses, decentralized democratic cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises, and alternative economic structures -- all of which put human and ecological needs alongside profits to measure success, and are accountable to the communities in which they function.

We advocate the use of "true cost pricing", which reflects the total cost of production based on its impact on the ecosystem.

ENERGY AND GLOBAL WARMING

Climate change is accelerating. The greenhouse effect is increasingly evident. The succession of record-breaking heat waves since 1980 and the increasing frequency of severe weather phenomena across the globe are strong indications that climatic disruption is already upon us. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now.

Greenhouse gases and the threat of global warming must be addressed by the international community in concert, through international treaties and conventions, with the industrial nations at the forefront of this effort.

The truly global agreement required to deal with global warming can be achieved only if based on genuine equity. A policy based on per capita emissions, with countries agreeing on a global limit and converging to meet that limit on a per capita basis, would allow developing countries to continue their necessary development while encouraging the use of clean technology. The industrialized world must cut emissions to realistically necessary levels.

The Greens propose a shift to renewable and sustainable energy production, together with industrial and domestic energy efficiency. One important instrument to reach this goal is a progressive tax on pollution and on resource use, particularly fossil fuels, and incentives for safe energy in industrial as well as private use.

We support the development of decentralized, non-polluting renewable energy technologies and the funding of energy research for alternative and sustainable energy use such as solar, wind and biomass.

We encourage the creation and design of energy-efficient human environments.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

The Greens call for a new definition of wealth that includes clean air, clean water, and diverse habitats as indicators of ecological and economic health.

We call for immediate decommissioning of all nuclear power plants without passing the cost on to ratepayers. We support permanent above-ground, locally based storage sites for nuclear waste to minimize the hazards of waste transport.

We call for the conversion of the chemical industry to biologically degradable substances, and the use of hazardous chemicals only in zero-emission pollution constructions.

We support a radical reduction in the volume of road transport and a shift to an integrated system of alternative forms of transport including energy-efficient public transportation, pedestrian friendly community design, bikeways, and rail and water shipping for industry.

We call for a halt to all current international funding policies that promote destruction of forest ecosystems and we call for an end to the trade in endangered hardwoods.

The Greens have long championed the development of organic farming to replace costly and unsustainable industrial production of foodstuffs using dangerous pesticides and fertilizers.

We call for a moratorium on the genetic manipulation of crops and animals used for foodstuffs; the strict labeling of products containing genetically modified organisms; and a ban on patenting forms of life.

We support legislative and land use policies that preserve and restore biodiversity (genetic, population, species, ecosystems) at the local, national and global levels.

We support the protection of endangered plant and animal species.

We oppose shipping of toxic/hazardous or radioactive wastes across national or political borders without regulation.

We believe that the mark of a humane and civilized society lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals.