debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
We are living through not one but two crises of capitalism. The first one – the economic crisis which has followed the financial crash of 2008 – everyone knows about. The second is less familiar. This is the crisis of the global environment. Of course environmentalists have been warning of ‘environmental crisis’ for over 50 [...]
This year, the Global Footprint Network has declared September 27th as “World Overshoot Day”. It was only September, yet all of the Earth’s natural resources for the year had already been used up. Our planet’s clock is ticking. Today, we are using 1.5 times the amount the planet has to offer. But, there remain people [...]
“People are not commodities”, says one of the key principles of Social Democratic policy. The Greens say that nature is not a commodity. The Christian Democrats agree with both, with some variations. In the case of green policies, the principle of decommodification — limiting the influence of the market on a given area — is [...]
There is no question about it: social democrats need to embrace environmental sustainability. Protecting our natural surroundings, keeping our air clean, providing a healthy environment and access to nature for everyone should be at the core of social democratic policies, just like providing economic and social sustainability should be. However, we have to admit that [...]
The green agenda in the Czech Republic is currently in its worst condition since the fall of the communist regime in 1989. There are several reasons for this gloomy situation. First, in the tradition of its founder, the current Czech president Vaclav Klaus, the conservative ODS as the leading government party is steadfastly neglecting the [...]
We live in an era in which the most important forces affecting every economy are global, not local. What happens “abroad” – in China, India, and elsewhere – powerfully affects even an economy as large as the United States. Economic globalization has, of course, produced some large benefits for the world, including the rapid spread [...]
Creating decent new jobs, fighting poverty and curbing catastrophic climate change have historically been seen as three distinctive challenges, pursued by a trio of different movements: trade unions, development organizations and environmentalists. This should no longer be the case. In the past few years, as climate change has become ever more of a pressing issue [...]
Hungary’s unfortunate conservative government never got to bask in the glory of its overwhelming victory in the municipal elections on 3rd October because the very next day marked the beginning of what soon emerged as the country’s worst industrial accident/environmental disaster in a long time, maybe ever. I probably don’t have to explain in detail [...]
In the fight against climate change international trade can be either part of the problem or part of the solution. Both policy areas are closely intertwined. Just consider the millions of tons of goods ranging from T-shirts to raw materials that are transported across the globe, creating 23% of global CO2 emissions. Obviously, it would [...]
One of the most promising developments in these otherwise challenged and war-ridden times, is the new wealth of data on the material effects of human wealth-inequalities.[1. See for example Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level: why more equal societies almost always do better (Penguin 2009).] Inequality is no longer “just” a moral issue; [...]
I am glad this week’s theme is called ‘sustainability’ and not ‘the environment’. The ‘environment’ always sounds like something you look at out of the window, or visit at the weekend. However what is on the agenda now is much more than that, it is about whether we can sustain the capacity of the planet [...]
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