Green Wave

This week, we're going to Germany. As the energy transition debate continues, land-intensive extraction processes continue to displace villages across the German lignite belt. Based on their fieldwork, Paula Castro and Hannah Porada analyse the experiences of villagers near the Garzweiler mine in the Rhineland. Produced by the Green European Journal (www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu). Written by Paula...

This week, we're taking a break from everything to talk about 'time'. As millions are now working from home due to #COVID19, consistently, for the first time, we need to reconsider our relationships with time, work, leisure, and sleep and recognise the importance of an ecological appreciation of time. Produced by the Green European Journal (www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu). Written by Robert Magowan....

The #Covid_19 pandemic has fundamentally questioned how society should be organised to ensure health and wellbeing for all. It’s time for a paradigm shift: from a sleepwalking society focused on profit, competition, and consumption, to a future-oriented one that prioritises investment, cooperation, and wellbeing. In this episode, Dirk Holemans argues that the guiding principle for recovery should...

This week, we are talking about ecologism which emerged as a critique of industrialism, the ideology that binds liberalism, conservativism, and socialism. It develops these three dominant political traditions by recognising nature as the basis for the human’s existence and development. Due to the crisis of the human in nature, the ecologisation of human society needs to happen now. Written by Rein...

This week, we're taking a tour around the different worlds of Green Politics, namely: three forces leading political ecology today – green socialism, the radical critics of modernity, and elite technocracy. While their diagnoses differ fundamentally, much is resting on them getting along. Written by Pierre Charbonnier. Read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-t...

Awareness has grown of the intimate link between climate change and migration in past years but it remains a complex and contentious issue. In a debate fanned by the media and populist politicians, University of Liège researcher Caroline Zickgraf separates myth from reality and explains how our changing environment is making people move. Written by Caroline Zickgraf. Read by Julia Lagoutte. Text v...

The UK left the EU; Brexit left us with so many questions like: - So what now? - What will this mean for Britain's place in the world? - How will the UK Government reckon with a new relationship with its EU partners? All questions answered in this episode of the Green Wave Podcast. Written by Fraser Cameron. Read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/british-foreign-policy-a...

The Climate Strikes arrived in the Czech Republic this year as youth started to protest against the government’s chronic inaction on climate. But now what? Josef Patocka, editor for climate change at Deník Referendum, breaks down how to effectively push for structural change and a just transition to clean energy. Written by Josef Patocka. Read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: https://www.greeneuro...

The far right failed to make the gains many expected at the European elections, but their influence on the direction of the Union is pervasive. Activists linked to Attac Austria argue that progressives supporting today’s EU irrespective of its policy agenda are playing on terrain that favours only the far right and the neoliberal establishment. So the question is: How can progressives rethink thei...

In a France dominated by leaders without movements and rocked by movements without leaders, can political ecology build on EU election success to help fix the crisis of representation? Written by Alain Lipietz and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/metooep-rooting-out-sexual-harassment-in-the-european-parliament/ Twitter: twitter.com/GreenEUJournal Facebook: facebook...

The #MeToo movement showed that sexist treatment and abuse remains a pervasive and universal problem - and the political sphere is no exception. MeTooEP has shone a light on the sexual harrassment taking place in the European Parliament, but despite important progress in tackling it, much remains to be done. Written by Beatrice White and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjourn...

As some Green parties move closer to entering government, looking to paths already trodden by Greens in Sweden and Finland proves illuminating. Written by Simon Otjes and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/pathways-to-power-how-green-parties-join-governments/ Twitter: twitter.com/GreenEUJournal Facebook: facebook.com/greeneuropeanjournal

In the face of rising national populism, rather than seeking to combat these forces on their own terms, Green and progressive politicians can instead turn to a far more effective rhetorical tool. Written by Marta Loja Neves & Rui Tavares and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-categorical-mistake-of-looking-for-an-answer-to-national-populism/ Twitter: twitter....

Trials in recent years, an advanced national debate and a new progressive majority in Parliament make Finland a key context to follow for basic income developments. Written by Simo Raittila and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-future-of-basic-income-in-finland/ Twitter: twitter.com/GreenEUJournal Facebook: facebook.com/greeneuropeanjournal

Extinction Rebellion is part of a global movement that is forcing climate and environmental issues into the mainstream. Their success is based on widespread recognition of the legitimacy of their demands and action – but not before the law, as the first prosecutions of activists in the United Kingdom demonstrate. Jeff Justice draws on political theory and environmental philosophy to argue that whe...

André Gorz, a key thinker of political ecology, owes his popularity in part to his radical critique of work. His exhortation to “exit from work”, though undoubtedly utopian, provides us with the opportunity to reflect on what we mean by ‘work’ and on the dominant place we afford it. Written by Françoise Gollain and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/questioning-the-c...

On Friday 20 September, thousands of children will once again take to the streets in the name of the planet – and this time they call for adults to strike with them. Philosopher Joëlle Zask considers how the conscience and clarity of the young climate protestors upturns notions of minority and majority in political society, and has made them the guardians of humanity's future. Written by Joëlle Za...

Tracing the rise of transhumanism, a movement inspired by the possibilities of developments from artificial intelligence to biogenetics. But this techno-utopian philosophy provides no answer to our social and environmental crises. Written by Carmen Madorrán Ayerra and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/an-eco-social-perspective-on-transhumanism/ Twitter: twit...

Is an end to scarcity in sight? American companies are preparing to tap a vast source of raw materials on celestial bodies. But space mining is also a source of conflict, as the global commons of outer space are being enclosed, repeating patterns of appropriation of our own planet’s resources. Written by Liesbeth Beneder & Richard Wouters and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: https://www.g...

Liberalism, conservatism and socialism have long been seen as the dominant political paradigms of modernity. But these centuries-old frameworks are no longer unchallenged. Reinhard Olschanski explores how environmentalism, in the broad sense, draws from all three and yet offers a distinct, universal political outlook that responds to fundamental problems of (post-)industrial society. Written by Re...

French President Macron's bid to reform Europe has missed vital opportunities. Carefully built alliances and transnational politics are key to effectively changing Europe. Written by Edouard Gaudot & Shahin Vallée and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/breaking-europes-double-deadlock/ Twitter: twitter.com/GreenEUJournal Facebook: facebook.com/greeneuropeanjourna...

Is society ready to break with legal and political norms to tackle the climate crisis? Perhaps: in France the L’Affaire du siècle petition, which aims to have the French state's duty and failure to act on climate change recognised, broke records by gathering more than two million signatures. More than just a legal battle, this global movement for climate justice is profoundly political. Written by...

At a time when its voters are in and out of voting booths – municipal elections at the end of 2018, European and national elections in 2019, and presidential ones in 2020 – taking the long view of Poland’s future can help demonstrate what is at stake in these electoral contests. Przemysław Sadura tells the story of a country for which multiple paths lie open Written by Przemysław Sadura and read b...

A look at the past, present and future of rewilding that makes the case for tackling the biodiversity extinction crisis and restoring natural wonder to both country and city. Written by Samuel Gregory-Manning and read by Julia Lagoutte. Text version: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/a-walk-on-europes-wild-side/ Twitter: twitter.com/GreenEUJournal Facebook: facebook.com/greeneuropeanjournal

The vibrant debate around the question of basic income has all too often neglected a crucial aspect: gender dynamics. In a deeply gendered society, how might a basic income impact men and women differently? Could basic income be harnessed as a tool in the fight for women’s rights? Bringing a feminist perspective to the basic income discussion foregrounds a distinct set of concerns and virtues of t...