In the Wall Street Journal, Tagesspiegel op-ed page editor Malte Lehming argues that “this ‘good’ ideology [i.e. green thinking] increases inequality more than neo-liberal policies ever could”.
How can arguments of “green elitism” best be countered? How can the economy be “greened” in a socially conscious way? I’d be very interested in organizing a salon on the subject some day… ideas welcome!
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Im Tagesspiegel behauptet Malte Lehming, den Grünen fehle das soziale Gewissen: “Wer arm ist, den macht Öko noch ärmer.”(Der Artikel erschien auf Englisch im Wall Street Journal.)
Wie kann man am Besten den Vorwurf des “grünen Elitismus” kontern? Wie kann die Wirtschaft sozialbewußt “begrünt” werden? Irgendwann würde ich sehr gern einen Salon zum Thema veranstalten… Vorschläge willkommen!
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It would be good if we could inform ourselves more about the environmental justice movement in the U.S. (and elsewhere), which has been looking for years at the ways in which environmental damage impacts poor and minority communities disproportionately, giving the lie to the idea that green is an elitist issue, and emphasizing that pitting jobs and job creation against green issues creates a false dichotomy. Here is a link to the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) page on Environmental Justice. They also have a brief history of the movement:
http://www.nrdc.org/ej/default.asp
Great, thanks for that link! It’s a good point that environmental damage ultimately affects the poor most severely. But it’s also important to make sure that sustainability policies don’t cause a huge burden in the short term for lower-income people. I’m reading more and more about concerns regarding the zero-emissions housing targets in Merkel’s energy concept – everyone’s in a panic that all the old buildings are going to be renovated beyond recognition and rents will triple… of course, that was Merkel, so I don’t see why Lehming is picking on the Greens here. In any case, it seems German politicians are doing a rather ham-handed job of selling sustainability at the moment…
It’s really welcome news that salons are going out of their way to do something for the environment. Something else that’s related to your blog post is this YouTube video I’ve come across with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbtt613PhBI. It’s from GreenopolisTV, a non-profit green advocacy group.
Thanks for that!
We aren’t a salon in that sense, though!