Part examines how political theorists think about environmental issues.
Specifically, it asks the question: is there a sufficiently comprehensive, coherent
and distinctive view of environmental issues to justify talking about a green
political ideology which, following Dobson (2000), can be called ecologism?
There has been a phenomenal growth in the literature on environmental
philosophy and political thought in recent years. The distinction between
reformist and radical approaches provides a useful shorthand means of
categorising two quite different ways of thinking about environmental problems.
Broadly speaking, reformist approaches adopt ‘a managerial approach to
environmental problems, secure in the belief that they can be solved without
fundamental changes in present values or patterns of production and
consumption’ whereas radical positions (i.e. ecologism) argue that ‘a
sustainable and fulfilling existence pre-supposes radical changes in our
relationship with the non-human natural world, and in our mode of social and
political life’ (Dobson 2000: 2).1 In short, reformist and radical approaches
represent qualitatively different interpretations of environmental problems.
Dobson also makes the bigger and bolder claim that ecologism should be
regarded as a distinct political ideology. To cohere as an ideology, ecologism
must have three basic features: (1) a common set of concepts and values
providing a critique of the existing social and political systems; (2) a political
prescription based on an alternative outline of how a society ought to look;
(3) a programme for political action with strategies for getting from the existing
society to the alternative outline. Ecologism, according to Dobson, passes the
test on all three counts. First, it is characterised by two core ideas: a rethinking
of the ethical relationship between humans and the natural world, and the belief that there are natural limits to growth. Secondly, it offers an alternative political prescription for a sustainable society. Thirdly, it identifies various strategies for