The Green Movement has emerged from an evolution of the dissident classes. During the sixties some termed this transformation by the rise of the "New Left". The realization of green thinking is that modern socioeconomic systems have a belligerent attitude towards nature, based on a long history of arrogant assumptions and misunderstandings. E.F. Schumacher in Small is Beautiful says that we often speak of nature as a force to commanded and tamed, in which there is a battle and nature is the enemy. We often because of shortsighted mentalities forget that regardless of the advances of technology, we are still at nature's mercy for our livelihood and survival. If we, in our careless treatment of the environment, seriously disrupt the life-cycles of the earth, it may very well affect our ability to live and prosper, and those who follow us.
They are helping us to rethink the way that we treat the environment and to see it as connected to the way that we treat ourselves and our fellow humans.
With the rise of the New Left in the 70s we see the emergence of creative and innovative new ways of understand life and our existence within it. Theodore Roszak during this time wrote about "The Making of a Counterculture". Later he went on to explore the role of reformulating psychology around the notion of nature and understanding and connectedness with natural systems. Ecopsychology for example arose from the insightful analysis of visionaries like him (Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind).
Arne Naess, a leader in the deep ecology movement separates the ecology and environmental movement into two groups:
Shallow: The shallow movement contains the liberal wing who make up the environmental establishment. They convince themselves that changes in environmental policy must function within the existing system of economic thinking. The notion is that we clean up the environment without fundamental changes in the way we use exist as a civilization. The status quo remains in place, except with minor adjustments such as with more stringent controls on pollution and resource depletion.
Deep: Deep ecologists, the radicals, feel that drastic and dramatic changes must occur in the way we treat the world so that we are less destructive on the Earth, even at the expense of development. The Green Parties are the political manifestation of deep ecology (The Green Reader Andrew Dobson Ed. 243-44).
The Political Wing of the Deep Ecology Movement: The Green Party
Within the Green Party Movement, the ten green values ar a set of ideals that represent the boundaries of a new and expanded “deep”environmentalism. The mounting problems of the present are the result of bad leadership and judgement displayed by the powerful. A whole new structure must replace the decaying establishment of today. Such a path of realization also is connected and complementary with the need for social change in the way we see each other as humans. Governments that are truly of and for the people are necessary for the survival of the human race. A society where respecting and understanding the environment as well as each other is more important than our economic and social status.
The Greens, seem to be the only group who have been able to grasp an understanding of the problems we face and how to solve them. Most people today have not given up on the method of thinking that has gotten us in the desperate state that the world faces. " We shrink back from the truth if we believe that the destructive forces of the world can be brought under control by simply mobilizing more resources... (Schumacher 294). We must break the chains of bondage that tether us to the material world we cherish and look to our minds to find the answers. Within the green movement there is a unique opportunity to promote a concept of solidarity and common values in a broad-based, coalition building movement for change.
Neither the green party nor the larger progressive movement has not yet been able to develop a coherent strategy nor an effective process from which to implement these green and progressive values into our everyday lives, and overcome the dominant values of the mainstream society which: The existing social structures are not capable of supporting a sustainable society, A simple, yet earth-shattering statement. There needs to be a paradigm shift in the values and orientations of our society. Within the Green Party movement, the ten green values represent a set of ideals. A new and expanded environmentalism which links human systems within the natural ones.
Most of the political realm, mainstream and alternative, tends to focus to an obsessive degree on policy changes, as if more better laws are the solution. Let us inspire and energize through green anarchism (self-rule) and through with compherensive change through the alternation of how humans think, interact with each other and with the natural world. Focusing on the emotional intelligence of the people within the movement that seeks to create change, is important because it develops a respect for the diversity and individuality of the people in the activist network, what at the same time seeking a broad based movement for change that leads to consensus on key green and progressive issues. The answer to creating a just society involves having a simplified legal, social and economic structure not a more complex one.