Joe Smith | Granta

Joe Smith

Joe Smith is Lecturer in Social Sciences at the Open University and Co-Director of the Cambridge Media and Environment Programme. He edited The Daily Globe: Environmental Change, the Public and the Media.

Publications

What Do Greens Believe?

Joe Smith

‘The world has enough for everybody’s need, but not enough for one person’s greed’ Gandhi

Greens are driven by a concern with the fate of future generations and the natural world on which we all depend. They argue that theirs is the only way of ensuring the survival of a sustainable planet. The case they make is powerful, emotive, urgent and politically controversial. In the space of a couple of decades, Greens have shaped an influential movement. Issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss are now familiar and widely accepted.The challenge for Greens today is to turn mainstream rhetoric into meaningful action.

In this readable and wide-ranging introduction, Joe Smith summarizes the historical roots of the Green movement and some of the main intellectual building blocks of Green thinking. He goes on to consider whether they have the appetite and potential to ‘change the world’.