Green politics

Green politics (also known as ecopolitics) is a political ideology that aims to create an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice, and grassroots democracy. It began taking shape in the western world in the 1970s; since then Green parties have developed and established themselves in many countries around the globe, and have achieved some electoral success.

The political term Green, was used initially in relation to die Grünen (German for "the Greens"), a Green party formed in the late 1970s. The term political ecology is sometimes used in academic circles, but in the latter has come to represent an interdisciplinary field of study; the academic discipline offers wide-ranging studies integrating ecological social sciences with political economy in topics such as degradation and marginalization, environmental conflict, conservation and control, and environmental identities and social movements.

Supporters of green politics share many ideas with the ecology, conservation, environmentalism, feminism, and peace movements. In addition to democracy and ecological issues, green politics is concerned with civil liberties, social justice, nonviolence, sometimes variants of localism and tends to support social progressivism. The party's platform is largely considered left in the political spectrum.

Green Party

Green Party or Greens Party is the name of several different political parties orientated around green politics:

Current political parties

Defunct political parties

Green

Green is the color between blue and yellow on the spectrum of visible light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of roughly 495–570 nm. In the subtractive color system, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combination of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; in the RGB color model, used on television and computer screens, it is one of the additive primary colors, along with red and blue, which are mixed in different combinations to create all other colors.

The modern English word green comes from the Middle English and Anglo-Saxon word grene, from the same Germanic root as the words "grass" and "grow". It is the color of living grass and leaves and as a result is the color most associated with springtime, growth and nature. By far the largest contributor to green in nature is chlorophyll, the chemical by which plants photosynthesize and convert sunlight into chemical energy. Many creatures have adapted to their green environments by taking on a green hue themselves as camouflage. Several minerals have a green color, including the emerald, which is colored green by its chromium content.

Shahrar Ali

Shahrar Ali (['ʃɑːrɑː ɑː'liː]) is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Amelia Womack. He is the first Black and Minority Ethnic deputy of a parliamentary party in the history of the United Kingdom. London Assembly Londonwide candidate 6 May 2016.

He was elected in September 2014 at the Green Party conference in Aston, Birmingham.

Education

Shahrar Ali has degrees in biochemical engineering (BEng) and philosophy (BA, MPhil, PhD) from the University of London. His 1997 MPhil thesis was on 'Practical reason with reference to the Humean conception', and his 2004 PhD thesis (UCL) entitled 'Making as if to stand behind one's words: a theory of intentional deception and lying'. His research interests are in moral and applied philosophy.

Career

Ali began his green political career after working for the European Parliament in Luxembourg, and has attributed this career decision in part to his experience of teaching philosophy at University level. He has taught at the University of Hertfordshire, APU, City Lit, WEA and Birkbeck College. He stood in the 2005, 2010 & 2015 general elections (for Brent East and then Brent Central), in the 2012 London Assembly election (for Brent & Harrow), and in the 2014 European Parliament election. He is author of Why Vote Green (2010) and editor of Why Vote Green 2015 (pub. Jan 2015).