Animal Rights: Are Greens for or against animal rights? Answer: Greens generally believe that the term "rights" applies to individual humans and social issues, not nonhuman nature. Keep in mind that to extend "rights" to Bamby requires extending rights to all sentient beings, including worms and ants (ants =10 percent of Earth's animal biomass). Shall we extend "rights" to each and every ant worldwide? Extending such rights continues the same anthropocentric vain of reasoning. Where does one stop? Greens tend to believe that all sentient beings should be free from unnecessary infliction of pain, suffering, and anxiety; Greens recognize that in nature, pain, suffering, and anxiety go hand-in-hand with ecological processes and cannot, should not be stopped for the sake of human preferences or materialistic ends.

Are Greens socialists? Answer: Yes and no. Some socialists came to the Green movement from the socialist groups created in labor struggles throughout the world. Other Greens have no socialist ties and do not want any such ties. Greens include "eco-capitalists" as well as a host of other diverse trends. See Distinctions among Greens, Socialists, and Liberals

Borg-free: I don't understand what "BORG-FREE" means. Could you give me a brief explanation?

<< The Borg makes a beautiful comparison to today's corporate state's drive to grow and consume all the Earth's life forms for the sake of commodifying everyday life.

"Borg-free" means "commercial free" in the context I'm using it. If you've ever seen Star Trek's later series, there's a manufactured species, half-human, half-robot. It opperates as a collective mind with a central cortex, usually in the shape of single Borg queen-like beings. The Borg's mission in life is to "assemilate" all other life forms and to use their knowledge to further the "collective's" ultimate goal of assimilating all. It's an important concept that we should make broad use of, considering capital's drive to grow for the sake of growing regardless what it "assimilates" into a commodity. Check out Edward Bernay's to learn about mass psychological manipulation as we see today in commercialism and war-mongering. Regards, Ed Evans Green Information @ http://www.greeninformation.com

Communists,  Are Greens communists?  There are no known communist organizations within the Greens. (See the The Ten Key Values) This is not to say that there are not Green communists in the Green movement or Green Parties, because there must be, considering the size and diversity of the Greens.  One must also ask if these "communists" are pre-Marxist Communists, Marxist Communists, or Christian Communists. There are many political leanings among individual Greens.

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Earth First!: Is Earth First! "Green"?

Earth First! is an independent movement in its own right and not "Green" as Greens use this term. Generally, Earth First! activists commit to "defending Mother Earth" and are not necessarily committed to other Green values. Put another way, like Venn diagrams that overlap one another, some Earth First! activists may be "Green" while some Greens may also be Earth First! activists. More than likely the great majority of Greens are not Earth First! activists.

Human encroachment should serve as one example of an equally shared concern: Introduction of industrialized humans into the wild carries a monumental risk to indigenous (home) species. Besides building roads in the wild, humans tend to leave their waste products about. Hamburger buns, fries, diapers, and more. These tend to attract generalized feeders (eat almost anything), such as crows, sparrows, dogs, and cats.

Eventually, these generalized feeders destroy the habitat of those bird (avian) species with specialized feeding (eat special food) habits. These birds often cannot co-exist with the generalized feeders and are literally eaten out of house- and-home by humanity's introduced species. Specialized feeders become "extinct" (gone for all time), as do some of the species related to them. We see this very occurance today on the Galapagos Islands (one of Charles Darwin's laboratories and a currently operating biological laboratory) because of the introduction of dogs (generalized feeders). What's the value of a species-population compared to a McDonald's picnic or humanity's "right" to destroy wilderness?

"Earth Firsters! ARE patriotic -- we love the land, we respect our roots and we do not compromise the future of our children any more than we compromise the future of the children of all living things on this miraculous planet Earth. Jean@you.may.quote.me : - )"

Green eco-capitalism: What is eco-capitalism?  Like other forms of capitalism, eco-capitalists seek to fund social and ecological projects by building finance capital for these ends. The idea is that capitalism is a fact of life, and rather than discount its dynamic and creative energy, harness it to Green ends at community levels.  Additionally, this school of thought proposes that ecological endeavors will unleash capital's full potential in tamdem with efforts to live  with nature, once obsolete forms of capital, corporate monopolies and state subsidizing vanish.  Problems of capital accumulation and uneven distribution and development of eco-capital remain burdensome aspects of this capital-centered logic.   Some who propose this model are from the "libertarian" side of the Green movement and parties.  There is much more to this idea. We are awaiting contributions of the Green approach to "class-struggle."

Economics: What sort of economics do Greens propose? Answer: Greens differ on this issue. From socialist leanings to eco-capitalist leanings and more, there is much debate. We can say that corporate dominated economics are not on the Green agenda because of the "bottom-up" distribution of power idea Greens advocate. For Greens, democracy is a daily practice, not a once in two or four year paper punch. Expect Greens to promote economic relationships that "walk lightly" on the Earth and its inhabitants, human and nonhuman. Expect sustainability to play a major role. Trade by goods and services, unique forms of barter and without taxation will be among advocated relationships. Note too that there are Greens willing to use taxes for social projects and to curtail damaging practices.

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Enlightenment: What about the Enlightenment? It seems that you guys want to discard the benefits of the Enlightenment. Answer: The Enlightenment signifies a number of issues for different Green philosophies. Briefly, in part, it lead to the rise of physics as the first science while more-or-less ignoring and discarding the importance of biology; hence, the ecological crisis increased with humanity's application of technological rationalism arising from the Enlightenment's influence on the development of physics and related mechanical thinking. Ideologically, "progress" at the expense of life-forms was easily justified by the visible power and outcomes of rationally applied science. Sentient (feeling) beings were easily discounted as "mechanisms" without feelings or consciousness.

For some ecofeminists (of the Social Ecology school of thought), the Enlightenment represents humanity's most significant grasp of reason with ensuing benefits, but humanity failed to extend this reason to rational social relationships. For others it means this too, but humans lost their reverence and sense of awe for nature; hence the "death of nature" and production of mechanized warfare against humanity as well as the Earth; note the Cartesian grid squares found on forest maps, medical books, and the longitudinal and latatudinal lines on any globe found today (See the graphics on page 2 of the main menu). Humanity has applied analytical, mechanistic reasoning to itself as well as the Earth, for good and not so good outcomes.

Four Pillars, What are the Four Pillars and what is their purpose?

They help to define the Greens, set boundaries to our goals and principals.

Ecology, Democracy, Social Justice, Economic Justice

"For reference - this is, of course, another discussion The two fundamental principles of the Greens all over the world are Democracy and Ecology, or Ecology and Democracy - they are equal. The four pillars are the two principle above plus Social and Economic Justice and Non-violence. Social and Economic Justice devolves from Democracy because without some modicum of Social and Economic Justice Democracy is impossible. (see Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, John Taylor of Caroline, etc.) In the same way Non-violence is part of any sane and humane concept of Ecology." george mcguire

Greens needed to focus on the more pressing issues of our time, and they came up with the above to close ranks as an organized political movement. Greens started with the 4 Pillars in Europe; later the 10 Key Values developed in the US. Either or both serve as defining points for ideological reference. Although broad and vague, there's no mistaking the place of ecology in the language of Greens. It has scientific and philosophic (as in Environmental Ethices, Bioregionalism, Deep Ecology, and Social Ecology) foundations. Regards, Ed Evans Green Information http://www.greeninformation.com May wolves run at your side and not at your heels

Forests: God created the forests as part of his plan for mankind. What makes you people think that you have any right to impede the Lord's plan by stopping us from using them? Click here for answer.

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