The World’s Wilting Green Parties
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The World’s Wilting Green Parties

Here are a few examples of the strange and sorry state of ecological parties around the globe.

This article originally appeared in the May 2015 issue of VICE.

The US Green Party hasn't made a blip for 15 years, and even as Arctic glaciers are shedding like dogs, eco-friendly politicians in other countries aren't doing so hot either. Here are a few examples of the strange and sorry state of ecological parties around the globe.

MEXICO

How do you drown a circus lion? The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) offers one approach. After years of eroding environmental credibility, PVEM officially lost the recognition of the European greens in 2008 by campaigning for reinstatement of the death penalty. Another party official was caught on video possibly accepting bribes in exchange for allowing development in ecologically protected areas. While their alliance with the country's long dominant PRI party has brought them real access to power, their primary achievement has been a ban on circus animals in Mexico City. But with no provision for how to handle the soon-to-be-homeless exotic animals, the party's legacy may rest on heading off an impending slaughter when the ban takes effect in July.

RWANDA

In 2012 the president of the African Green Federation returned to his native Rwanda, where he leads the Democratic Green Party, after two years of self-imposed exile following the still unsolved and maybe politically motivated decapitation of his second-in-command in 2010. The party struggled to be officially recognized for several years before getting the, uh, green light just one month before the 2013 elections. Even with more time to prepare, it's doubtful the party would have been able to meaningfully oppose President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front, which has had a lock on power since the end of the genocide and civil war in 1994.

EUROPE

The continent that legitimized green politics in the 1970s remains the only place where greens have enjoyed any sustained electoral success and influence on policy. But as Sheri Berman, political science professor at Barnard College, points out, "Today more European voters are worried about the economy than the environment. Greens are not radically reimagining the economy in ways that could generate growth and environmental progress—they're just tinkering with what already exists." After their big-ticket policy goals of the previous generation—such as banning nuclear power and protesting dams—went from radical to mainstream, the major parties simply integrated them into their platforms. After their core initiatives were adopted by the big dogs, greens' momentum was sapped by their own success.

A new generation of science has yet to yield a new generation of policy goals. While Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain are tugging Europe to the left, environmental concerns are not foremost on their minds, either. The UK's Green Party does wed a fairly radical economic program with environmental initiatives. But their prospects going into the May elections are dimming as the depressing popularity of the so-called UKIPs (UK Independence Party—anti-immigrant, anti–European Union, etc.) grows.

With environmental parties' ability to influence policy receding faster than the rainforest, there's little hope for a political movement capable of addressing our little predicament of imminent global collapse.

Want to Read Some In-Depth Stories from the New Issue?

1. Shane Smith on the Need to Protect the Earth from Environmental Catastrophe 2. We've Damaged the Planet So Badly It's Entering a New Epoch 3. Writers, Scientists, and Climate Experts Discuss How to Save the World from Climate Change 4. Trucks and Children Are Sucking the Beaches of Morocco Dry

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