Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The Green Light ('Le Feu Vert') offers a totally novel and profound exploration of the roots of environmental philosophy and the Anthropocene. Bernard Charbonneau considers the starting points of the movement(s) as absolutely key to exploring how concepts of nature and environment have developed and also providing clues for ways in which it has gone wrong. A generous spirited critique of how the environmental movement has shaped itself in relation to philosophy, politics, theology and contemporary culture more widely, the book is representative of an often overlooked strand of French environmentalist thought.
Charbonneau could be said to have prepared the way for many of the current preoccupations within environmental thought; the tension between liberalism and ecologism in green political theory; the wider question of the compatibility of ecological imperatives with supposedly foundational freedoms under capitalism; the discussions over how to balance existing democratic structures with environmental goals; the tensions between radical and reformist strategies within green movements; the controversy over the core values of ecological politics in a world transformed by climate change; and the proper orientation of environmental movements to institutional science. This pioneering work should be front and centre of the debates that he anticipated, while giving a timely perspective on the interconnected questions of nature and human freedom.
This first English translation of this work provides not only a vivid account of environmental philosophy but also acts as an introduction to the poetic work of Bernard Charbonneau.
Synopsis
The Green Light ('Le Feu Vert') offers a totally novel and profound exploration of the roots of environmental philosophy and the Anthropocene. Bernard Charbonneau situates the starting points of the ecological movement in the dialectics of Nature and Freedom, and their needful but uneasy joining against the totalizing system of technological society that threatens them both. Using this paradoxical tension as a yardstick, he probes the ways in which concepts of Nature developed as industrialization became second nature and jeopardized the previously unexamined original. This allows Charbonneau to explain how movements and policies claiming to deal with this issue have gone wrong. A spirited critique of how the environmental movement has shaped itself in relation to philosophy, politics, theology and contemporary culture, this book is representative of an oft-overlooked strand of French environmentalist thought.
Charbonneau can be said to have prepared the way for many of the current preoccupations within environmental thought: the tension between liberalism and ecologism in green political theory; the wider question of the compatibility of ecological imperatives with supposedly foundational freedoms under capitalism; the discussions over how to balance existing democratic structures with environmental goals; the tensions between radical and reformist strategies within green movements; the controversy over the core values of ecological politics in a world transformed by climate change and peak everything; and the proper orientation of environmental movements to institutional science. This pioneering work should be front and centre of the debates that he anticipated, while giving a timely perspective on the interconnected questions of nature and human freedom.
This first English translation of a work by Bernard Charbonneau provides not only a vivid account of environmental philosophy, but an introduction to an important author's thought.