Green alternatives to Globalisation

Just finished reading the very insightful and inspiring 'Green Alternatives to Globalisation' by Michael Woodin and Caroline Lucas. It was refreshing to read something that not only identifies the problem but also presents a well thought through and radical solution. I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in green economics and equally to those who believe we can combat the threat of climate change via the existing institutions.

I really liked the POD (Programme of Obstruction and Deconstruction) which recognises the need to seek reform of existing institutions in the short term via global treaties etc but with a very clear eye on their eventual replacement with a new economic order. There is a parallel here with the Trotskyist left which often talks about a programme of transitional demands that seek to push the system towards collapse. However the POD strategy presented by Woodin and Lucas is a much more positive proposition that has the potential, in my opinion, to carry more people with it. Sure, part of the POD strategy would need to include a growing class consciousness so that the working class in the western world recognise that Globalisation is fuelled at their expense. Whilst it offers sweeteners in the form of cheap air travel, consumer goods etc it is the same system that dictates their jobs disappear to eastern Europe and the far east, the same system that sees their local neighbourhood become a clone of every other neighbourhood and the same system that demands ever greater flexibility of them in terms of working hours and family arrangements to accommodate that flexibility.