Talk:Jonathon Porritt

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According to the Observer (06 11 2005) "In a book to be published this week, Jonathon Porritt describes the green movement as 'too narrow, too technical, too anti-business, too depressing, often too dowdy'. Porritt, now a government adviser, claims the campaigners must take some blame for the continued failure to stop climate change and habitat destruction, because their overly negative approach has alienated politicians and the public."

The newspaper also described him as "The founding father of the British green movement " and described his attack as "startling."

Calling Porritt "the founding father" is a little excessive. Many men and women campaigned on environmental issues and have generally eschewed any kind of "father figure" as inappropriate. His main role has been to tone down the criticism of the corporations and divert green activists into safe channels.

It is hardly "startling" or even mildly surprising to see that he believes green campaigners should not be anti-business. It is likely that he genuinely believes that cosying up to the corporations will do more than campaigning against them. For example BP now has adverts to convince the public how "green" they are. Green is also a slang term for "naïve".

The most that can be expected is a few cosmetic changes for purposes of advertising and of course a few sinecures for former green campaigners...like Jonathan Porritt who now works for Mr Tony Blair as a "government adviser" to polish up Tony's "green" image. This is in addition to the day job as Lickspittle in Chief to the Prince of Wales.

I think Porritt's point is that if you continually punish companies and never reward them in the slightest for any green initiatives they might take, even the most well-meaning companies will simply give up on it as a thankless task which gives them no advantage over their less environment-friendly competitors. Imagine raising a child and punishing it for absolutely everything it does until it becomes a university graduate... most kids will not get to university that way, they'll think they're being punished simply for being kids and give up. The same goes for the general public, if green groups keep telling them decade after decade how the earth is doomed no matter how much they recycle or use public transport, they'll give up on it completely and say "it makes no difference so I can't be bothered being an environmentalist". You have to have a carrot as well as a stick, is basically what Porritt is saying, otherwise you'll never change anything. You have to reward existing progress if you want to see future progress, that's how human nature works.