{"id":494630,"date":"2026-05-20T19:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494630\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:32:26","slug":"more-david-attenborough-and-less-karl-marx-would-be-good-for-the-left-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494630\/","title":{"rendered":"More David Attenborough and less Karl Marx would be good for the left \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it possible to be both left-wing and serious about climate action? The evidence is mixed. In the last D\u00e1il, the Green Party<\/a> was torn apart by rival factions \u2013 one prioritising economic justice, the other environmental. In the current D\u00e1il, divisions have opened up among parties of the left on how to deal with rising fuel costs.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> strongly opposes planned carbon tax increases, while the Labour Party<\/a> says reneging on carbon tax commitments would be environmentally irresponsible \u2013 it calls instead for the Government to \u201cdo more to transition the economy away from fossil fuels\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is not the only environmental issue on which fault lines have developed in the non-governmental left. Sinn F\u00e9in loudly campaigned for retention of the nitrates derogation, while the Social Democrats<\/a> described Ireland\u2019s bid to extend it as \u201cgrossly irresponsible and hypocritical\u201d given the extent of nitrates pollution of our water supplies.<\/p>\n

Funding for active travel is another source of tension, with Sinn F\u00e9in cranking up the outrage over the spending of \u20ac127,000 on a bike storage facility for staff at University Hospital Kerry. \u201cPure waste,\u201d fumed Pearse Doherty. Other Opposition parties were more muted about a project that may be pricey but is ultimately designed to take more cars off the road.<\/p>\n

There is more to this division between parties than political pragmatism. There is a doubt as to whether socialism \u2013 and particularly a nationalistic or republican brand of socialism \u2013 is compatible with environmentalism. <\/p>\n

Karl Marx<\/a> didn\u2019t have much to say about the environment. Despite his stinging critique of capitalism, both left and right have generally operated on the same productivist principle: whenever there is a choice between the interests of human and the interests of nature, it is the human who must win out.<\/p>\n

Can socialism be reimagined in the context of modern climate science? An important contribution to this debate comes from UCD philosopher Maeve Cooke who, in a new book published on Monday, maps out a socially progressive agenda that avoids the trap of anthropocentricism \u2013 the idea that humankind is separate from nature.<\/p>\n

Cooke distinguishes between \u201crelatively harmless\u201d forms of anthropocentrism and \u201cpernicious\u201d ones. The latter contain \u201ca belief in the superiority of human agency\u201d and this view \u201ctends to go hand in hand with pernicious Eurocentrism\u201d. What is needed, she believes, is consideration for \u201cother-than-human agencies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA ‘left alliance’, including Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns and Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald, rallied around Catherine Connolly\u2019s successful presidential campaign. But can parties of the left stay united on environmental policy? Photograph: Conor O’Mearain\/PA <\/p>\n

Cooke places herself in the Frankfurt School of critical theory, a movement that began just over 100 years ago in Europe and became an influential force in left-wing debate for decades. One of its leading figures, the German philosopher J\u00fcrgen Habermas (an \u201cinspirational figure\u201d, says Cooke), died last March<\/a>. By reimagining Marx in an era of climate disruption, Cooke attempts to do for the Frankfurt School what Pope Francis did for the Catholic Church and raise in-group environmental awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, by no means, reject core ethical values celebrated within Western modernity such as freedom, equality and solidarity,\u201d Cooke explains. But we should \u201cbe open to exploring different ways of thinking about human connectedness\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Italian philosophers rebel over plan to drop Marx from school curriculumOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIn The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels call for an association beyond the antagonisms of class society in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all. I incorporate ethical learning from other-than-human agencies into this vision of freedom, proposing a conception of freedom as ethically oriented, self-determining, self-transforming, ecologically entangled human agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humans \u201ccan gain important insights into what it means to lead an ethically good life if we open ourselves to learning from the distinctive normativity of other-than-human agencies. By \u2018normativity\u2019 here I mean their characteristic life patterns \u2013 how they survive, flourish and, in a figurative sense, lead lives that are good for them,\u201d Cooke continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone concerned with fundamental social transformation needs to break with the productivist paradigm of endless economic growth characteristic of capitalism \u2013 but also of traditional versions of Marxist socialism. Social transformation also requires a break with \u2018exclusive humanism\u2019\u201d \u2013 a term she borrows from the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor.<\/p>\n

\"ProfessorProfessor Maeve Cooke, UCD School of Philosophy. Photograph: Vincent Hoban\/UCD <\/p>\n

Even well-meaning campaigners can have \u201ca functionalist, ultimately instrumentalising attitude towards nature\u201d, Cooke says \u2013 for example, where environmental \u201cstewardship\u201d is all about protecting the Earth for us.<\/p>\n

Advocating \u201ca new eco-socialism\u201d, Cooke calls for \u201cpolitical associations in which attentiveness to our ecological entanglements is important primarily because human freedom itself depends on communicative engagement with other-than-human as well as human agencies\u201d. One might call it the David Attenborough principle: love nature on its own terms, a maxim the much-admired English broadcaster ably demonstrated over the years. Whether loving nature will win you enough votes for public office is another matter. But political leadership is key.<\/p>\n

Some within the \u201cleft alliance\u201d that rallied around Catherine Connolly\u2019s successful presidential campaign were, a few short years ago, positively gleeful about the Green Party\u2019s electoral demise at the last general election. But the challenge that party faced trying to hold the line on environmental policy, amid competing political demands, is now pertinent for the left as a whole.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the question being asked was whether the Greens were leftish enough to remain united. Today, the real dilemma has revealed itself: is the left green enough to become a coherent political force?<\/p>\n