Abstract
The Greens often refuse to call environmentalism an ideology and most of them prefer to talk about ethics, a respect towards all forms of life. Some people do not consider that environmentalism is an ideology since every party now includes green measures in their platform. In France, for instance, the Grenelle of the Environment in 2007, a forum of environmentalists, business representatives and trade unions that aimed at combating climate change, was launched by the right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy. Nevertheless, in the textbook 'Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal', it is asserted that environmentalism is an ideology among others such as liberalism, conservatism and fascism. They manage to present ecology through the explanatory, evaluative, orientative, and programmatic functions. Instead of considering environmentalism as a political focus on specific issues such as global warming, pollution and others, they consider it as a whole ideology. It is 'a fairly coherent and comprehensive set of ideas that explains and evaluates social conditions, helps people understand their place in society, and provides a program for social and political action'. This paper aims at demonstrating that there is indeed a Green ideology that exists. However, this paper acknowledges the necessity to go beyond the definition of ideology.
