The Green Junta: or, is democracy sustainable?

Attempts to achieve significant lasting change at local, national and international levels have foundered on the inability to gain agreement. Consensus between multiple stakeholders, while acceptable at a political level, increasingly seems inadequate to the task of creating sustainable societies. This paper starts with a review of the reasons why drastic, rapid and dramatic change is needed. All the main indicators in terms of global warming, North-South imbalance, oil reserves, water resources, biodiversity, deforestation, population growth and rural-urban shift, globalisation, over-consumption and the distribution of wealth suggest a situation almost in free-fall. The second section then outlines the failure of global governance. The final, speculative, section considers the appeal that may arise from a 'strong government for a crowded planet' right-wing agenda.