The negative part is that today’s economic system is running us down to the bottom. The positive part is that we got the solutions everyone is searching for. At least if Miriam Kennet is right.

”What is economy?” Miriam Kennet asks rhetorically. “Is it this?” she says and shows a picture of a older gentleman wearing a dress suit, a bowler hat and a walking stick. “Or is it this?”. Now she shows a photo of two African women collecting water from a well.

“The word economy means household management”, Miriam continues. “But when we speak about economy it’s not about family or the environment, it’s rather about businesses. We talk about supply and demand but not about meeting needs. Economists are sitting in their offices calculating on their mathematical theories and figures everything is ok. Look around! Children are starving! There is a biological mass distinction going on! Everything is not ok! According to main stream economics the human, or “economic man” as we’re called, is a rational man who is constantly calculating how to reach maximal, egoistic gain. What kind of human being is that? It’s a psychopath! What we need is an economy built on the real world!”

These are words from the British Green Party member who founded the Green Economics Institute and the International Journal of Green Economics. In the 80thies when she as a young, green activist was campaigning for the party she realised that politics is all about economy. She decided to take one exam in environmental studies and one in economics. When she was going to take her PhD and chose the subject Green Economy it was difficult to find a supervisor since the subject didn’t exist before. Finally she got a supervisor who was a political scientist.

Today she travels around the world teaching. Partly at universities, such as Brussels, London, Oxford and Cambridge. And partly teaching bureaucrats and politicians in the EU, UN and the UK government and treasury. She has also recently started a co-operation with the Federation of Young European Greens to teach there activists about economics. The magazine you are reading meet her at such a training.

“The world is longing for Green Economy. The UN, Barosso, well everybody wants the knowledge we possess. So we have to take the opportunity and not let others define what Green Economics is. My goal is to make Green Economics populist. At the same time the word “green” has to have a strict interpretation.” Miriam is referring to some companies intention to “green wash” there image and declare that there doing Green Economics without actually solving any problems.

“Companies have got a lot to win by listening to us and really understand what Green Economics is all about. Look at Volvo, they wouldn’t be in this difficult position today if they would have listened to the environmental movement instead of committing themselves to these oil eating SUVs.”

What Green Economy really means is not yet a finished concept but something we must work on together according to Miriam. She does not believe in the idea of “one size fits all”. She thinks that Green Economy should be a broad, diversified approach that looks at the complex reality and tries to find solutions to existing problems. Some of the key words are looong term, product chain analysis and the device Reuse, Reduce, Recycle and Repair.

“Don’t trust economic experts and professors. They are lost in there theoretical world. Listen to yourself! What the economy needs is more common sense. So go to your parliament and bank and tell them. They are completely lost because they don’t understand this financial crisis. They want all the advice they can get. I’m sure they will listen to you”.

That’s what Miriam Kennet believes. A woman who inspires, engages and creates optimism.

By Ilva Lundkvist – Swedish Greens