Political and Campaigning Career
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Porritt was a prominent member of the Ecology Party. As chair of the UK Ecology Party (now the Green Party) from 1978 to 1984, he presided over changes that made the party much more prominent in elections. Under his stewardship, membership grew from a few hundred to around 3,000.
In 1984 his first book, Seeing Green, was published. In this year he also gave up teaching to become Director of Friends of the Earth in Britain, a post he held until 1990. From 1993-1996 he chaired Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future then known as UNEP-UK.
After the Greens achieved 15% of the European Parliamentary vote in 1989, he became a strong public advocate of change in the Green Party. In particular, he advocated a more professional organisation with identifiable leaders.
He also backed the election of Cynog Dafis, the joint Plaid Cymru-Green MP for Ceredigion.
With Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins he founded Forum for the Future in 1996, a sustainable development charity. In 1997 he was appointed the inaugural Chair of the incoming Labour government's Sustainable Development Commission from which he retired in September 2009.
He has also supported the Forests Now Declaration, which calls for new market based mechanisms to protect tropical forests.
In February 2009, Porritt stated that population growth is a serious threat to the global environment and that contraception, abortion and family planning is a part of the answer to global warming. He thinks that people should have no more than two children and if they do, they are being irresponsible.
He has been heavily criticised for what some are calling anti-family and communist-like comments.
When he founded Forum of the Future, Porritt withdrew from party politics to concentrate on his non-party political roles. In March 2009, Porritt spoke at the launch of the South West Green Party European Election campaign in Bristol, stating that he had always remained a member of the Green Party and that it was the correct time to reaffirm his support.
Since leaving the SDC, Porritt has publicly supported the report Prosperity Without Growth.
Read more about this topic: Jonathon Porritt
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