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Green Thinking
Green Thinking seeks to “compost” the views of dead white men (Rene Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, Norman Borlaugh) and of some not white or dead (Francis Fukuyama, Richard Dawkins, Richard Thaler), and to explore the flowering of Green thinking in the 21st century, growing from the nutrients that microbes and their kin are generating from the wreckage.
This book understands the foundation of life is cooperation, not competition; that diversity is essential to resilience and health of systems; that humans are just one more species of animal or rather holobiont; that reductionism has to be replaced by relational thinking; that financialising society has destroyed – as it was meant to do – relationships essential to wellbeing; and, perhaps most crucially at all, that we have to draw on the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous societies that have maintained themselves and their environments in healthy balance for thousands or tens of thousands of years. That means acknowledging the time, energy and talents of all life, human and non-human, must contribute to a new way for humans to live in balance with the more-than-human world.
This book will appeal to fans of David Graeber, Kate Raworth, Tyson Yunkaporta, Jason Hickel, Anna Tsing, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ursula Le Guin, Bruno Latour, Wangarii Maathai, Merlin Sheldrake, Vandana Shiva, Lynn Margulis, Kim Stanley Robinson, as well as listeners to the New Books Network, Past Present and Future, and HPS podcasts.
This book understands the foundation of life is cooperation, not competition; that diversity is essential to resilience and health of systems; that humans are just one more species of animal or rather holobiont; that reductionism has to be replaced by relational thinking; that financialising society has destroyed – as it was meant to do – relationships essential to wellbeing; and, perhaps most crucially at all, that we have to draw on the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous societies that have maintained themselves and their environments in healthy balance for thousands or tens of thousands of years. That means acknowledging the time, energy and talents of all life, human and non-human, must contribute to a new way for humans to live in balance with the more-than-human world.
This book will appeal to fans of David Graeber, Kate Raworth, Tyson Yunkaporta, Jason Hickel, Anna Tsing, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Ursula Le Guin, Bruno Latour, Wangarii Maathai, Merlin Sheldrake, Vandana Shiva, Lynn Margulis, Kim Stanley Robinson, as well as listeners to the New Books Network, Past Present and Future, and HPS podcasts.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published April 10, 2026
About the author
Natalie Bennett
4 books8 followersNatalie has been the editor of the Guardian Weekly newspaper, a volunteer
with the Thai National Commission on Women’s Affairs, and a (not very
good) rugby player, football goalie and cricket wicketkeeper. She has lived
on three continents, taken degrees in agricultural science, history and politics,
and social science, and gone from being the child of an apprentice carpenter
in Australia to membership of the UK House of Lords (since 2019).
She joined the Green Party of England and Wales on January 1, 2006,
with the resolution to “do something” about the state of the world, but would
never have predicted where it would lead her.
A feminist from age five, when she was told because she was a girl, she
was not allowed to have a bicycle, Natalie became a Green when she saw thriving,
life‑rich soil on a biodynamic farm in Australia, in contrast to the depleted,
trashed soils of mainstream farming methods. She can get very geeky about
soil biology when the chance arises. She chose to leave Australia in frustration
at its money‑dominated and anti‑intellectual political culture, and moved in
her mind not just to the United Kingdom, but Europe.
You can find regular writing from Natalie on her Substack.
with the Thai National Commission on Women’s Affairs, and a (not very
good) rugby player, football goalie and cricket wicketkeeper. She has lived
on three continents, taken degrees in agricultural science, history and politics,
and social science, and gone from being the child of an apprentice carpenter
in Australia to membership of the UK House of Lords (since 2019).
She joined the Green Party of England and Wales on January 1, 2006,
with the resolution to “do something” about the state of the world, but would
never have predicted where it would lead her.
A feminist from age five, when she was told because she was a girl, she
was not allowed to have a bicycle, Natalie became a Green when she saw thriving,
life‑rich soil on a biodynamic farm in Australia, in contrast to the depleted,
trashed soils of mainstream farming methods. She can get very geeky about
soil biology when the chance arises. She chose to leave Australia in frustration
at its money‑dominated and anti‑intellectual political culture, and moved in
her mind not just to the United Kingdom, but Europe.
You can find regular writing from Natalie on her Substack.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 11, 2026
Review of ‘Green Thinking- Unlearning Outdated Ideas in Science, Economics and Politics’ by Natalie Bennett
In ‘Green Thinking’, Natalie Bennett calls for a deep, transformative, ‘breaking the chains’ moment, to move us away from outdated ideas which promote harmful outcomes. It challenges assumptions and models and really is a ‘breakthrough book’- the transformative model that we need for the 21st-century.
She argues that, ‘We are in the Age of Shocks- economic, geopolitical, political, environmental, health.’ Shocks which have been built on and come from, as yet, an insidious, intertwined ideology which is simply self-serving. ‘The status quo is embedded. It is backed by powerful economic forces that have come to dominate under the current thinking.’
‘Green Thinking’ urges us to unlearn. To unlearn, question and scrutinise previous modes of thought and behaviour which have caused much of the planet-trashing mess that we are in. Bennett reminds us that ‘History is not prewritten, but made by the actions of people.’ Therefore, a way of thinking, relevant to the 21st-century built on new modes of symbiotic thinking rather than the ‘old ways which lead only to disaster.’ We are asked to unlearn economic competition and the dangers of free-market politics. We are asked to unlearn human arrogance and be more humble in our relationship with other species. We are asked to unlearn that ‘money makes the world go around’ and to unlearn the ‘deification’ of national and global leaders, who will not solve our problems. Bennett asks us to look at, though not exploit Indigenous teachings and modes of thought. ‘We need to unlearn the idea that true knowledge comes only from our own tradition.’
Avoiding a planetary disaster
She warns, with great clarity, that 20th-century economic, geopolitical, commercial led interests, have left us with an increasing threat to manage.
‘The 20th-century answer was markets- let them, which increasingly meant the financial sector- decide what was “good”, what knowledge should be generated and implemented. That has got us into the planet- trashing mess we are now.’
She acknowledges that exposing the threats from these outdated modes, based on human superiority and ‘egotism’ over the rest of the planet- where resource stripping and exploitation are to be celebrated and labelled as success, will be a difficult one for us to face. The idea that humans are the peak of evolution and the rest of life on the Earth here, is ready and almost willing, for our exploitation and control, is hugely pervasive in our political practice and daily life.
But, at the same time, she challenges the reader to ask why these systems are in place in the first place and who they benefit. ‘This book seeks to lay out and expose the profound failure of 20th-century approaches. I can only expect a reaction from calling out the failure of many deeply embedded beliefs, but they must be confronted, their deeply damaged nature and threat exposed.’
Cooperation and collective interests, rather than vested ones should be the dynamic and transformative thinking required for our place in the 21st-century world. Doing what we have done before and expecting things to change magically through innovative technology, can only lead us deeper into collective ruin. ‘Competition not cooperation, individualism rather than working together, more finance and fewer relationships, working harder and longer within the system we have now, can only amplify our problems. They are what got us here in the first place.’
Bennett finds hope in the evidence that at times, humanity has displayed the courage and action to make the systemic changes that are needed. ‘We have as a species and a genus have displayed wisdom before.’ She explores the relationship between humans and nature and demonstrates that our understanding of non-human life is still being extended further and that we are still learning more about our fellow species on the planet and that we should, ‘Change our behaviour in line with our 21st-century knowledge of the sophisticated intelligence, emotions and relationships of our relatives and compatriots of the more-than-human world, to remove the blinkers carefully maintained by commercial interests.’
Bennett makes it clear that it is up to us to choose- to decide- what the 21st-century has in store for us. Ideologies that suited a few in the past cannot now suit the majority of humans on the planet. Times, societies and moral imperatives have all changed dramatically in the past 100 years and the nostalgic, rose-tinted views of past economic lives and communities, are fooling us to believe in the status quo at all costs. She maintains that there are, ‘No excuses, the responsibility is ours’
‘Green Thinking’ or ‘green thinking’ finally asks us to move away from the 20th-century stock reply of ‘can we make a profit from doing this?’ to a more cooperative and preventative question of ‘should we be doing this?’
Bennett’s ‘Green Thinking’ is meant to be challenging. It is meant to expose the self-serving ideologies of the past and move us as a species away from the ‘dead hand of financial dictatorship’ to a ‘post-growth, probiotic’ style of politics- one which encompasses rather than excludes.
In ‘Green Thinking’, Natalie Bennett calls for a deep, transformative, ‘breaking the chains’ moment, to move us away from outdated ideas which promote harmful outcomes. It challenges assumptions and models and really is a ‘breakthrough book’- the transformative model that we need for the 21st-century.
She argues that, ‘We are in the Age of Shocks- economic, geopolitical, political, environmental, health.’ Shocks which have been built on and come from, as yet, an insidious, intertwined ideology which is simply self-serving. ‘The status quo is embedded. It is backed by powerful economic forces that have come to dominate under the current thinking.’
‘Green Thinking’ urges us to unlearn. To unlearn, question and scrutinise previous modes of thought and behaviour which have caused much of the planet-trashing mess that we are in. Bennett reminds us that ‘History is not prewritten, but made by the actions of people.’ Therefore, a way of thinking, relevant to the 21st-century built on new modes of symbiotic thinking rather than the ‘old ways which lead only to disaster.’ We are asked to unlearn economic competition and the dangers of free-market politics. We are asked to unlearn human arrogance and be more humble in our relationship with other species. We are asked to unlearn that ‘money makes the world go around’ and to unlearn the ‘deification’ of national and global leaders, who will not solve our problems. Bennett asks us to look at, though not exploit Indigenous teachings and modes of thought. ‘We need to unlearn the idea that true knowledge comes only from our own tradition.’
Avoiding a planetary disaster
She warns, with great clarity, that 20th-century economic, geopolitical, commercial led interests, have left us with an increasing threat to manage.
‘The 20th-century answer was markets- let them, which increasingly meant the financial sector- decide what was “good”, what knowledge should be generated and implemented. That has got us into the planet- trashing mess we are now.’
She acknowledges that exposing the threats from these outdated modes, based on human superiority and ‘egotism’ over the rest of the planet- where resource stripping and exploitation are to be celebrated and labelled as success, will be a difficult one for us to face. The idea that humans are the peak of evolution and the rest of life on the Earth here, is ready and almost willing, for our exploitation and control, is hugely pervasive in our political practice and daily life.
But, at the same time, she challenges the reader to ask why these systems are in place in the first place and who they benefit. ‘This book seeks to lay out and expose the profound failure of 20th-century approaches. I can only expect a reaction from calling out the failure of many deeply embedded beliefs, but they must be confronted, their deeply damaged nature and threat exposed.’
Cooperation and collective interests, rather than vested ones should be the dynamic and transformative thinking required for our place in the 21st-century world. Doing what we have done before and expecting things to change magically through innovative technology, can only lead us deeper into collective ruin. ‘Competition not cooperation, individualism rather than working together, more finance and fewer relationships, working harder and longer within the system we have now, can only amplify our problems. They are what got us here in the first place.’
Bennett finds hope in the evidence that at times, humanity has displayed the courage and action to make the systemic changes that are needed. ‘We have as a species and a genus have displayed wisdom before.’ She explores the relationship between humans and nature and demonstrates that our understanding of non-human life is still being extended further and that we are still learning more about our fellow species on the planet and that we should, ‘Change our behaviour in line with our 21st-century knowledge of the sophisticated intelligence, emotions and relationships of our relatives and compatriots of the more-than-human world, to remove the blinkers carefully maintained by commercial interests.’
Bennett makes it clear that it is up to us to choose- to decide- what the 21st-century has in store for us. Ideologies that suited a few in the past cannot now suit the majority of humans on the planet. Times, societies and moral imperatives have all changed dramatically in the past 100 years and the nostalgic, rose-tinted views of past economic lives and communities, are fooling us to believe in the status quo at all costs. She maintains that there are, ‘No excuses, the responsibility is ours’
‘Green Thinking’ or ‘green thinking’ finally asks us to move away from the 20th-century stock reply of ‘can we make a profit from doing this?’ to a more cooperative and preventative question of ‘should we be doing this?’
Bennett’s ‘Green Thinking’ is meant to be challenging. It is meant to expose the self-serving ideologies of the past and move us as a species away from the ‘dead hand of financial dictatorship’ to a ‘post-growth, probiotic’ style of politics- one which encompasses rather than excludes.
June 14, 2026
Natalie Bennett sets out to compost some of the oldest assumptions underpinning Western economics, science and politics, and she does it with a thoroughness that turns provocation into proper argument.
I read this hot on the heels of Change Everything, and the difference in approach struck me straight away. Bennett used Change Everything as a call to arms, but here she does the patient work of digging into the roots those policies grew from. She traces a path away from extractive, competition-based thinking and towards relational and indigenous ways of knowing that have kept ecosystems in balance for thousands of years, backing every step with proper citation.
It’s a resonant homecoming of feelings I subconsciously know. Bennett gives that instinct a rigorous intellectual home, and the depth of referencing makes this as useful for my MBA reading list as it is for general interest.
If Change Everything lit the fire, Green Thinking explains how the fire actually works. Highly recommended.
I read this hot on the heels of Change Everything, and the difference in approach struck me straight away. Bennett used Change Everything as a call to arms, but here she does the patient work of digging into the roots those policies grew from. She traces a path away from extractive, competition-based thinking and towards relational and indigenous ways of knowing that have kept ecosystems in balance for thousands of years, backing every step with proper citation.
It’s a resonant homecoming of feelings I subconsciously know. Bennett gives that instinct a rigorous intellectual home, and the depth of referencing makes this as useful for my MBA reading list as it is for general interest.
If Change Everything lit the fire, Green Thinking explains how the fire actually works. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews