In the 1970s and 80s, the word ‘greenie’ was an appellation reserved for conservationists and environmentalists.

You know the type – portrayed in the conservative circles as a kind of leftie weirdos. Those fedora-wearing, hippie-dippie, muesli- eating vegans with their soy lattes, choosing to drop out of society, more concerned about endangered species rather than ‘Aussie workers’. That purported lifestyle, ridiculed until today in hard right media quarters, is a cultural barrier many Australian workers have to any kind of ecosocialist perspective.

The false dichotomy between ‘jobs vs environment’ is being exposed for the fraudulent distraction that it is. However, my purpose is not to revisit that debate, but to focus on the issue of living in harmony with the environment. So being a ‘greenie’, motivated by concern for ecological welfare, is a kind of weirdo-lifestyle pursuit?…..I see.

That is interesting, because in the 70s and 80s, we had the portrait of Grizzly Adams, the lone frontier man who lives in the woods, in harmony with nature, only consuming enough for himself to live sustainably.

The Grizzly Adams character was meant to be a lesson in living in peace with the natural world, not against it. The frontiersman embodied the free spirit of the self-motivated individual, living free and respectful of nature.

That is not the first example of the allegedly self-starting pioneer living in tune with nature’s beat. Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), author of Walden and proponent of individual self-reliance, lived in an environmental paradise, cultivating the food and sustenance needed from the natural resources around him. Going off-grid (a term we use today), he detached himself from the harmful influence of big government (so the story goes) and lived as a free individual.

Thoreau’s vision was that of an individualist laissez-faire capitalist, transitioning from a purely labouring person to that of a budding sovereign citizen. No, he did not describe himself as such, but we may see the beginnings of an ultra-libertarian perspective in Thoreau’s relationship with the environment.

Never matter that runaway slaves, whose individual desire for self-improvement went acknowledged, founded their own self-reliant community in Concord, Massachusetts before Thoreau even dreamt of his scheme, speaks volumes about how we in the settler-colonial Anglophone world regard the environment. Pioneering frontiersmen are applauded for their indomitable self-reliant spirit; the victims of colonial settler societies, and their drive to be free, are forgotten.

When Tory politicians in Australia – those in the misnamed Liberal-National coalition – want to pretend to be farmers, they wear an Akubra (not forgetting the leather shoes). A bit similar in poseur fashion to the greenie hippie-dippies wearing their outsized fedoras.

Yes, you may find fedora-wearing, self-absorbed types who think they are sensational because they have chosen to go vegan. At least, they are speaking about the environment, and the harmful impact of industrialised agriculture on nutrition as an important topic.

Now, a case study…..

The Wye river, flowing through Herefordshire in the UK, is the inspiration for poetic descriptions of the bucolic English countryside. William Wordsworth wrote of his joy at seeing the vast unspoiled landscape of Heredfordshire. Who would not want to live in harmony with this lush, pristine environment?

I wonder what he would say today.

Over the last 25-30 years, the River Wye has been systematically polluted by a growing poultry industry. Tonnes of harmful phosphates and surplus nitrates, deriving from the excess chicken manure at the intensified poultry processing units, is washed into the Wye river by the rains. The millions of chickens produce way too much manure to be absorbed entirely by the soil.

The Wye river has turned into a vast algal bloom, and brown slime predominates in the river. Marine life has had to migrate to less polluted parts of the river, or else be overwhelmed by the algae. Native vegetation and flowers, once reliant on a clean river system, are disappearing. No matter how sturdy or resilient the Grizzly Adams pioneering spirit may be, rugged individualism is not enough to respond to corporate-generated agricultural pollution.

It is well-nigh impossible to live the Thoreau-esque lifestyle, free and in harmony with nature, when that natural environment is being systematically exploited and destroyed. What is required, as the much-maligned greenie groups are demanding, is change and regulations targeting the exploitive poultry farming industry.

Yes, I can hear the howls of outrage from the Tory-corporate media; more regulation means socialism, bowing to the dictates of overarching government. The word bureaucracy has acquired negative connotations – sclerotic, geriatric, Soviet-style resistance to change. Except that bureaucracies, such as environmental protection agencies, have been at the forefront of social change, monitoring the environmental vandalism of large corporations.

Responding to climate change induced problems will require stronger regulations of predatory and destructive corporate practices. Holding companies accountable for the fossil fuels they use, the pollution they create, and the species they drive to extinction will require the kind of regulatory bodies that Musk, Trump and the modern day conquistadors spend time attacking.

Regulatory action has been remarkably successful in reversing the ecological damage caused by rapacious industries.

The Endangered Species Act, which reached its fiftieth anniversary last year, has catalogued and preserved multiple species from certain extinction. Cleaning up the acid rain has been achieved by regulatory legislation monitoring and reducing the harmful atmospheric acidification. We would still have a worsening hole in the ozone layer were it not for environmental protection efforts.

If you wish to live the Thoreau, ruggedly individualist lifestyle in the forest, please be my guest. Just remember that a clean, hospitable environment is possible only when the community bands together to protect it.