What it means to be Deep Green

Last autumn I wrote this for somebody perplexed by the term ‘Deep Green’, and why many members of the Green Party felt anxious about its direction. I thought I’d publish my take here for others thinking the same question. I think it’s much better to understand this in terms of the questions we ask, and the priorities we start with, rather than the answers we arrive at. Earth First! can seem as deep green as they come, but Murray Bookchin took prominent members to task for seeing famines as “nature’s way of restoring a balance”. That argument, he shot back, both denies the human political causes of the famine and, in doing so, puts human beings outside of nature – neither being very Green. Eco-socialist and conservationist traditions can be equally deep green, and can equally be very un-green in their expression. Core beliefs can become chains. There is a