Abstract

Radical environmental discourse often contains anarchic elements. These elements include criticism of authoritarian politics and capitalism, and an emphasis on collectivism, individual freedom and self-fulfilment. These anarchic tendencies have increasingly led to the use of the term ‘green anarchism’. This chapter investigates two versions of radical environmental discourse, which have included, or have been used to support, ideas familiar to green anarchism: deep ecology and primitivism. The aim is to bring forward their main premises, explore the similarities between the two, examine the criticism directed against them, and suggest some possible future directions.