Environmentalists Are Just Everyone Who Are Not Earth Rapists

How strange when people talk about ‘the environment.’ How odd that something we are so inextricably connected with can be discussed as separate from us. As if we do not breathe the atmosphere. Inhale and exhale like all the plants and the trees and the animals and insects. As if we do not require sunshine. As if the water we drink daily does not fall from the sky or well up from the earth. We speak of the environment as ‘an issue’ to debate, prioritising extraction and turning eyes off pollution.


A slow remembering our nature. Some called ‘environmentalists.’ Those who raise eyebrows at greedy practices, who toss materials in a special bin, who make the time to grow food.


Are these the environmentalists? Or are these just the humans? Why would people living closer in harmony with the planet that sustains us be labeled and the ones desecrating it are not? What do we call the other people? That trample, abuse, and defile our home like selfish teenagers and careless children. Taking all for themselves and scoffing in the face of science. Nature rapists? Earth murderers? Why do we not have a name for anti-environmentalists who get away with mass destruction of the place we all rely on for survival, some far more vulnerable than others?


It irks me to be called an environmentalist. The definition in the dictionary describes me. Yet I do not identify with this. I identify as an activist. Standing up for what I believe in. I identify as a healer helping others to remember their nature. I identify as a mermaid to bring back the laughter, joy, and magic we deny ourselves in the panic and pain.


I know gender fluid folks who hate labels too. I know bisexual babes who don’t need to define their sexuality. I know politics makes us choose, and that feels bullshit too. For the earth to be split by political agenda makes me sick. Of course it is valuable. Of course it has incredible resources. This is how we evolved to inhabit this planet.

I highly doubt that those in power do not believe in climate change. There is too much evidence. I believe this is just another separation of us and them. A charade to prolong greed and destruction for selfish gain.

If I had one wish it would be to de-politicise the environment. So that it was separate from partisan agendas and safe from manipulation. It is too late. It is caught up in stocks, bank accounts, contracts, shady deals, public disasters.


Perhaps labelling the nature rapists and calling them out would help to stigmatise the greedy globalisation, ignored inequalities and lack of regulation or enforcement that fuels the natural demise. Perhaps as ecology continues to shape our politics we will see justice. We will be held accountable for our actions. Our taking. Our giving. Perhaps it must begin with us. Calling out those who are doing us all wrong. Those who label us environmentalists. Perhaps it is time to put them in a box. Exposed. Pressured and pushed, by the humans who breathe air, to reconcile.

It was never my plan to be an earth warrior, but my home is threatened.

It was never my plan to be an earth warrior, but my brothers and sisters forget.