Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Henry David Thoreau was an American writer who
was central to the emergence of the environmental
movement in the US. While Thoreau may not have
called himself an anarchist, his work and action
serve as examples of the nature of anarchism and its
connections to environmental philosophy. Thoreau
once spent time in a Concord jail as a consequence
of his unwillingness to pay taxes that were being
levied in support of America's war in Mexico
(Walls, 2001). It is claimed that Thoreau never paid
taxes throughout his life, and this reflects his fierce
sense of independence and his opposition to the
controlling influence of political authorities. It is
within his nature writings, however, that we discover
the connections that exist between Thoreau's
anarchist politics and environmental ethics. In 1845
Thoreau built a log cabin on land adjacent to Walden
Pond (near Concord in Massachusetts). He then
lived, in relative isolation, in this cabin for over two
years. During this time he compiled one of the great pieces of nature writing, Walden: Or, Life in
the Woods (Thoreau, 1995). In Walden, Thoreau provides a detailed account of the impacts that his
sustained immersion in the natural world had on his sense of self and identity. Thoreau thus
observed, 'Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find
ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations' (Thoreau, 1995: 8). In
classic anarchist terms, Thoreau's experience at Walden Pond, and subsequently in more remote
corners of the North American wilderness, provided him with a new appreciation of nature and
humanity's place within it. Thoreau was concerned that opportunities for such environmental
experiences were being eroded within modern industrial and political life. Thoreau's writings were
crucial to the campaigns that emerged in nineteenth-century America for the preservation of nature
and that ultimately led to the establishment of the first national parks.
Source: Wikimedia Creative Commons
Key reading
Walls, L.D. (2001) 'David Henry Thoreau, 1817-62' in Palmer, J.A. (ed.) Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment,
Routledge, London: 106-113
Classical Marxist accounts of the state claim
that modern states have emerged primarily to
support the continued accumulation of wealth,
and to resolve the socio-economic and environ-
mental problems (Marxists would say contradic-
tions or crises, see Merrifield, 2002) that these
socio-environmental affairs. Marxist inspired
analyses of the state often depict governments
as active accomplices within the capitalist exploita-
tion of the natural world (Burkett, 1999). In order
to understand this position, we need to know
more about Marxist understandings of the state.
