The Perils of Rootedness: On Bioregionalism and Right Wing Ecology in Germany

Abstract

This paper provides a comparison between bioregionalism and what is called here “right wing ecology.” Right wing ecology, a particular interpretation of environmentalism characteristic of Far Right thought, argues that environmental protection can be defined as the protection of diversity in nature. Since human beings are also a part of nature, protecting human diversity from the “one-world mono-culture” is, according to this view, also the task of any true environmentalism. Accordingly, proponents of right wing ecology argue that each human community, distinctive as it is, must be protected from the foreign and non-native. Using some bioregionalist literature (including one of the most famous expositions of bioregionalism, Kirkpatrick Sale's 1985 book Dwellers in the Land), the paper argues that, although bioregionalism and right wing ecology diverge greatly in their intent, some aspects of the bioregional vision are nevertheless strikingly similar to right wing ecology. Accordingly, the paper attempts to show that the ambiguous formulations contained within bioregionalism—especially its notion of human “rootedness”—can have unintended and disturbing political manifestations.