#DarkGreenReligion described environmentalism taking spiritual/religious characteristics, treating nature as sacred and climate action as moral imperative transcending secular policy.
Academic Framing
Coined by scholar Bron Taylor in book “Dark Green Religion” (2010), the term analyzed environmentalism’s religious dimensions: Earth as sacred, apocalyptic narratives, martyrdom (environmental defenders), pilgrimage (Attenborough documentaries), ritual (climate strikes), and moral community bonded by ecological values.
Spiritual Environmentalism
The hashtag encompassed: deep ecology’s intrinsic value of nature, ecofeminism’s spiritual connection to Earth, Indigenous animism recognition, Gaia hypothesis (Earth as living organism), and climate activists describing work as “sacred.” Figures like Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, and Charles Eisenstein articulated spiritual ecology.
Criticism & Defense
Critics from secular environmentalism worried religious framing alienated scientific/political allies and enabled dismissal as fanaticism. Religious environmentalists countered: scientific facts alone hadn’t motivated sufficient action; people needed moral/spiritual frameworks for transformation. The debate exposed tensions between pragmatic politics and deeper cultural shifts.
Extinction Rebellion’s Spirituality
XR explicitly incorporated spiritual practices: meditation, grief rituals, ceremony, and nonviolent sacred activism. Founder Roger Hallam described climate emergency as spiritual crisis requiring love-based action. Critics accused movement of New Age appropriation and ineffective tactics, but XR demonstrated hunger for meaning beyond policy change.
Cultural Significance
Whether labeled religion or not, climate activism increasingly involved existential questions: humanity’s relationship to nature, growth economy’s spiritual emptiness, and meaning-making in face of catastrophe. #DarkGreenReligion named phenomenon where ecological consciousness functioned like religious worldview.
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520261006/dark-green-religion https://www.theguardian.com/