Introduction
It’s 25 years since Hilary Whitehouse detailed the efforts of three women to avoid being labelled as “greenies” when implementing environmental initiatives in regional Queensland schools. Whitehouse noted that such initiatives constituted “socially risky business” (Reference Whitehouse2001, 71): taking environmental action at school was viewed as counter-normative, and those who pursued it risked being labelled as a “greenie.” This social label was used pejoratively to dismiss the concerns of people expressing environmentalist views and to characterise them as radical, obstructionist, or social nuisances. Whitehouse (Reference Whitehouse2001) described that the women had to pursue environmental projects carefully, positioning themselves as “not greenies” (73) within their school context, to prevent their work being dismissed through a “discourse of marginalisation” (71).
In 2010, Whitehouse and Evans followed up on this thread, showing that the term “greenie” remained problematic for educators teaching sustainability. The authors wrote that “greenie” was part of a place-based cultural discourse commonly understood in regional Queensland. The term indicated “a cultural meaning system where the expression of environmental concern has been and still is strongly considered ‘other to’ normalised social practice” (21). The authors found the discourse hindered sustainability initiatives, as teachers sought to avoid stirring community discontent and being labelled as radicals, troublemakers or “greenies.” However, they observed that social labels are fluid, and that the usage and negative connotations of “greenie” may eventually decline, if communities came to realise their environmental vulnerabilities.
The present contribution adds another chapter to this story, showing that deployment of “greenies” has not diminished but endured into 2025. “Greenies” remains a discursive shorthand used to represent environmentally minded people in socially undesirable ways. Drawing on qualitative data from longitudinal research at a high school in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, I document how “greenies” is a well-understood term in this part of regional Australia. My research did not specifically aim to explore the discourse of environmentalism. However, participants’ spontaneous references to “greenies” echoed the works of Whitehouse and Evans, inviting contemporary reflection on the ongoing social traction of this discourse and its evolution. Indeed, “greenies” seems to have acquired additional dimensions since Whitehouse and Evans wrote in 2010, as climate change issues have become increasingly salient over the intervening years.
“Greenies” in contemporary environmental debates
While not exclusively a derogatory term, “greenies” has featured prominently in recent Australian debates as a means to disparage environmentalists. For example, Colvin (Reference Colvin2020) examined media coverage of the “Stop Adani Convoy” – a protest movement against a proposed coal mine – finding that outlets emphasised divisions between mine opponents and supporters. The media cast opponents as politically left-leaning, urban “greenies” from southern states, who were either hypocritical, privileged elites or – paradoxically – “dole bludgers” (10). Mine supporters, in contrast, were characterised as politically right-leaning, hard-working regional Queenslanders. Similarly, Donnelly (Reference Donnelly2023) observed that residents of a coal mining town expected conflict with “greenies” and environmentalist outsiders from city electorates, whose agendas regarding climate change and renewable energy showed little appreciation for regional realities.
These contemporary examples reflect an older narrative of an “urban–rural divide”, which partly involves a sense of marginalisation among rural people from a powerful urban majority (see Witt et al., Reference Witt, Witt, Carter and Gordon2009). This narrative has figured in public discourse and political speech regarding climate change (see Hinkson, Reference Hinkson2022) and was exemplified memorably in 2019 by the then-Deputy Prime Minister (and coincidentally, the Federal Member for Riverina, in which Wagga Wagga is located). Responding to a question in a radio interview (see ABC, 2019) regarding the unfolding bushfires and their connection with climate change, he stated that affected communities “don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened, woke capital city greenies.” Conjuring these supposed raving urbanites concerned about climate-induced disasters sought to amplify perceived differences in environmental values between urban and regional residents. The idea of an urban–rural divide remains powerful despite a lack of empirical evidence to support it (Colvin et al., Reference Colvin, Jotzo and Fielding2024; Witt et al., Reference Witt, Witt, Carter and Gordon2009), arguably contributing to the persistence of “greenies” as a discursive shorthand in environmental debates seeking a simplistic “us and them” portrayal along geographical lines.
However, in regional Australian schools, the “greenie” label manifests differently. Students and educators who are part of the regional community in which they learn and teach cannot be dismissed as urban outsiders. Yet they can still be “othered.” As the next sections will describe, the “greenie” appellation is understood to have strong associations with progressive (“left”) politics. In regional Australia, where conservative political parties tend to dominate (AEC, 2025) holding “leftist” views may be considered counter-normative.
“Greenies” at school
Between 2023 and 2025, I conducted research interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) with students and teachers at a Wagga Wagga high school regarding climate change education (see Russell, in press). The research, informed by a social–ecological systems perspective (see Crandon et al., Reference Crandon, Scott, Charlson and Thomas2022), explored contextual and systemic factors relevant to learning and teaching about climate change. Inquiring into the social context revealed participants’ hesitations about expressing environmentalist views at school, partly due to concerns about being labelled a “greenie.” The excerpts presented below illustrate how the discourse around environmentalism, including the use of “greenies,” featured in the educational context and its implications for teachers and students.
Teachers’ perspectives
In an online FGD, two teachers described carefully navigating how they taught climate change. One shared that her teaching had previously elicited criticism from families questioning why this topic was taught. Following Whitehouse (Reference Whitehouse2001), this excerpt shows that environmental issues such as climate change were not seen as legitimate educational concerns:
(Teacher 1): “I had one student in my class say to me once her father was really pissed off - you know, why were we learning about this [climate change]? You don’t go to school to learn these things”.
(Teacher 2): “And that’s because it’s been politicized, isn’t it? This father’s probably thinking, ‘you leftie greenie, pushing all this’.”
The characterisation of a “greenie” as someone who would “push” a politically left perspective on students illustrates how the teaching of climate change has become entangled with political divisions and, consequently, can expose educators to criticism.
The following quote affirmed that climate change was seen as a divisive issue in Wagga Wagga. Here, two groups were described – the “rednecks” and the “greenies” – and how their divergent views inhibited students expressing their opinions about climate change:
I feel like Wagga… if we can use the words “rednecks” and “greenies”? There are a lot of kids who do not feel comfortable speaking out [about climate change] in the classroom […] They do not feel safe to speak up because they’re gonna be ridiculed.
The potential for ridicule applied to teachers as well as students. One teacher used “greenie” to convey how she felt subject to belittlement or marginalisation when teaching about climate change – until she attended a professional development session with a climate expert:
Before, I’m just a whingeing, crazy greenie. But now I’m an educated teacher with a viable problem.
In this telling, the teacher gained a sense of legitimacy, shifting from a position of marginalisation – the “crazy greenie” – to one with credible concerns and knowledge that could inform her teaching practice. Educators seemed attuned to the potential consequences of being perceived as a fringe actor, with another teacher describing in a separate interview the importance of not being a lone voice when pursuing environmental initiatives at school:
Having a bigger base of teachers on board, makes it easier to gain the support of our kids and students, that it’s not just, you know, the one greenie […] and this is what we should be doing as a school as a whole.
Here, the teacher highlights the need for a holistic, collegiate approach to secure students’ buy-in, so that new environmental initiatives were not rejected as merely ideas of “one greenie.”
Students’ perspectives
The reluctance to be associated with environmentalism or labelled a “greenie” was also evident among students. One Year 12 student expressed in an interview that peers did not tend to share pro-environmental sentiment; rather, it was hidden:
(Interviewer): “Why is it hidden, do you think?”
(Student): “I don’t know. I reckon it’s stereotypes. People don’t want to… like, people see people who care about the environment and think, ‘oh, you’re a greenie’.”
Students’ tendency to self-censor was affirmed in a subsequent FGD with Year 11 students. Here, a participant elaborated on why students don’t voice their opinions, extending the conception of an environmentalist as a renewable energy advocate:
I suppose it’d come down to that kind of stigma that’s associated with being environmentally minded - that translates into wanting solar farms everywhere; that means that you’re far left.
The perceived stigma attached to supporting solar energy infrastructure may reflect local contention about renewable energy projects (see Rowley, Reference Rowley2025). Further, the student’s connection of the advocacy to “far left” politics exemplifies broader political divisions surrounding renewable energy and climate policy in Australia (Colvin et al., Reference Colvin, Jotzo and Fielding2024). As in the teachers’ data, and in accordance with Whitehouse (Reference Whitehouse2001), expressing environmental values presents a social risk to students, given the potential to be affiliated with (objectionable) leftist politics in a politically conservative electorate.
Political conservatism in Wagga Wagga was also raised by a Year 9 student in an interview, in this instance to explain reluctance to take climate action:
Wagga’s a very conservative area […] and that extends to things like climate change. It’s kind of seen as radical.
Climate change seemed to raise particular tensions as it was commonly associated with disruptive activism. The following excerpt is taken from an FGD with Year 11 students, in which they discussed what “climate action” is and its representation in media. It shows students’ expectations for how such activities – that typically take place in cities outside Wagga Wagga – would be received in their social milieu:
(Participant 1): “I feel like you mainly see all the crazies…like people stopping traffic and stuff, that’s what they show, and then it throws people off of it.”
(Participant 2): “Yeah, people don’t agree with how they advocate. Like they can protest, that’s fine, but it’s when they stop traffic and go block the [Sydney] Harbor Bridge – people agree that climate change is happening, but people still have to get to work, so there’s other ways to protest that aren’t about […] disturbing everyone.”
Even for these students, who had expressed environmentalist views, climate action was imagined to be a disruptive undertaking that attracts “the crazies.” This description harks back to the “crazy greenie” in the teachers’ responses, as well as broader research which found casting climate advocates as “crazies” undermined their credibility and competence (Boddington et al., Reference Boddington, Colvin, Fielding, Stanley and Louis2025).
These statements indicate that discourse around environmentalism has come to encompass new dimensions that may be salient for regional educators and students. In the works by Whitehouse (Reference Whitehouse2001) and Whitehouse and Evans (Reference Whitehouse and Evans2010), there was a prominent conception of “greenies” doing such things as tying themselves to trees to obstruct forest clearing. In my research, I noted a focus not on obstruction, but disruption: environmentalists were readily associated with climate activism and renewable energy advocacy, viewed as disruptive undertakings. The rise of protest-based climate activism since 2018 may have contributed to this evolving conception of “greenie.” For example, thousands of students participated in the School Strikes 4 Climate in Australia, to which the (conservative) Prime Minister at the time responded: “What we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools” (White et al., Reference White, Ferguson, O’Connor Smith and O’Shea Carre2022). It is possible that overt disapproval of climate activism inhibited classroom discussions about climate change in politically conservative areas such as regional Australia, for fear of social repercussions.
Ongoing implications from an evolving cultural discourse
The abovementioned concerns remind us that “environmental” issues are also social issues: we cannot effect change for the environment without contending with messy social realities. Education, as a deeply social endeavour, can and should assist in the transition towards a more sustainable society. Yet there remain real challenges confronting regional educators and students wishing to enact their environmental values.
The educators represented here take care not to alienate students and families when teaching about the environment and climate change; they are careful not to be perceived (and potentially dismissed) as a “greenie.” This complicates an already difficult job: Beasy et al. (Reference Beasy, Jones, Kelly, Lucas, Mocatta, Pecl and Yildiz2023) described how teachers must continually acquire complex information about climate change, translate it into useable classroom material and navigate the emotional responses this learning can elicit in students. Students, on the other hand, feel compelled to hide their environmental views to avoid social backlash, hindering their participation in environmental initiatives (Russell, in press). Students and educators commonly eschew the “greenie” label and its association with the political left given divisive local politics surrounding the energy transition (Rowley, Reference Rowley2025).
In the context of worsening climate change, and students’ related concerns for their future (Lucas et al., Reference Lucas, Earl-Jones, Mocatta, Beasy, Kelly and Pecl2024; Russell, Reference Russell2024; White et al., Reference White, Ferguson, O’Connor Smith and O’Shea Carre2022), impediments to environmental education must be overcome. This includes discursive practices that marginalise environmental concerns. For regional communities that are highly vulnerable to climate change and face escalating risks of extreme events (ACS, 2025), finding ways to normalise enacting care for the environment whilst minimising the potential for ostracism seems critical. This could involve resourcing schools to undertake environmental work in ways that reflect local priorities and values. These ways would not necessarily align with urban norms of environmentalism but constitute an authentic, practical and context-specific next step that could prove transformative for regional schools (following Eckersley, Reference Eckersley2021). Unarrested, the cultural discourse could contribute to a form of urban-regional divide: in which urban schools educate openly about environmental exigencies including climate change, while regional schools plateau, ensnared by socio-political contention that renders the environmentally oriented as outsiders in their social context.
Conclusion
This paper demonstrates how the discourse of “greenies” continues to constrain environmental education in regional Australian schools, one quarter-century after it was originally described. Environmental initiatives are still viewed as outside of normative social and educational practice; teachers and students still risk ostracism and marginalisation for expressing concern about these real-world issues. The power of the discourse seems unlikely to diminish without interventions that position environmental learning and action as normative. Let us hope that future chapters of this story describe the obsolescence of the pejorative “greenie” label and recount how environmental issues became a legitimate, socially accepted educational concern for all Australian schools.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the students and staff at her partner school in Wagga Wagga for their generous and long-term participation in the research programme from which this article draws. The author would also like to thank all members of her PhD supervisory panel, especially A/Prof Rebecca Colvin (ANU), and Mrs Sharon Forwood (ANU) for supporting her in this research over the last several years.
Ethical statement
Ethical aspects of the research were approved by the relevant educational authority and the Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee (Protocols 2023/253 and 2024/0707). The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical obligations to protect the anonymity of participants.
Financial support
This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
Author Biography
Tanja Russell is a PhD candidate in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on the role of educational experiences in empowering young people to take meaningful climate action. She works in the Executive Education team at the Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at ANU.
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