Maligned to mainstream

Once on the fringes of society, 88-year-old Norman Fletcher says they were regarded as ‘‘jandal-wearing, tree-hugging fruit loops’’, scoffed at for their environmental concerns.

But times have changed, awareness has grown and an environmental ethos has seeped into the mainstream.

Now, later in their lives, some conservationists have protest T-shirts saved in a drawer somewhere, or a box of newspaper clippings to show for their efforts. Was it worth it? Of course. A bit depressing? Certainly. Does the battle continue? No doubt.

‘‘My last act will be to drown in front of an oil rig,’’ joked Fletcher, known as Noz.

He thought there was still a certain stigma attached to being a ‘‘greenie’’. ‘‘It is changing but there is still a residue of people that just don’t want to admit that being green is a good thing.’’

For Fletcher, it started with Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, published in 1962.

While some accused her of being ‘‘loopy’’, the book raised international awareness of environmental issues.

‘‘People started to take things seriously,’’ Norman’s wife, Alison Fletcher, said.

Between the two, they have a significant number of fights under their belts. Save Manapouri, Nuclear Free New Zealand, Make Poverty History, ‘‘it goes on and on’’, she said.

Among many issues, they lobbied for Marlborough to invest in solar power in the 1990s and were ‘‘scoffed’’ at by local electricity bosses. They butted heads with economic interests as they worked to reduce pine plantations and the resulting sedimentation in the Marlborough Sounds, and tried to introduce a local ‘‘weed busters’’ programme.

‘‘I think there is much more public buy-in now. People are starting to understand the environment is not something separate from us but that we are dependent on it and if we don’t look after it, it is to our detriment,’’ Alison Fletcher said.

As New Zealand marks 50 years of Conservation Week, the state of the environment report describes the nation’s ecology as on the brink.

A more stringent freshwater policy came before Parliament this month, prompting critics to kick back, fighting to dilute it.

‘‘The frustrating thing is that change is slow,’’ Alison Fletcher said. ‘‘Relying on Parliament to change things, that is like turning the Titanic. It takes so long for good things to happen.’’

But while change might be slow, there had been process. Environmental issues and climate change were front and centre of local body elections next month. ‘‘We have been talking about climate change since the 1980s,’’ she said.

‘‘That is heartbreaking because if it had been accepted that human kind was affecting the planet and we needed to do something about it, we could have been in a much better position than we are now.’’

Fletcher said she found the notion of birth strikers depressing, because ‘‘all the ones who are perhaps equipped to solve the issues are more likely to not produce’’.

Eric Jorgensen, of Marlborough Marine Futures, said most people these days thought of themselves as environmentalists. ‘‘They might not be active but they would say they care about it. Obviously there are varying degrees of understanding and expertise.’’

He had come to understand that people caring for a place was the way to change the system.

‘‘Intuitively we understand that we need to look after the place, for the place to look after us.’’ But ‘‘the system’’ forced people into taking the role of the ‘‘jandal-wearing hippie’’.

‘‘The system forces us into these roles a bit, because the system doesn’t deal with things holistically.’’

Bill Mcewan made a call to action over climate change in 2015, when he fasted for seven days and nights in Blenheim’s town centre. ‘‘There were some who were hugely and actively supportive, there were a minority who were hostile but most were a bit puzzled,’’ he said about his public fast.

He too was influenced by Silent Spring and Woodstock, among several things that had made him concerned about New Zealand’s landscape.

Mcewan said that in the early days he was classed as ‘‘fringe’’, labelled a ‘‘greenie’’ and an ‘‘environmentalist’’ and that mindset of labelling still persisted today.