Radical environmentalism is a grass-roots branch of the largerenvironmental movement that emerged from anecocentrism-based frustration with the co-option of mainstreamenvironmentalism.[1]
The radical environmental movement aspires to what scholar Christopher Manes calls "a new kind of environmental activism: iconoclastic, uncompromising, discontented with traditional conservation policy, at times illegal". Radical environmentalism presupposes a need to reconsiderWestern ideas of religion and philosophy, includingcapitalism,patriarchy,[2][page needed] andglobalization,[3] sometimes through "resacralising" and reconnecting with nature.[2][page needed]
The movement is typified byleaderless resistance organizations such asEarth First!, which subscribe to the idea of takingdirect action in defense ofMother Nature includingcivil disobedience,ecotage andmonkeywrenching.[2][page needed] Movements such as theEarth Liberation Front (ELF) andEarth Liberation Army (ELA) also take this form of action, although focusing on economicsabotage, rather than civil disobedience.[4] Radical environmentalists can includeearth liberationists, as well asanarcho-primitivists,animal liberationists,bioregionalists,deep ecologists,eco-nationalism,ecopsychologists,green anarchists, and less oftenanti-globalization andanti-capitalist protesters,ecofeminists,neo-Pagans,Third Positionists, andWiccans.[2][page needed][5] This does not mean that everyone subscribing to those beliefs and values should be considered a radical environmentalist.[1]
While many people believe that the first significant radical environmentalist group wasGreenpeace, which made use ofdirect action beginning in the 1970s to confrontwhaling ships andnuclear weapons testers,[6] others within the movement, argues asEarth Liberation Front (ELF) prisonerJeff "Free" Luers, suggests that the movement was established centuries ago. He often writes that the concept of "eco-defence" was born shortly after the existence of the human race, claiming it is only recently that within the modern development of human society, and individuals losing touch with the earth and its wild roots, that more radical tactics and political theories have emerged.[3][7]
The alternative tactic of using explosive andincendiary devices was established in 1976 byJohn Hanna and others as theEnvironmental Life Force (ELF), also now known as theoriginal ELF. The group conducted a campaign of armed actions in northernCalifornia andOregon, later disbanding in 1978 following Hanna's arrest for placing incendiary devices on seven crop-dusters at theSalinas, California airport onMay Day, 1977.[8] It wasn't until over a decade and a half later that this form ofguerrilla warfare resurfaced as the Earth Liberation Front[9] using the same ELFacronym.
In 1980Earth First! was founded byDave Foreman and others to confront environmental destruction, primarily of the American West. Inspired by theEdward Abbey novelThe Monkey Wrench Gang, Earth First! made use of such techniques astreesitting[10] andtreespiking[11] to stoplogging companies, as well as other activities targeted towardsmining,road construction,[12]suburban development andenergy companies.The organization were committed to nonviolentecotage techniques from the group's inception, with those that split from the movement in the 1990s including theEarth Liberation Front (ELF) in 1992, naming themselves after theAnimal Liberation Front (ALF) who formed in the 1970s.[13] Three years later inCanada, inspired by the ELF inEurope the firstEarth Liberationdirect action occurred, but this time as theEarth Liberation Army (ELA), a similar movement who use ecotage andmonkeywrenching as a tool, although no guidelines had been published.[citation needed]
The ELF gained national attention for a series of actions which earned them the label ofeco-terrorists,[14][15] including the burning of aski resort inVail, Colorado in 1998 that the ALF also claimed credit for[16][17]—and the burning of anSUV dealership inOregon in 1999.[18] The defendants in the case were later charged in theFBI's "Operation Backfire", along with other arsons and cases, which were later named by environmentalists as theGreen Scare; alluding to theRed Scare, periods of fear over communist infiltration of U.S.[19][20]
Following theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks several laws were passed increasing the penalties for ecoterrorism, and hearings were held in Congress discussing the activities of groups such as the ELF. To date no one has been killed as a result of an ELF or ALF action since both groups forbid harming human or non-human life.[21]: 1–42 It was then announced in 2003 that"eco-terrorist" attacks, known as"ecotage", had increased from the ELF, ELA and the"Environmental Rangers", another name used by activists when engaging in similar activity.[22] In 2005 the FBI announced that the ELF was America's greatestdomestic terrorist threat, responsible for over 1,200 "criminal incidents" amounting to tens of millions of dollars in damage to property,[23] with the United StatesDepartment of Homeland Security confirming this regarding the ALF and ELF.[24]
Plane Stupid then was launched in 2005, in an attempt to combat the growing airport expansions in the UK usingdirect action with a year later the firstCamp for Climate Action being held with 600 people attending a protest calledReclaim Power converging onDrax Power Station inNorth Yorkshire and attempted to shut it down. There were thirty-eight arrests, with four breaching the fence and the railway line being blocked.[25][26]
Radical environmentalism has been called anew religious movement byBron Taylor (1998). Taylor contends that "Radical environmentalism is best understood as a new religious movement that viewsenvironmental degradation as an assault on a sacred, natural world."[21][27]: 1326–1335
Some writers have used it to refer to the hypothetical danger of futuredystopian governments, which might resort tofascist radical environmentalist policies in order to deal with environmental issues.[28] Themes of eco-fascism and radical environmentalism can be found in movies and literature likeSoylent Green,Hunger Games,[29]Z.P.G., andMy Diary from 2091.[30]
Several philosophies have arisen from ideas in radical environmentalism that includedeep ecology,ecofeminism,social ecology andbioregionalism.[31]
Deep Ecology is attributed toArne Naess and is defined as "a normative, ecophilosophical movement that is inspired and fortified in part by our experience as humans in nature and in part by ecological knowledge."[32]
A rising Deep Ecologist among radical environmentalist circles isPentti Linkola, regarded as the founder ofecofascism, and author of the bookCan Life Prevail? A Radical Approach to the Environmental Crisis.[33]
Ecofeminism originated in the 1970s and draws a parallel between the oppression of women in patriarchal societies and the oppression of the environment.[34][35][36]
Social Ecology is an idea attributed toMurray Bookchin, who argued that in order to save the environment, human society needed to copy the structure of nature and decentralize both socially and economically.[34]
Bioregionalism is a philosophy that focuses on the practical application of Social Ecology, and theorizes on "building and living in human social communities that are compatible with ecological systems".[34]
However, actions of those movements mostly stay in the domain of classical environmentalism, without going into its more radical form. However, there are statements in literature that among radical environmentalists can be seen the whole spectrum of those who could not be described as admirers of political left-wing among others: Neopagans, Wiccans, anti-globalization protesters, Third Positionists, bioregionalists etc. (Manes 1990).
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