Eco-terrorism
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The term eco-terrorism is used to describe threats and/or acts of violence (both against people and against property), sabotage, vandalism, property damage and intimidation committed in the name of environmentalism. The FBI's Domestic Terrorism Section defines eco-terrorism as "the use or threatened use of violence of a criminal nature against innocent victims or PROPERTY by an environmentally-oriented, subnational group for environmental-political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often of a symbolic nature." [1]
The term is considered to be controversial, particularly by those to whom it is applied. Many of the arguments in this respect concern what may be considered violence, and in particular whether acts which are destructive to property but avoid harm to human beings may be considered terrorism. As a pejorative term, "eco-terrorism" has also been used to describe legal forms of nonviolent protest enacted by environmentalists. This is generally seen as an attempt to associate any environmentalist activism with illegal acts of eco-terrorism.[citation needed]
The term may have been coined by Ron Arnold, an executive at the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise and author of Ecoterror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature. Some authors have noted that the damage caused by environmentalist sabotage from 1980 to 1999 amounted to $42.8 million.[2]
Eco-terrorism has also been referred to as "an act that terrorizes other species and threatens the ecological systems of the planet" in a commentary by Paul Watson criticizing the media. [3]
Definitions
While there is no consensus on the exact definition of "terrorism", the word is typically used to describe politically motivated acts of violence with the intention to intimidate governments or civilians. Acts meeting these criteria and committed in the name of environmental causes are described as "eco-terrorism" by law enforcement agencies such as the FBI.[4] This should be distinguished from "environmental terrorism", which is more properly described as attacks on (or using) the environment or resources for political purposes.[5]
Other acts, which are nonviolent in nature, cannot be properly referred to as "eco-terrorism" even though they might be annoying or disruptive to others. However, some definitions are raising controversy and civil rights issues by using an all-encompassing definition that could be interpreted to include virtually all environmental protests, even those that would otherwise be legal. Another term that is sometimes used is "eco-sabotage" because it involves disruption of society but is directed against things, property or machines that cannot feel terror.
For example, a bill proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Texas called the Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act, begins with the description, "An act relating to criminal offenses involving acts against certain activities involving animals or involving natural resources and to civil consequences arising from convictions of those offenses." The bill defines an "animal rights or ecological terrorist organization" as "two or more persons organized for the purpose of supporting any politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter any person from participating in an activity involving animals or an activity involving natural resources."[6] Environmentalists have argued that it should mean the opposite of its current accepted meaning. They claim that persons, companies and governments engaging in ecologically irresponsible activities such as pollution are committing "terrorism" against the environment [7]. This "counter-definition" is also sometimes used rhetorically to express the environmentalist point of view, or to justify their actions. Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki, for instance, has described the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, as an eco-terrorist for failing to abide by the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.[7]
On September 12 2005 the New York Times reported that at a conference on terrorism at the University of Georgia in 1997, William S. Cohen, then the Secretary of Defense, spoke of rogue researchers developing "an eco-type of terrorism, whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely, through the use of electromagnetic waves."[8] Using the concept above, however, this last form of terrorism is "environmental terrorism," not "eco-terrorism" since it represents the intentional disruption of the environment, rather than terrorism in the name of protecting the environment.
Groups
The organizations most commonly labeled as “eco-terrorists” within the United States are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF),[4] the Earth Liberation Front (ELF),[4] and sometimes Earth First! [citation needed]. The FBI in 2001 named the ELF as "one of the most active extremist elements in the United States", and a "terrorist threat".[4] Some of these websites openly advocate tactics including arson, graffiti, vandalism and property destruction. Through their actions millions of dollars of homes, equipment, and research have been willfully destroyed by ALF and ELF operations, although they publicly disavow harm to humans or animals.
The American Farm Bureau alleges the existence of a financial link between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Rodney Adam Coronado's support group [9].
Ecoterrorism in Fiction
- Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Ark Angel, by Anthony Horowitz
- AVALANCHE in Final Fantasy VII
- Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Darkwing Duck's Bushroot (Walt Disney)
- Captain Planet, by Ted Turner
- CHERUB, a series of novels by Robert Muchamore, contains a fictional eco-terrorist group named Help Earth
- Concrete: Think Like a Mountain by Paul Chadwick
- Darkness Falls and Fearful Symmetry, 2 episodes of The X-Files
- The Divide by Nicholas Evans
- Devouring Earth, in City of Heroes
- Douche and Turd and Free Willzyx, 2 episodes of South Park
- Enrica Villablanca in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
- A Friend of the Earth by T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Gateway Shuffle, episode #4 of the anime Cowboy Bebop
- Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
- Jokerman 8, by Richard Melo
- Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
- Mengele Zoo by Gert Nygårdshaug
- The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
- On Deadly Ground, a 1998 Film by and starring Steven Seagal
- Poison Ivy, from the DC comics universe.
- Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
- Ra's al Ghul in Batman comics
- The Sheep Look Up, by John Brunner.
- Sick Puppy, by Carl Hiaasen.
- State of Fear by Michael Crichton
- Twelve Monkeys, a 1995 film starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt
- Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
References
- ^ http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm
- ^ Why Animal Experimentation Matters: The Use of Animals in Medical Research By Jeffrey Paul, Ellen Frankel Paul, pp 11
- ^ Dealing with the Hypocrisy of the Human Perceptions - Commentary by Paul Watson
- ^ a b c d Congressional Testimony Testimony of James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, FBI before the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health at February 12, 2002 "The Threat of Eco-Terrorism"
- ^ A New Vigilance: Identifying and Reducing the Risks of Environmental Terrorism(PDF)
- ^ Text of Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act
- ^ a b PM dubbed eco-terrorist
- ^ NYTimes: To Some, Katrina Was Mission Accomplished (login required)
- ^ FOCUS PETA Exposed on Eco-terrorism
See also
- Anarcho-primitivism
- Animal Liberation Front
- Earth Liberation Front
- Evan Mecham Eco-Terrorist International Conspiracy
- Revolutionary Cells
- Derrick Jensen
- Ecotage
- Sabotage
- Tree spiking
- Ecofascism
- Green Scare
- Luddite
- Ra's Al Ghul – fictional eco-terrorist supervillain from DC Comics
- Poison Ivy – another DC Comics eco-terrorist
- Primitive communism
- List of Environment Topics
- PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
- Greenpeace
- Ted Kaczynski – the "Unabomber"
- Wiebo Ludwig – sabateur of petroleum mining
- Operation Backfire – FBI operation to combat eco-terrorism
External links
- Sourcewatch:Eco-terrorism
- ecoterrorist.us : a critical defense of eco-terrorism using art. a project by MOAK47
- Michael Donnelly on Eco Terrorism
- Animal and Ecological Terrorism in America ALEC Report -Sandy Liddy Bourne and Matthew R. McNabb
- For a clarification of the difference between "ecoterrorism" and "environmental terrorism" see A New Vigilance:Identifying and Reducing the Risks of Environmental Terrorism
- Hayduke Speaks
- www.fbi.gov Search: Domestic Terrorists/Single Issue Terrorists: Eco - Terrorists
- GreenIsTheNewRed.com