Civil Disobedience As A Form Of Eco-Terrorism

The concept of social justice, and the environment have always been under great threat. However is it possible to mend the two, combine them together, in order to create an equal atmosphere and a sustainable society? The majority of the population have always wanted to prevent the minority in gaining their rights in fear of losing their power, and the nature conquerors have disregarded the wilderness’ needs in fear of losing their profit. Environmental activists and advocates have sought to bridge the gap between the complicated and divisive relationship between the natural world and the advancing technological world. Rebecca Solnit, Wendell Berry, and John Muir all recognize the explicit relationship between social justice and the respect for the natural world.

Growing up in Switzerland and Oregon, I learned that nature is greatly valued and it is necessary to respect the environment to prevent impending environmental collapse. Living in a society whose morals and ethics include

Reading Henry David Thoreau’s essay Civil Disobedience (1849) I find a parallelism between his thoughts and the coming of age of the United States as a nation. This piece was originally delivered as a speech before the Concord Lyceum in January of 1848 on the subject "On the Relation of the Individual to the State", and published under the title Resistance to Civil Government in Elizabeth Peabody's Aesthetic Papers, in May 1849. Thoreau wrote it from a personal experience: in 1846 he had been imprisoned for not paying his taxes as a protest for the actions of the government because he opposed slavery and the Mexican War. This essay is part of the literary period called The

Environmental justice links a number of social movements—anti-racism, Aboriginals rights, and the mainstream environmental movement—and addresses the problem of environmental racism (Gosine & Teelucksignh, 2008, p. 11). The concept of environmental justice in the U.S was associated with the struggles over toxic waste sites and the call for equal treatment of all communities, radicalized or not (p. 9). It was about looking at human health rather than preserving areas deemed as “playgrounds for the rich.”

“Special interest terrorism differs from traditional right-wing and left-wing terrorism in that extremist special interest groups seek to resolve specific issues, rather than effect widespread political change. Special interest extremists continue to conduct acts of politically motivated violence to force segments of society, including the general public, to change attitudes about issues considered important to their causes. These groups occupy the extreme fringes of animal rights, pro-life, environmental, anti-nuclear, and other movements. Some special interest extremists -- most notably within the animal rights and environmental movements -- have turned increasingly toward vandalism and terrorist activity in attempts to further their causes” (Jarboe, 2002).

The Afton protests energized a new faction within the civil rights movement that saw the environment as another front in the struggle for justice. Many early environmental justice leaders came out of the civil rights movement. They brought to the environmental movement the same tactics they had used in civil rights struggles -- marches, petitions, rallies, coalition building, community empowerment through education, litigation and nonviolent direct action,” (The Environmental Justice.) But many argue the fact that even if civil rights did not happen, the community members of government intentionally polluted waste lands would still

The purpose of this piece is to draw awareness to the many contradictions relating environmental justice movements and to create a society more conscious of decisions by considering consequences.

In his esteemed novel, “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming,” Paul Hawken inspires with a call to environmental attention. As a both writer and entrepreneur dedicated to our world’s ecosystems, Hawken seems to understand the impact we have created on our planet. Despite this, he also appreciates the human capacity to create an equal impact on the other end, and make positive progress. He defines this as the “Movement,” being an assembly of environmentally-minded groups and NGO’s coming together to save the dying ecosystems of the planet. Although Hawken’s optimism should be admired, his outlook seems slightly quixotic.

By referring to it as eco-terrorism the government categorizes it as a form of domestic terrorism. The government has used anti-terrorism resources to arrest and detain environmentalist activists because when an event is referred to as eco-terrorism it can be assumed that anyone involved is a terrorist. Because of this scare that is being created from the invisible hand of the government and is instilled in the people, it is compared to the Red Scare. The government is trying to create a fear of the environmentalism movement in the people of the nation that do not identify themselves as environmentalists in order to wipe out the movement

Throughout his book, Green Is The New Red, Will Potter explores environmental activism and its reception from American politicians, corporations, and administrations. Potter begins by sharing his experience leafleting when the FBI unexpectedly threatened to put him on a domestic terrorist list if he did not cooperate. His encounter with the FBI is frightening although by no means is it uncommon if we consider the post 9/11 era that we live in. In this day and age, the elite will irrationally label non-violent activists like Will Potter ‘eco-terrorists’ in order to establish their political agenda.

Civil disobedience, nonviolently breaking a law and accepting its consequences, positively impacts a free society. This truth can be seen clearly through the American movement for racial equality, because the cause was undeniably just. By accelerating legislative change, leveraging social tension, and increasing civic engagement, the ongoing fight for racial equality demonstrates that civil disobedience is a force for good.

Civil disobedience towards laws is an act of refusing to obey a law by not using violence or war, physically. Doing something peaceful means more than just nonviolence, but doing an action that causes other people to react in a calm way in return. In a free society, peaceful resistance to law can cause a lot of change that can be both positive or negative. However, I do believe it has way more of a positive impact than negative because a resistance speaks up against a law that they do not believe in and to create change. Through a more peaceful approach, resistors will avoid spreading any means of hate, while still having hope to change the law.

I believe that Civil Disobedience as demonstrated by Rosa Parks, although unlawful, was constructive as it forged a new way of thinking. "You must never be fearful about what you are doing when what you are doing is right." Those words spoken by her exemplify the true meaning of Civil Disobedience or Peaceful Resistance. Martin Luther King Jr. best outlined the principle of Civil Disobedience when he said," True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice."

Two domestic Terrorist Groups in the United States is the Black Liberation Army and the other is Antifa. The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was part of the terrorist group with a far left aims, originally part the Black Panther Party formed in 1970. The name of this group came from a line in a Bob Dylan song. The weather men were also part of the 60’s Revolutionary Youth Movement. By examining the weathermen views, and background will show that they were a domestic terrorist group. The weathermen were inspired by the civil rights movement and initially concerned with equality, economic justice, peace, and Participatory democracy. But with the rising tensions in the 60’s because of the Vietnam War peaceful protest turned into violence protest.

Radical Environmentalism is a branch of Grassroots that come from an ecocentric view that is frustrated with modern environmentalism. They have the base view that, human society , as it is now constituted, is utterly unsustainable and must be reconstructed according to an entirely different socioeconomic logic and that a sustainable society must be small in scale and modest and technology (Lewis 2). Eco-Terrorism is defined as acts of violence that are committed in support of ecological and or environmental interests, against persons or property. Those individuals and organizations that take part in eco-terrorism reject the label eco-terrorist as a descriptive label for their tactics and prefer economic sabotage or ecotage (Vanderheiden 426). Ecotage mentioned previously, are the acts that radical environmentalist groups take against those things which don't comply with their environmental views. These actions are sometime destructive to private property and although not always directed to other people specifically, can be dangerous to those participating and others. Activists viewed ecotage as economic warfare against those who would destroy wilderness areas. By vandalizing equipment; pulling up survey stakes; driving metal, ceramic or quartz spikes into trees, and so on, practitioners hoped to halt the destruction by making it unprofitable (Taylor 14). Groups known as the Earth Liberation Front or ELF and activists of Earth First! are such organizations. We will go into detail about ELF and Earth First! in a later