Ecotage Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This Ecotage Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Ecotage involves ecologically motivated acts of sabotage, such as tree spiking,uprooting genetically modified crops, disrupting power lines, liberation of caged animals, and destruction of equipment or data from controversial research. These illegal acts are also known as ecodefense or monkeywrenching. Two of the main goals of ecoteurs are to cause economic harm to corporations and to dissuade the public from wasteful or ecologically disruptive practices, like driving sport utility vehicles (SUVs) or permitting suburban sprawl in wetlands.

While ecoteurs have a range of different moral philosophies, they most often do not support causing death or injury to humans from their actions. Spiking trees with metal or ceramic nails can harm loggers, but the likelihood is small given that trees should be cut within twelve inches of the ground and spikes are placed higher. Even the most radical environmentalists usually go to great lengths to assure humans are absent from their material targets before sabotage is carried out.

Ecoterrorism

State officials tend to classify ecotage as ecoterrorism, which reinforces the use of harsher penalties if saboteurs are caught. In the United States, there are various governmental agencies, including the FBI, cooperating on the investigation of radical environmentalism, which since 2001 has been considered the largest national terrorist threat. Significant resources have been invested into halting incidences of ecotage. However, the autonomous structure of ecotage cells that maintain their anonymity within loose, nonhierarchical networks defies surveillance and infiltration.

The name ecotage seems to have originated from the 1972 book by Sam Love and David Obst.The concept became popular as a result of Edward Abbey’s 1975 novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang. There are a few manuals published on ecotage tactics, such as Dave Foreman’s 1985 “Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching.” Foreman was one of the cofounders of Earth First!, a radical environmental movement known for direct action, that emerged in the 1980s. The northwest United States has been a hotspot for environmental groups, such as Earth First!, particularly in areas of old growth forest.

A number of mainstream environmental organizations have direct action trainings where members learn to climb buildings or other structures and hang banners that draw attention to ecological damage or injustice. A well-known group implementing more extreme acts of environmental sabotage is the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). ELF has created more than $100 million of damage in the United States since 1997. Although the origins of ELF are under debate, some believe that they are a radical offshoot from Earth First!. ELF has taken responsibility for arson in private logging company and U.S. Forest Service offices. In 1998, fires were set in buildings located on Vail Mountain in Colorado in a combined ELF and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) action. The mountain provides a unique habitat for lynx, and Vail was targeted to disrupt it through construction of large-scale commercial recreation facilities that required infrastructural development in fragile ecosystems.

ALF is an older organization than ELF. ALF startedin the United Kingdom, but cells later developed in the United States. Well-known U.S. actions include arson in slaughterhouses and university facilities conducting animal research. In addition to “rescues,” where animals are released from cages on commercial farms or in research institutes, U.S. animal rights activists have also disrupted hunts of mountain lions, bison, and other game since the 1980s. Activists in the United Kingdom pioneered strategies to disrupt hunts in the early 1960s.

Another well-known group of ecoteurs is the Sea Shepherd C onservation Society. These international activists often interfere with marine harvest atthepointof extraction. Society members cut illegal longlines and harass unlicensed fishing vessels. Some larger actions attributed to this group arethe sinkingoftwo whaling vessels and the destruction ofawhale processing station in Iceland.

There have been an increasing number of prominent international cases of ecotage in recent years involving resistance to genetically modified crops. Actions include uprooting of genetically engineered potatoesat the Crop and Food Research Centerin New Zealand. Canadian targets have been related to research on biotech forests. In the United Kingdom, where there is a long tradition of ecotage, consistent destruction of research sites since 1997 has made ongoing study of genetic modification difficult.

Bibliography:

Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (Lantern Books, 2004);
Craig Rosebraugh, Burning Rage of a Dying Planet, Speaking for the Earth Liberation Front (Lantern Books, 2004);
Bron Taylor, “Religion, Violence and Radical Environmentalism: From Earth First! to the Unabomber to the Earth Liberation Front,” Terrorism and Political Violence (v.10/4,1998);
Paul Watson, Ocean Warrior: My Battle to End the Illegal Slaughter on the High Seas (Key Porter B ooks, 1996).