Eco-Terrorism Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Eco-terror ism is a type of terror ism directed at changing environmental policy. Terrorism, by definition, is a violent or forceful act that targets civilians to create fear and motivate political change. Theoretically, this fear creates political pressure on governments to change policy. Eco-terrorists create situations in which the costs of pursuing an environmental policy outweigh the benefits of that policy. Eco-terrorists may target states, but many eco-terrorist organizations also target private firms. Eco-terror ism and environmental terror ism are two different ideas. Eco-terrorist groups aim to protect the environment through terrorist actions against firms and states. Environmental terror ism describes a terrorist attack whose target is the environment. Terrorist groups engage in environmental terror ism when they attack a state’s natural resources. For instance, terrorist attacks on a country’s water supply and setting fire to national forests are both acts of environmental terrorism. Generally, eco-terrorists do not engage in environmental terrorism. Eco-terrorist organizations work to protect the environment, and therefore deliberately harming the environment is against their raison d’être.

The term eco-terrorist is contested by groups defined as eco-terrorists. Members view themselves as activists rather than terrorists. Eco-terrorist groups engage in activities similar to those of other activist groups. Eco-terrorists conduct peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience with marches, sit-ins, and protests. Furthermore, eco-terrorist groups serve as information providers, describing the effects of the state and firms on the environment. They lobby governments and businesses to change their operations to end environmentally harmful activities or adopt other sites for programs to protect animal habitats. However, what separates eco-terrorists from regular activist groups are violent acts against people and property. Eco-terrorist organizations destroy property and threaten people to pursue political goals. Furthermore, members of eco-terrorist groups justify destruction caused by their organizations as a small price to guard against larger environmental destruction. Eco-terrorist organizations claim that they are inappropriately labeled terrorists to undermine their cause. The label “terrorist” diminishes their public credibility and legitimacy as organizations.

The theoretical underpinnings of eco-terrorist organizations have their roots in environmental movements. Many scholars cite Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as the book that launched the U.S. environmental movement. Members of eco-terrorist groups often espouse deep ecology values, either explicitly or implicitly. Deep ecology is a system of values that at its base claims each living being has equal value. Deep ecologists object to a hierarchy evaluation of animals, making the normative claim that each animal has an equal value. While many deep ecologists are peaceful, the philosophy of deep ecology has been used to mobilize and galvanize support for eco-terrorist movements. Eco-terrorists are distinct from other environmentalists in their commitment to violence to achieve political goals and their dissatisfaction with mainstream environmentalist movements. Eco-terrorists will seek peaceful means to pursue government or firm policy change, but they will also conduct violent acts.

Eco-terrorists have gained support, membership, and notoriety since the 1970s. Emerging from the juncture of the environmentalist movement and other social movements in industrialized nations, eco-terrorism is a relatively new phenomenon. Members of eco-terrorist groups belong to different social classes. The organizations themselves may be loosely coordinated, bound by common goals and some minimum communication. The U.S. government has named several eco-terrorist groups threats to national security. The Animal Liberation Front was founded in the United Kingdom in 1976. While the Animal Liberation Front claims to protect all animals, some of its methods threaten human life. The Earth Liberation Front was founded in the United Kingdom in 1992 and now has cells in many states, including the United States. The Coalition to Save the Preserves is an eco-terrorist group that surfaced in the American Southwest to protect forests north of Phoenix, Arizona.

Eco-terrorists engage in many methods to defend the environment. A popular tactic to defend forests from logging is tree spiking. Eco-terrorists insert metal spikes in the trees themselves to dissuade loggers from chopping them down. This metal either damages the chainsaws of loggers or becomes lethal shrapnel in a lumberyard. Eco-terrorist groups have also threatened to cut the brakes of trucking firms’ trucks and have attacked universities doing biogenetic research. Eco-terrorist groups also engage in arson, cutting of fishing lines, and sabotage of machinery. Eco-terrorist groups seldom assassinate leaders of firms or states. Casualties from eco-terrorism are generally the result of sabotage or arson aimed at disarming threats to the environment.

Bibliography:

Arnold, Ron. Ecoterror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature. Bellevue, Wash.: Free Enterprise, 1997.
Berlau, John. “Eco-terrorism: When Violence Becomes an Environmentalist Tactic.” Capital Research Center, February 2007, 1–5.
Carlson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.
DeLuca, Kevin Michael. Image Politics:The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism. New York: Guilford, 1999.
Laqueur,Walter. The New Terrorism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Sessions, George. Deep Ecology for the Twenty-first Century. Boston: Shambhala, 1995.