Ecoterrorism

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Eco-terrorism is a term believed to have been coined by Ron Arnold, the Executive Director of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.

The term 'eco-terrorism' would also be defined into law in the US by such legislation as The_Animal_and_Ecological_Terrorism_Act which proposes provisions to target those deemed to have encouraged, assisted or financed offences under its extraordinarily broad definition of 'terrorism'.

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the word �terrorism� has become a potent political weapon. For years Arnold has blurred the boundaries between what constitutes civil disobedience and elevated vandalism to equal terrorism. This conflation of civil disobedience with terrorism is a calculated strategy to pave the way for the introduction of draconian legislation to ban civil disobedience protests.

In an article for Tom Paine, Karen Charman noted that the draft legislation would effectively ban environmental and animal rights advocacy. The Texas bill, she wrote, defines an "animal rights or 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... natural resources." [1]

"'Political motivation' means an intent to influence a government entity or the public to take a specific political action," the bill states. By such definitions, the Green Party of the United States would certainly qualify as guilty of eco-terrorism for its various demonstrations and support of political actions to influence government or the public. And so would the over one hundred other such parties in all democracies on the Earth. However, such parties all include change through the legislative process itself and support change through peaceful means. Such lobbying or influencing would seem to be illegal under the Act.

There have been individuals who have been prosecuted and convicted in the U.S. for various forms of vandalism undertaken with an environmental motivation, albeit without to date causing injury to individuals. There have also been groups or factions within them - such as Earth First! - that have rejected traditional non-violence as precluding damage to property and embraced vandalism as a tactic. Many groups - both conservative and from within the environmental movement - have rejected the distinction and disowned such actions.

While conservative groups routinely denounce both peaceful protests and vandalism as the equivalent of terrorism, they remain silent about violent attacks against environmentalists and animal rights activists.

Conservative groups have succeeded in mobilising conservative elements within law enforcement agencies to monitor and investigate 'eco-terrorism'. However, the same agencies have no equivalent monitoring or investigation of patterns of violence against environmentalists. Those groups would thus motivate that by claiming that:

Ecoterrorism is terrorism motivated by concern for the natural non-human environment - the use of violence by non-state actors in an effort to protect ecosystems or animals. Some of the philosophies espoused by ecoterrorists are similar to those of radical environmentalism, however, there are no incidents whatsoever of direct harm done to humans by these people. It is entirely property damage that is presently meant by this term.

It is notable that most national governments do not consider ecoterrorist groups as full-blown terrorists worthy of sanction, although they will pursue prosecution for criminal acts. A notable exception is the French government, which sent commandos to destroy the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor.

Ecoterrorism has been on the rise in both Europe and in the United States for the past twenty years; both the United States Federal government and the European Union have shown concern about this issue.

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Targets

Ecoterrorists often target industrial or agricultural operations which by their nature do damage to the environment, spread pollution or make cruel or inhuman. use of animals. Security guards are often hired to protect these companies from ecoterrorists and should plan for potential ecoterrorist activity.

Methods

Typical methods used by ecoterrorists include the use of espionage techniques to gather information about their opposition for revelation to the public and the media. Often sabotage is used against activities which damage the environment, such as spiking trees to deter lumber harvesting. Sometimes ecoterrorist group seek to interfere with research that uses animals by releasing or "rescuing" the animals.

Due to a generalized respect for life (including but not limited to humans), most environmental activists avoid the use of deadly force and assassination, instead using tactics such as chaining themselves to trees, trespassing in restricted or unsafe areas to prevent activities such as nuclear testing, and so on. Although some have described such acts as "terrorism", this use of the word is controversial. Environmentalists suggest an alternative word like "ecotage".

In contrast to such non-violent, non-destructive action, some environmentalists have used tactics including vandalism (for example, of animal testing labs or GM-crops), theft, death threats, assault, attempted murder, and actual murder. As the act increases in violence or destructiveness, the label "ecoterrorism" becomes much less controversial.

Groups

Alleged ecoterrorist groups include the Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, Revolutionary Cells, and Sea Shepherd.

Ecoterrorism in Fiction

External link


References

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