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Eco-terrorism

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The term eco-terrorism is a neologism 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]

Contrarily, eco-terrorism has been referred to in some cases as "an act that terrorizes other species and threatens the ecological systems of the planet."[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].

On the 18 January 1982, in France, unidentified attackers fired five rockets at the nuclear central Superphénix. Years later, Chaïm Nissim, former ecologist deputy from nearby Geneva, linked to the terrorist Carlos, admitted to the crime.[10]

Ecoterrorism in Fiction

References

  1. ^ http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm
  2. ^ Why Animal Experimentation Matters: The Use of Animals in Medical Research By Jeffrey Paul, Ellen Frankel Paul, pp 11
  3. ^ Dealing with the Hypocrisy of the Human Perceptions - Commentary by Paul Watson
  4. ^ 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"
  5. ^ A New Vigilance: Identifying and Reducing the Risks of Environmental Terrorism(PDF)
  6. ^ Text of Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act
  7. ^ a b PM dubbed eco-terrorist
  8. ^ NYTimes: To Some, Katrina Was Mission Accomplished (login required)
  9. ^ FOCUS PETA Exposed on Eco-terrorism
  10. ^ "J’ai tiré au bazooka sur Creys-Malville" Memento Malville

See also

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