Radical Environmentalism

Disenchanted with the mainstream environmental movement, a new, more radical kind of environmental activist emerged in the 1980s. Radical environmentalists used direct action, from blockades and tree-sits to industrial sabotage, to save a wild nature that they believed to be in a state of crisis. Questioning the premises of liberal humanism, they subscribed to an ecocentric philosophy that attributed as much value to nature as to people. Although critics dismissed them as marginal, radicals posed a vital question that mainstream groups too often ignored: Is environmentalism a matter of common sense or a fundamental critique of the modern world? In The Ecocentrists, Keith Makoto Woodhouse offers a nuanced history of radical environmental thought and action in the late-twentieth-century United States. Focusing especially on the group Earth First!, Woodhouse explores how radical environmentalism responded to both postwar affluence and a growing sense of physical limits. While radicals challenged the material and philosophical basis of industrial civilization, they glossed over the ways economic inequality and social difference defined people’s different relationships to the nonhuman world. Woodhouse discusses how such views increasingly set Earth First! at odds with movements focused on social justice and examines the implications of ecocentrism’s sweeping critique of human society for the future of environmental protection. A groundbreaking intellectual history of environmental politics in the United States, The Ecocentrists is a timely study that considers humanism and individualism in an environmental age and makes a case for skepticism and doubt in environmental thought.

Is ecological sabotage a prank or terrorism? Do women hold the key to rethinking environmentalism? Are ecoactivists "Goliaths of Doom"? Can radical and mainstream ecologists find common ground? The readings in this book explore these and many other questions challenging conventional thinking about our relationship to the environment. Unique among books on environmental ethics, this anthology deals with themes of deep ecology, ecofeminism, and environmental activism - considered radical stands by most environmental moderates. On a philosophical level, the selections present thought-provoking responses to issues such as our ethical obligations to each other and nonhuman parts of nature, the personal and social responsibilities of men and women to each other, and proper personal and social reactions to the degradation of nature. As concrete calls to action, especially in the case of ecotage, exponents of radical environmentalism often advocate measures more moderate environmentalists find ethically unacceptable (both points of view are presented in this collection). However, as the editor of this provocative anthology states, "...understanding this movement can help 'moderates' sharpen their resolve to do more about environmental problems and find solutions which will check the relentless consumption of wild nature".

Radical Environmentalism: Nature, Identity and More-than-human Agency provides a unique account of environmentalism - one that highlights the voices of activists and the nature they defend. It will be of interest to both students and academics in green criminology, environmental sociology and nature-human studies more broadly.

Scholars, politicians, and activists worldwide are finally recognizing the severity of the global environmental crisis, yet serious threats to the environmental movement remain. Anti-environmentalists dismiss the very idea of a "crisis" as a mirage. Much less obvious, however, is the more subtle threat masquerading under the mantle of environmentalism itself. It is this threat that Green Delusions addresses. Writing from the standpoint of a committed environmentalist, Martin W. Lewis contends that many of the most devoted and strident "greens," those who propose a radical environmentalism, unwittingly espouse an ill-conceived doctrine that has devastating implications for the global ecosystem. In this book he distinguishes the main variants of eco-extremism, exposes the fallacies upon which such views ultimately flounder, and demonstrates that the policies advocated by their proponents would, if enacted, result in unequivocal ecological disaster. At once polemic and prescriptive, Green Delusions is an impassioned attempt to defend the environmental movement against extremist ideas that would lead to self-defeating political strategies.

Eco-Warriors was the first in-depth look at the people, actions, history and philosophies behind the "radical" environmental movement. Focusing on the work of Earth First!, the Sea Shepherds, Greenpeace, and the Animal Liberation Front, among others, Rik Scarce told exciting and sometimes frightening tales of front-line warriors defending an Earth they see as being in environmental peril. While continuing to study these movements as a Ph.D. student, Scarce was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to divulge his sources to prosecutors eager to thwart these groups’ activities. In this updated edition, Scarce brings the trajectory of this movement up to date—including material on the Earth Liberation Front—and provides current resources for all who wish to learn more about one of the most dynamic and confrontational political movements of our time. Literate, captivating, and informative, this is also an ideal volume for classes on environmentalism, social movements, or contemporary politics.

Radical Environmentalism: Nature, Identity and More-than-human Agency provides a unique account of environmentalism - one that highlights the voices of activists and the nature they defend. It will be of interest to both students and academics in green criminology, environmental sociology and nature-human studies more broadly.

Ecological resistance movements are proliferating around the world. Some are explicitly radical in their ideas and militant in their tactics while others have emerged from a variety of social movements that, in response to environmental deterioration, have taken up ecological sustainability as a central objective. This book brings together a team of international scholars to examine contemporary movements of ecological resistance. The first four sections focus on the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and Europe, and the book concludes with a selection of articles that address the philosophical and moral issues these movements pose, assess trends found among them, and evaluate their impacts and prospects. [Among the many contributors to the volume are Daniel Deudney, Robert Edwards, Heidi Hadsell, Sheldon Kamieniecki, Lois Lorentzen, David Rothenberg, Wolfgang Rudig, Jerry Stark, Paul Wapner, and Ben Wisner.]

Radical environmental groups throughout the world, militantly committed to defending the ecology, are growing in size and influence. In this country, activists engage in ecological civil disobedience and "ecotage"-- the sabotaging of equipment to prevent ecological damage-- in the struggle to preserve wilderness lands. These ecoteurs have gone beyond traditional conservation concerns to a new philosophy-- Deep Ecology, or biocentrism-- that calls into question not only the wisdom, but the legitimacy of humanity's domination of nature. In "Green Rage", Christopher Manes has written a brilliant defense of radical environmentalism, challenging the ethics of modern industrial society and asserting the right of the natural world to blossom, evolve, and exist for its own sake.