Winds of Change Newsletter, December 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Ecoterrorism Tops the Charts

(excerpted) by Renae Bonnett

A May 19 FBI report directs the US government's antiterrorism efforts toward defenders of nature. FBI head John Lewis suggests that the potential for terror from environmental groups outweighs any other in America today. The report clarifies the government's definition of "ecoterrorism," but the article fails to explain where the term originated.

Ron Arnold, vice president of The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise- a group advocating the industrialization and capitalization of natural resources-wrote "Eco Terrorism," which appeared in a1983 edition of Reason Magazine. Arnold is the credited father of the Wise Use Movement manifesto.

The CDFE website boasts Ron Arnold's efforts to bring the group's idea of ecoterrorism to high levels of concern--providing testimony to Congress linking environmentalism to terrorism. Arnold's testimony drew a correlation between all environmentally-minded groups and used examples of a few radical incidents to make a connection to terrorism. Arnold's group worked to paint environmentalism as a dangerous social movement, while blessing the sidewalk sale of natural resources as an American right and testament to a true capitalist system.

If any lingering doubts remain about the serious efforts of the CDFE and champions for the Wise Use Movement, consider that from the cdfe.org site, you are only an anonymous mouse click away from reporting shady treehuggers in your own backyard.

Environmentally-minded people share a vastly different perspective on eco-terror than the one promoted by the likes of Arnold. Forest clear-cutting, mountain leveling, the filling of air and water with toxins--risking the health of humans and the environment well into the futurethese are acts of ecological terror. After all, these activities pose a threat to human health and the planet's very ability to sustain life; defenders for the common cause may even acquire designations like "hero" and "patriot." Nevertheless, Arnold and the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise built a gob pile of rhetoric, fixing suspicion upon those working to act in defense of America's air, water, and land.