Terrorism is bad, right? Anyone labeled a “terrorist” should be avoided at all costs, treated like a pariah, knocked out, locked up for life, right? Well, not necessarily. It depends on who is using the label and why.
People in power, particularly powerfully abusive people, eagerly throw the terrorist designation at anyone who confronts them, however non-violent the confrontation may be.
One blatant misuse of “terrorism” is perpetrated by exploiters, abusers, and destroyers of our environment. This particular group of environmental evil doers revels in its zealous application of the terms “environmental terrorism” and “eco-terrorism” to anyone they don’t like. Do they unleash those epithets to describe:
- The freaky frackers that violate health and safety rules and regulations, poison the atmosphere, pollute the soil, endanger drinking water, and dispose of waste products improperly?
- The coal companies, financed by big banks, that blow off entire mountaintops, clearcut thousands of acres of forest, and pollute drinking water with their waste?
- The industries contributing to the ever-increasing dangers of global warming?
No.
How do members of the military industrial complex and corporate media use the term “environmental terrorism”?
They apply it to groups and individuals such as the following, classified by the FBI as special interest domestic terrorist groups:
- the Earth Liberation Front, which set fire to a Colorado ski resort threating the survival of lynx.
- a man accused of conspiring to bomb government and commercial facilities believed to be harming the environment.
- a Greenpeace member paragliding into and throwing a smoke bomb into a nuclear power plant to demonstrate security risks.
- other members of Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)?.
What do you think? Who are the real environmental terrorists? What groups are threatening our survival?
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology