Eco-terrorists do disservice to cause
The Earth Liberation Front is not a terrorist organization in the Middle East sense of the word.
ELF members don’t kill indiscriminately, take hostages or detonate themselves to frighten others into accepting their point of view. But they are terrorists in the Unabomber sense of the word, embracing a radical ideology and targeting individuals and symbols of progress with their arson and other domestic violence. Their goal is to frighten and stop scientists experimenting in such cutting-edge areas as genetically engineered poplar trees.
They haven’t had much success in doing so. In December 1999, they toppled an 80-foot transmission line that carried surplus Bonneville Power Administration energy to Southern California, but service wasn’t interrupted because a computer instantly switched to other lines, and the tower was rebuilt the following day. In May 2001, they claimed credit for fire-bombing and severely damaging the University of Washington horticulture center. But the university reopened a $7.2 million center earlier this year. The radicals were targeting researcher Toby Bradshaw because they thought he was working on genetically engineered trees. He wasn’t. Luckily, he’d backed up his work elsewhere.
If eco-terrorists weren’t so destructive, they could be dismissed as the original gang that couldn’t shoot straight. They shouldn’t be taken lightly, however. They are to the environmental movement what a clinic bomber is to the anti-abortion movement. They shouldn’t be viewed as counterculture heroes either. They have hurt mainstream environmentalism by alienating middle America with their acts of terrorism, committing more than 1,100 crimes and causing an estimated $110 million in property damage since 1976. At this point, they are fortunate that few of their attacks have harmed anyone.
The six eco-terrorist suspects arrested by the FBI last week for crimes in Oregon and Washington dating back to 1998 aren’t as lucky. They are charged with a number of crimes, including the attack on the BPA transmission tower near Bend, Ore., and could provide information about the UW horticulture center arson. If convicted, individuals among them face prison sentences of 20 years to life. The arrests should be celebrated by individuals, corporations and governmental entities targeted by their madness – and environmental groups who have worked diligently within our system to influence others.
Americans respect protest when it’s done peacefully and appropriately. This country was born of protest. We prefer the ballot box to senseless acts of vandalism. The clandestine Weathermen organization spawned by the turbulent ‘60s discovered that when it couldn’t trigger a civil war with its occasional bomb and murder. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s prove that this country embraces passionate discussion and demonstration for a just cause, but not violence.
Today’s environmentalists deserve credit for exposing harmful practices in the natural resource industries and beyond. As a result, Americans demand unspoiled air, water and forests. Reasoned argument and science have won the day for the environmental movement – not firebombs.