RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

Radical Environmentalism, Green Religion, and the Politics of Radical Environmental Action from Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front to the Unabomber and Anti-globalization Resistance.

Anyone who will read the anarchist and radical environmentalist journals will see that opposition to
the industrial-technological system is widespread and growing.
(Theodore Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber)

Live Wild or Die - tabloid cover (1989)

SECTIONS

Rel 4936 (undergraduate section)
Rel 6167 (graduate section)

INSTRUCTOR CONTACTS

Professor Bron Taylor (Ph.D.)
Email: bron@religion.ufl.edu
Office Hours: T 4-5; R 4-5 p.m.

TA: Bernard Zaleha
Office Hours: T 4-5; R 4-5 p.m.

DESCRIPTION

Course Description

Critical examination of the emergence and social impacts of Radical Environmentalism, with special attention to its religious and moral dimensions, and the ecological and political perceptions that undergird its controversial strategies to arrest environmental degradation.

Course Overview and Objectives

During the 1980s and much of the 1990s, thousands of environmental activists were arrested for resisting through civil disobedience and creative blockades deforestation and other forms of environmental destruction, especially in North America, Australia, and England. Some took up sabotage concluding that civil disobedience was not enough, driving spikes into trees to prevent them from being cut down and torching heavy equipment and buildings, for example. Since the early 1990s, activists from the “Earth Liberation Front” destroyed over 120 million dollars worth of property in a campaign against those engaged in genetic engineering, habitat destruction, and animal exploitation. This group, and the Animal Liberation Front with which it sometimes cooperates, is considered by some law enforcement authorities to be the #1 domestic terrorism threat in the United States and England. Indeed, the most radical of these groups wonder when the time will come to emulate confessed Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, whom they consider a folk hero. Some envision a violent anti-industrial revolution, such as those who threw bricks through the windows of multinational corporations during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, in the hopes of precipitating it. Whatever the tactics considered permissible, the radical environmentalists leading the anti-globalization resistance claim that corporations, governments, and the WTO are engaged in a sinister, profit-driven mission that fuels environmental degradation and species extinctions, while corrupting if not destroying democracy and violating human rights.

This course seeks to understand the worldviews (ecological understandings, cosmologies, religious perceptions, and political ideologies). and to assess the impacts (past and future), of the subcultures that constitute radical environmentalism, as they engage in trenchant struggles over the earth’s living systems.

Specifically, in this class we will explore:

The historical emergence and diverse forms of radical environmentalism (social ecological, deep ecological, ecofeminist, anarcho-primitivist, bioregionalist, and animal liberationist, to name a few).
The ecological and political views that typify radical environmentalists.
The metaphysical, spiritual and ethical beliefs and perceptions that animate radical environmentalists.
How the radical environmental forms cross-fertilize and the limits of such cross-fertilization.
The internal disputes and factions among and within radical environmental groups, and the contested nature of the various approaches.
The criticisms of radical environmental groups by political conservatives and liberals, whether environmentalist or not.
The role that radical environmentalism plays or is likely to play in the future in violent conflicts over natural systems.
The likely futures for humans and nature in the context of intensifying, environment-related social conflict, where radical environmentalists play an increasing role.

Through such exploration students will be ready to assess the extent to which radical environmentalism and the dynamics it produces is a positive or negative social movement.

READINGS

Required readings are preceded by an asterisk and should be purchased; all others will be on reserve or otherwise made available, but purchase is recommended of the major ones, such as by Bender, Abbey, Zakin, and Devall/Sessions]

Abbey, Edward. The Monkeywrench Gang. New York City: Avon, 1975.

__________. Desert Solitaire University of Arizona Press, 1968/1988.

Devall, Bill and George Sessions, eds. Deep Ecology: Living As If Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith, 1985.

* Foreman, Dave. Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004.

Taylor, Bron, ed. Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1995. (also on reserve)

Zakin, Susan. Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement. New York: Viking, 1993

Reading Radical Environmentalism – A Documentary Course Reader – available online. See the course schedule for links and details

Additional Required Readings for Graduate Section (widely available online, new and used).

Bender, Frederic L. The Culture of Extinction: Toward a Philosophy of Deep Ecology. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books, 2003 (also on reserve).

Katz, Eric, Andrew Light and David Rothenberg. Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000 (also on reserve).

Lewis, Martin W. Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992 (also on reserve).

Recommended Movement Anthologies (widely available online, new and used).

Best, Steven and Anthony Nocella, eds., Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth. (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2006).

Burks, David Clarke, ed. Place of the Wild: A Wildlands Anthology. Washington D.C.: Island Press, 1994.

Butler, Tom. Wild Earth: Wild Ideas for a World Out of Balance. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed, 2002.

Davis, John, ed. The Earth First! Reader: Ten Years of Radical Environmentalism. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 1991.

Drengson, Alan and Yuichi Inoue, eds. The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic, 1995.

List, Peter C., ed. Radical Environmentalism: Philosophy and Tactics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1993.

Sessions, George, ed. Deep Ecology for the 21st Century. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1995.

Selected Course Bibliography

Abbey, Edward. The Monkeywrench Gang. New York City: Avon, 1975.
__________. Desert Solitaire University of Arizona Press, 1968/1988.

Arnold, Ron. Ecoterror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature--the World of the Unabomber. Bellvue, Washington: Free Enterprise, 1997.

Best, Steven and Anthony Nocella II. Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals. New York: Lantern, 2004.

Bey, Hakim. T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Autonomedia, 1991.

Bradford, George. How Deep Is Deep Ecology? A Challenge to Radical Environmentalism. Ojai, California: Times Change Press, 1989.

Carter, Alan. A Radical Green Political Theory. London: Routledge, 1999.

Davis, John, ed. The Earth First! Reader: Ten Years of Radical Environmentalism. Salt Lake City, UT: Peregrine Smith, 1991.

Foreman, Dave. Confessions of an Eco-Warrior. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.

Kaczynski, Ted. Industrial Society and Its Future. (Click title; also available elsewhere on the internet.)

Lewis, Martin W. Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992.

Manes, Christopher. Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990.

Scarce, Rik. Ecowarriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement. Chicago: Noble, 1990.

Shepard, Paul. Coming Home to the Pleistocene. San Francisco: Island Press, 1998.

Taylor, Bron. “Diggers, Wolves, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Bricolage, Religion, and Violence from Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front to the Anti-Globalization Resistance.” In Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Loow, editors. The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization.Altimura, 2002, pp. 26-74.

Taylor, Bron, ed. Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Tokar, Brian. Earth for Sale: Reclaiming Ecology in the Age of Corporate Greenwash. Boston: South End Press, 1997.

Wall, Derek. Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and the Anti-Roads Movement. London: Routledge, 1999.

Zakin, Susan. Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement. New York: Viking, 1993.

REQUIREMENTS

All Students

Monitoring email and participation in email discussions.

Undergraduate Sections

Periodic quizzes or short essays on the week’s readings and classroom experiences. These will constitute 20% of the course grade and some of them will not be announced previous to their administration. The lowest score will be dropped.
Take Home Examinations. There will be two intensive take home essay examinations, which students will have one week to complete. Each will constitute 30% of the course grade.
Reflection Paper. Each student will complete a reflective paper about radical environmentalism. This paper will have two dimensions: the first will be a personal reflection based on their own experimentations during the course with the epistemologies typically found in radical environmentalism; the second will be a critical evaluation of what the student takes to be the essential features of such social phenomena. Worth 20% of the course grade.
Research Option. Ambitious students wishing to read more deeply and write a research paper may, with the permission of the instructor, fulfill the course requirements for the Graduate Section. Those who do so conscientiously will receive an upgrade up to a one full grade from that which would result from the points alone.

Graduate Section

Course Participation. It is expected that all readings will be completed and assimilated prior to Monday evening’s class, and that graduate students will participate actively in classroom discussions, demonstrating this careful preparation. Unusually strong or weak preparation and classroom contributions may affect the final course grade.
Take Home Examinations. There will be two intensive take home essay examinations, which students will have one week to complete. Each will constitute 25% of the course grade.
Reflection Paper. Same as above, but worth 10% of the course grade.
Research Paper. Each student will complete a research paper and must be prepared to present material from this research to the discussion section of either the undergraduate or graduate seminar, sometime during the semester, by arrangement with Dr. Taylor. A rough draft must be turned in by week 12. A list of possible topics entitled “Possible Research Topics” is posted on the course website under “Course Assignments.” At the same location you will find “Research Paper Guidelines,” which you must follow closely.

EVALUATION

Points Possible for Required Assignments
This chart shows the points it is possible to earn for each assignment:

Assignment	Points per Assignment	Total Possible Points
Weekly Journals	10 points each (or pro-rated to 100 total points if less than 10 are evaluated)	100
Exams (midterm & final)	100 (midterm), 150 (final)	250
Essay/Review of Ishmael	500 minimum, 750 maximum words	50
Critical Analysis	2000 minimum, 2500 maximum words	100
	Total Possible Points:	500

Calculating Grades

At the end of the semester, the total number of points earned by each student will be divided by the total number earned by the highest-scoring student. The resulting percentage will be used to calculate each student’s grade for the course. Put in a formula, it looks like this:

the score of each individual student (your score)
(divided by) the highest score earned by a student

93%
90%
87%
83%
80%
77%
67%
60%
59%

A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
D
F

only after the highest score earned by a student has been established.

Late or Missing Assignments

possible

Returned Assignments.

Academic Dishonesty.

SCHEDULE ~ Overview

Module I (weeks 1-5)Module I (weeks 1-5)

Tributaries and the Early Years: A historical overview of the sources, worldview, and mythic structure of Radical Environmentalism, with special attention to ethical and ecological claims, ritualizing, and political impacts. (10 year period, through 1980).

Module II (weeks 6-9)

The Critique and Negative Reaction: From “wise use” partisans to environmental and other philosophers, to law enforcement authorities.

Module III (weeks 10-12)

Distributaries and fellow Travelers: from Bioregionalism, to Conservation Biology, to the Earth Liberation Front and Green Anarchism.

Module IV (weeks 13-15)

Key issues in the Future of Radical Environmentalism: including foci on social philosophy, biocentric axiology, violence, globalization, and spirituality.

SCHEDULE

WEEKS: January - 01 - 02 - 03 - 04 February - 05 - 06 - 07 - 08 March - 09 - 10 - 11 April - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15

Note: All readings are to be completed before the class date/week under which they are listed. This schedule is subject to change so rather than printing it, I recommend bookmarking it and consulting it regularly.

(Week 1) ~ Introducing the Monkeywrench Gang

The Genesis of Radical Environmentalism
Poetic prologue, including Robinson Jeffers’ The Answer
Video: “60 Minutes” on Earth First (1990); Dave Foreman Roadshow (UWO, Spring 1990)

Undergraduate and Graduate Readings (required)
Radical Environmentalism (7pps), Deep Ecology (3.5), Arne Naess (3), Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front (5), Social Ecology (2), Edward Abbey (2), Black Mesa (3), Anarchism (6), Ecofeminism (5), Bioregionalism and the North American Bioregional Congress (2) (these are all from the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature).

Optional, additional readings
Prologue, draft in B. Taylor's in-progress manuscript, On Sacred Ground: Radical Environmentalism from Earth First! to the Earth Liberation Front; see instructor for copy.

(Week 2) ~ Encountering the Godfather of Radical Environmentalism

NOTE: There will be an in-class quiz on the previous week's assigned readings.

Edward Abbey and the roots of Radical Environmentalism.

Undergraduate and Graduate Readings (required)
Abbey, Edward, Desert Solitaire (selections; starred chapters especially recommended and double starred or more required & hyperlinked): *First Morning, *Solitaire, *Serpents of Paradise, *Cliffrose and Bayonets, ** Polemic on Industrial Tourism, Cowboys & Indians, **Cowboys and Indians (part II), Water, The Heat of Noon, The Moon-Eyed Horse,*****Down the River [sets up MW gang], ***Havasu, ** Dead Man at Grandview Point", *Tukuhnikivats, Island in the Desert, *****Episodes & Visons, Terra Incognita, **Bedrock and Paradox, .

Glenn Canyon Dam

Adventures with Ed

The Monkeywrench Gang

Prologue

Origins I/Sarvis

Origins II/Hayduke

Origins III/Seldom Seen

Origins IV/ Ms. B. Abbzug

The Wooden Shoe Conspiracy

Preliminary remarks

Free Speech: the cowboy and his cow

One Life at a Time, Please

Theory of Anarchy

Ecodefense

Ecodefense

One Life at a time, Please

Preface & Benedicto

Desert Solitaire

Additional Graduate readings
Jack Loeffler, conversation with Abbey about Anarchism in Adventures with Ed 202-6; Loeffler conversatoin with Abbey, on mysticism, peyote, and Abbey's epiphany at Havasupai, in Adventures with Ed, 241-247, 196, 34. Hopiland to the Rainforest Action Network (Randy Hayes)

Optionsal readings
Animals in the Woods (ch1), of draft manuscript of On Sacred Ground: Radical Environmentalism from Earth First! to the Earth Liberation Front (see instructor).

(Week 3) ~ From Underground Resistance to a Resistance Movement (The Elders of & Tributaries to Radical Environmentalism)

Begin Radical Environmentalism through images and sound (including live field recordings and tunes such as Animal, Habitat, Sea Shepherd, & Manley Men). Background to include primers on the Conservation movement in North America: Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and their respective progeny; The Fox, Bolt Weevils, The RARE II process and its role in the Genesis of Radical Environmentalism.

Undergraduate and graduate section readings

Aldo Leopold
Pyotr Ouspensky
Conservation Biology
“The Religion and Politics of Earth First!,” The Ecologist 21(6):258-266, November/December, 1991. (Graduate students read “Earth First!’s Religious Radicalism” instead the this earlier version.)
Foreman, Rewilding, 1-60 (part I, first 1/2)

Alternative reading for graduate section (instead of ‘the Religion and Politics of Earth First!).

“Earth First!’s Religious Radicalism,” in Ecological Prospects: Scientific, Religious, and Aesthetic Perspectives. Ed. C. Chapple. (State University of New York Press, 1994), 185-209.

Additional graduate readings

Susan Zakin, Coyotes & Town Dogs, (1-100) (Read quickly/peruse Zakin’s book.) [Note: this book has just gone back in print with University of Arizona Press and can be easily acquired online and in some bookstores.]

Optional reading (esp. recommended for graduate students)

Bron Taylor, (2008). "The tributaries of radical environmentalism." Journal of Radicalism 2(1): 27-61.

(Week 4) ~ The First Decade of Earth First!

Lectures: on the tributaries and early years of EF!
Background Presentations on the them “Its so bad that…” radical action is necessary . . and digging into the ecological and anthropological reasons for resistance
Books Focused on Bill Devall, ed., Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry, and Re-wilding.
Poetry & Prose: Gary Snyder from Turtle Island and in Clearcut
Possible Video: “Lou Gold” & Lessons from the Forest (Bald Mountain, Oregon, Case Study)

Undergraduate and graduate readings

Foreman, Rewilding, 61-108 (part I, concluded)
Susan Zakin, Coyotes & Town Dogs, (1-101) With Zakin’s book, the goal is to get a broad feeling for the movement, its campaigns, internal disputes, and political impacts; read quickly.

Additional graduate readings

Foreman, Rewilding, 109-176 (part II)
Susan Zakin, Coyotes & Town Dogs, (102-215) and (216-315)

Additional Recommended Readings

Davis, John, ed. The Earth First! Reader: Ten Years of Radical Environmentalism. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 1991.
Foreman, Dave. Confessions of an Eco-Warrior. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.

(Week 5) ~ Digging Underneath the History – Uncovering the Perceptual, Affective, Spiritual, and Ethical Motivations

Video: Rage over Trees and/or Video: Road Use Restricted (28min)

Undergraduate & graduate readings

* B. Taylor, “Resacralizing Earth: Environmental Paganism and the Restoration of Turtle Island,” in American Sacred Space. Eds. D. Chidester and E.T. Linenthal. (Indiana University Press, Religion in America Series, 1995), 97-151.

On Epistemology, Religion, Spirituality, and Ritual

There here are many antecedents to the countercultural spirituality of radical environmentalism, including Emil Rousseau (in 17th c. France) and the so called Romantic movements wrote which followed (including the poet Robinson Jeffers in America, who published in the mid-20th c and influenced many ardent and radical environmentalists), the Transcendentalists and esp. H. D. Thoreau, early conservationists including John Muir, Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Rachael Carson, and indeed, most of the most passionate 20th c. conservationists, and poets From the late 1950s, the most important early voices were Edward Abbey, Paul Shepard, and Gary Snyder. Less well known figures including Freeman House, Dolores LaChapelle, and Peter Berg made some of the more remarkable early and influential statements. In addition to the books by them cited above in the main bibliography, the following books and articles in movement tabloids and magazines were especially important. Below are some readings in this section of the courses’ documentary reader. Skim through these to get a field for the ‘spiritual ferment’ in the early movement.

Paganism
Graham Harvey, Animism
* Daniel Quinn, Animism: Humanity’s Original Worldview (ERN entry), which provides the novelist’s views of animistic foraging societies and reflects the central cosmogony and mythic structure of the movement.

Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
* Paul Watson’s A Call for Biocentric Religion

Barry Lopez, "The Language of Animals." In Wild Earth, ed. Tom Butler, 296-305. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed, 2002.

David Abram’s Depth Ecology and Magic and Animism (ERN entries)
David Abram, “Returning to our Animal Senses,” 209-15, in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth

Additional graduate readings

Susan Zakin, Coyotes & Town Dogs, (316-443) (Coyotes/Notes)
G-O Road
David Chidester, Animism

Primary sources: read as many as possible

The importance of spirituality early in Earth First! is illustrated in the following:
* Dave Foreman, “Around the Campfire.” Earth First! 2, no. 8 (21 September 1982): 2. Argues, "Deep Ecology is the most important philosophical current of our time," promising to make Earth First! a forum for such philosophy, as well as for diverse "Earth religion in whatever guise."
Dave Foreman (under pseud. Chim Blea),"What Are We Fighting For?" Earth First! 3, no. 2 (22
December 1982): 17.
* Dave Foreman. "Dear George." Earth First! 7, no. 1 (1 November 1986): 3. In this follow up to his August 1985 “Around the campfire” editorial, and responding to criticism of it by social ecologist George Bradford, Foreman writes in a way that illustrated his fundamental epistemological presuppositions: “My criticism of Murray Bookchink in ‘Around the Campfire’ (‘I think Murray would do well to get out of his stuffy libraries and encounter the wilderness.’) . . . is a fundamental critique of Bookchin and anyone else who relies excessively on scholarship instead of direct wilderness experience for wisdom. [No one] can fully understand human society or the relationship to the natural world without regularly encountering the wilderness and finding instruction there.”
Dave Foreman (under pseud. Chim Blea), "Spirituality." Earth First! 7, no. 7 (1 August 1987): 23.
Dave Foreman, "Review of The Spiral Dance." Earth First! 9, no. 1 (1 November 1988): 35.

Gary Snyder and the Invention of Bioregional Spirituality
Gary Snyder, "Song of the Taste." Earth First! 5, no. 1 (1 November 1984): 21.
Gary Snyder, "Reinhabitation." Earth First! 7, no. 8 (23 September 1987): 28. Snyder himself promotes bioregionalism and this central aspect of this decentralist, green, social philosophy.

Hundredth Monkey (ERN entry).

(Week 6) ~ Ritual, Ecofeminism, Eros, Genderwork ~ and the possibility of a New Age

12 February ~ Presentation by Heart Phoenix (with Bernard Zaleha) on Breathwork and the relationships between ritualizing and healing both person and planet.

Take home midterm exam distributed in class 14 February 2006 (due 23 February, see below).

Video possibility: Julia Butterfly Hill

Undergraduate reading

Read Susan Zakin, Coyotes & Town Dogs, (102-215) and (216-315) (skim/read quickly/peruse)

Undergraduate & graduate readings

Many movement figures believe that ritualizing is critical to proper perception regarding the sacredness and interdependence of all life, and some such ritual involves ecofeminist premises. The following articles and entries introduce such a perspective and give examples of the kinds of ritual experimentation that has characterized much of radical environmentalism
Dolores LaChapelle, "Thoughts on Autumn Equinox about the Importance of Ritual." Earth First! 9, no. 8 (22 September 1989): 30.
* Joanna Macy’s Council of All Beings (from 1985) and biography Joanna Macy (ERN entries)
Will Keepin’s Breathwork (ERN entry)
* John Seed, Re-Earthing and biography John Seed (ERN entries)
For more information on the Council of All Beings, do a web search, and see especially the Rainforest Information Centre’s site: http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/coab.htm

Additional graduate readings

Diggers, Wolfs, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Bricolage, Religion, and Violence From Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front to the Antiglobalization Resistance

The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization

(Week 7) ~ Earth First! & Deep Ecology

All students must turn in their take home exams, sending them as word documents the the instructors by email attachment no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday 23 February.
There will class between when these exams are distributed and when they are due. As student energy and participation is a key to this course, students who do not attend will have their mid term exam reduced one full grade.

Lectures: Field notes from the Council of All Beings and the First International Re-Gendering Workshop.

Possible Video: The Hundredth Monkey

Undergraduate readings

Susan Zakin, Coyotes & Town Dogs, (316-443) (skim/read quickly/peruse) (Coyotes/Notes)

Graduate readings

* Bender, The Culture of Extinction: Toward a Philosophy of Deep Ecology, 15-230.

Strongly recommended optional readings:

Katz, Light and Rothenberg. Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Read the introduction (1-3), Clark (3-14), *Katz (17-39), *Plumwood (59-81), Light (125-143), Zimmerman (169-191), Gare (195-212); Jacobsen (231-246), and Curtin (253-26).

Further readings

Terry Tempest Williams, Unseen Hunger, esp. “Undressing the Bear” (51-59), “Yellowstone: the erotics of place” (81-87), “Testimony” and “The Wild Card” (125-141).

The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution

(Week 8) ~ Judi Bari, Ecofeminism, and Revolutionary Deep Ecology

26 February ~ Guest Presentation by Fred Bender, author of Culture of Extinction, on the Deep Ecology/Ecofeminism debate, Florida Gym 220

Video: Judi Bari on “Revolutionary Ecology” (at UWO) [optional video: “Who Bombed Judi Bari” (Steve Talbot)]

Undergraduate readings

Devall and Sessions, Deep Ecology. (Peruse the entire book, reading as much as possible. Section one (pp. 1-77); Section two (pp. 78-129); Section three (pp. 130-77); Section four (pp. 178-267)

Undergraduate & graduate readings

Judi Bari was an influential Earth First! activist who claimed to have turned it in a feminist direction, argued for what she called “revolutionary ecology,” who led a campaign to save some of California’s remaining redwood forests in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She was critically injured when a bomb exploded under the seat of her car in 1990, which she blamed on her political enemies. Much of her writing was originally published in Earth First!, and then reprinted in Timber Wars. Some important examples include:
*“The Feminization of Earth First!” (219-225), and
*“The Secret History of Tree Spiking” (in two parts, 264-270, 271-82).
“Breaking up is hard to do” (55-59),
*“1990: a year in the life of Earth First!” and *“Why I am not a misanthrope” (82-84), “Review: Dave Foreman’s Confessions of an Eco-Warrior” 103-108.
This collection includes background on the car bombing, “Earth First Car Bombing” (286-328) and “Redwood Action Week” (165-173).

For contrast, see
**Wolke, Howie. "Thoughtful Radicalism." Earth First! 10, no. 2 (21 December 1989): 29.
CM. "An Appraisal of Monkeywrenching." Earth First! 10, no. 3 (2 February 1990): 30. (also in 20th Anniversary issue of Earth First!)
(See also week 11 readings, esp. “Cult of Nonviolence” and “Pacifism as Pathology,” which directly challenged the “Ecotopians” who rejected tree spiking.)

Alarm: a Voice of Revolutionary Ecology

Graduate readings

* Bender, The Culture of Extinction: Toward a Philosophy of Deep Ecology, 231-450.

Strongly recommended optional readings:

Katz, Light and Rothenberg. Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Read Zimmerman (169-191), Gare (195-212); Jacobsen (231-246), Curtin (253-26)

Ecofeminism and Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context, and Religion

(Week 9) ~ Anarcho-Primitivism and the Earth Liberation Front

Video: Pickaxe & Biotic Backing Brigade, and Video: “60 Minutes” on “The Earth Liberation Front” (2001)

Undergraduate & graduate section readings

Begin by reading about the recent arrests and convictions of Earth Liberation Front/Animal Liberation Front Activists (one or more of these articles):

The most in-depth article was run in the Eugene Weekly:

Kera Abraham, “Flames of Dissent” (five part series), Eugene Weekly, November & December 2006). (This is a large document, if it will not download for you, try the newspaper’s archives at:
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/index.html, and then search for the series in these, archived issues: 2, 9, 22 November and 7 & 21 December.

Also worth reading:

Vanessa Grigoriadis, “The Rise and Fall of the Eco-Radical Underground,” Rolling Stone, July 2006
Matt Rasmussen, “Green Rage,” Orion, January/February 2007

Then peruse and read widely the following materials to get a feel for ‘anarcho-primitivism’ or ‘green-anarchism,’ and how it relates to the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. Be sure to grasp the challenge of Schmoookler’s views, published in Parable of the Tribes, and discussed in a number of the articles, below. Be ready to comment on whether Ted Kaczynski’s views are in synch with anarcho-primitivism and/or radical environmentalism.

Visit the Primitivism website. Start with “What is Primitivism” by John Filiss, and then turn to and read the essays by John Zerzan within the primitivism web domain, and after this, read his article (*)“Future Primitive” in this domain’s section titled Anthropology. Then see also the excerpts from Stanley Diamond’s “In Search of the Primitive”, and prowl around the site as you wish. Also relevant is Zerzan’s “The Catastrophe of Postmodernism” at www.primitivism.com

From Stephen Best and Anthony Nocella, eds., Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals (Lantern 2004):
“Introduction” (9-49)
Rod Coronado, “Direct Actions Speak Louder than Words” (178-184)
Tom Regan, “How to justify violence” (231-36)

From Stephen Best and Anthony Nocella, eds., Igniting the Revolution (AK Press 2006)
Best and Nocella, “Introduction”
Jeff Leurs, “From Protest to Resistance” (211-223)

Anarchism and Revolutionary Ecology . . .
. . . debates over the extent to which radical environmentalism is or should be considered revolutionary, and if so: What is the nature of that revolution?
*Australopithecus. “Review of The Parable of the Tribes.” Earth First! 5, no. 8 (22 September 1985): 24. In this article then Earth First! editor John Davis, writing under his favorite pseudonym, reviewed an important book which contradicts the anarchistic tendencies of both the libertarian “rednecks for wilderness” and the more communitarian green anarchists. This sets off the first (and last) extended debate on social philosophy in the pages of Earth First! Formanistas from Davis, Manes, Abbey, and others, defend anarchism, while Schmookler more than holds his own.
*Schmookler, Andrew Bard. "Schmookler Replies to Australopithecus." Earth First! 6, no. 2 (21 December 1985): 25.
*Schmookler, Andrew Bard. "Schmookler on Anarchy." Earth First! 6, no. 5 (1 May 1986): 22.
Manes, Christoph. "Ascent to Anarchy." Earth First!, 6, no 6, 1 August 1986, 21.
Schmookler, Andrew Bard."Schmookler Replies to the Anarchists." Earth First! 7, no. 2 (21 December 1986): 24-5.
Manes, Christoph."An Anarchist Replies to Schmookler's Reply to the Anarchists." Earth First! 7, no. 8 (23 September 1987): 23.
Schmookler, Andrew Bard. "Schmookler Replies to Anarchist's Replies to Schmookler's Reply to the Anarchists." Earth First! 7, no. 8 (23 September 1987): 26-7.
*Roselle, Mike."Forest Grump." Earth First! 15, no. 2 (21 December 1994): 23. Roselle urges “jihad”-like rebellion in criticism of Foreman’s claims that radical environmentalism is not revolutionary.

The Unabomber
* Kaczynski, Theodore. "Industrial Society and its Future." First published in the Washington Post, 19 September 1995, beginning p. A1.

Graduate readings

Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin, “Anarchism.” Encyclopedia Britanica, 11th ed., pp. 914-19, 1910-1911. (Biographical entry)
Sahlins, Marshal. Stone Age Economics. Chicago: Aldine, 1968. Read the online chapter: “The Original Affluent Society”
Kropotkin, Peter. Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Boston: n.d.; reprint, Montreal: Black Rose, 1914. (Online)
Bey, Hakim. T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism. Autonomedia, 1991. Internet link

Recommended readings

Schmookler, Andrew Bard. The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1984.

Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist

9 & 11 March (Spring break ~ no class)

Read ahead as much as possible and from the online document bank of movement literature.

(Week 10) ~ Critical perspectives on radical environmentalism and deep ecology: critique and rejoinders regarding the idea of wilderness

Undergraduate and Graduate Readings (* read first/most important)

* Michael Nelson, “An amalgamation of Wilderness Preservation Arguments” (154-198) in Callicott & Nelson, eds, the Great Wilderness Debate.
* J. Baird Callicott, “A critique of and alternative to the wilderness idea” (172-86) in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
Reed Noss, “Wilderness—now more than ever” (187-94) in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
Gary Snyder, “Is Nature Real?” (195-98) in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
Dave Foreman, "Wilderness: From Scenery to Nature" (15-33) in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
* Edward Abbey, “Freedom & Wilderness, Wilderness & Freedom” (227-238) in The Journey Home, NY: Penguin, 1977
* Ramachandra Guha, “Radical Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: a third world critique” (231-235), in Callicott & Nelson, eds, the Great Wilderness Debate. [Originally as "Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique." Environmental Ethics 11 (1989): 71-83.]
* David Johns, “The relevance of Deep Ecology to the Third World” (246-270), in Callicott & Nelson, eds, the Great Wilderness Debate. [Originally as "The Relevance of Deep Ecology to the Third World." Environmental Ethics 12, no. 3 (1990): 233-52.]
Ken Wu, “Ecoforestry or protected status? Some Words in Defense of Parks” (199-08), in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
Ramachandra Guha, “Radical Environmentalism Revisited” (271-279) in Callicott & Nelson, eds, the Great Wilderness Debate.

Graduate Readings

Cronon, William. "The Trouble with Wilderness; Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature." In Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature, ed. William Cronon, 69-90. New York: Norton, 1995.
Soulé, Michael. "The social siege of nature." In Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, eds. M. Soulé and G. Lease, 137-70. San Francisco: Island Press, 1995.
Donald Worster, “The wilderness of history” (221-229) in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
Bill Cronon. "The Trouble with Wilderness: A Response." Environmental History 1, no. 1 (1996): 47-57.

Recommended

The social construction of Nature

(Week 11) ~ On Tactics I: The ethics & politics of ecotage, arson, and violence

Presentation by Evolutionary Evangelists Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd (see www.thegreatstory.org ), Wednesday, 28 March, HPNP Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Video: Yellowstone to Yukon (possible/tentative)
Interview with Abbey (by Jack Loeffler), mp3

Undergraduate Reading:

One article attempting to wrestle with the moral permissibility of extra-legal resistance, based on two direct action campaigns (Cove/Mallard Idaho and Warner Creek, Oregon), is:
B. Taylor, “Earth First! Fights Back: Contextual Reflections on Resistance and Democracy,” Terra Nova: Nature & Culture 2(2):29-43, Spring 1997.

The following primary sources explore using arson and violence as a tactic (peruse these primary sources).
**Foreman, Dave and Bill Haywood (pseud.), eds. Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching. 2 ed. Tucson, Arizona: Ned Ludd, 1987 (first edition 1985).

Forward

Strategic Monkeywrenching

Earth First!

Confessions of an Ecowarrior

The Future of Monkeywrenching

*Foreman, Dave."Violence and Earth First!" Earth First! (20 March 1982), 4.
Aitken, Robert. "Dear Earth First!" Earth First! 2, no. 5 (1 May 1982): 2.
Foreman, Dave. “Foreman Replies (to Robert Aitken).” Earth First! 2, no. 5 (1 May 1982): 2.
*Snyder, Gary. "Dear Dave." Earth First! 2, no. 7 (1 August 1982): 2-3.
* Snyder, Gary, “A letter to Ed Abbey,” Resist Much/Obey Little (1985: 118-23)
Dustrud, Pete. "Dear Readers, You Now Have a New Editor." Earth First!, 1 August 1982, 2.
*Foreman, Dave. "Earth First! and Non-Violence." Earth First! 3, no. 7 (1 August 1983): 11.
*Wolke, Howie."On Violence." Earth First! 3, no. 7 (23 September 1983): 11 (pdf awol may11)
*Wuerthner, George. "Tree Spiking and Moral Maturity." Earth First!, 1 August 1985, 20.

A willingness to risk harming humans, at least in self-defense, was present from the earliest moments of Earth First! But by the late 1980s, even more radical voices pushed for more revolutionary strategies and tactics, arising in part to criticize what they considered to be an anthropocentric fetish about non-violence among some movement activists. Some examples include:
*Stoddard, Tom. "How Far Should We Go?" Earth First! 9, no. 2 (21 December 1988): 27.

Live Wild or Die began publishing in 1989 to give expression to the wilder, more extreme Earth First! voices, funded in part with Michael Roselle’s support through the Earth First! direct action fund. See especially:
   Jakubal, Mikal. "Why I Did It, Why I'll Never Do It Again." Live Wild or Die, no. 1 (1989): 2.
   Nickette. "Nick It!" Live Wild or Die, no. 1 (1989): 8,10.
   *Feral Faun. "Beyond Earth First!: Toward a Feral Revolution of Desire." Live Wild or Die, no. 1 (1989): 15, and "To Be in Love with Everything That Lives: The Orgy That Is the Earth." Live Wild or Die, no. 1 (February1989): 25.
   *Anonymous. "Pacifism as Pathology (Article and Graphic)." Live Wild or Die, no. 5 (1994): 15. Also republished in Beware/Sabotage.
   *McFarlane, Gary and Gary Echt. "Cult of Nonviolence." Earth First! 18, no. 1 (November-December 1997): 3, 17.

Graduate Readings:

Bron Taylor, “Earthen Spirituality or Cultural Genocide?: Radical Environmentalism’s Appropriation of Native American Spirituality,” Religion 27(2):183-215, April 1997.

Recommended further readings on violence and sabotage

Bron Taylor, “Religion, Violence, and Radical Environmentalism: from Earth First! to the Unabomber to the Earth Liberation Front,” Terrorism and Political Violence 10(4):1-42, Winter 1998.

Environmental Ethics

(Week 12) ~ On Tactics II: Population prescriptions, immigration disputes & ethnic issues, and apocalyptic solutions.

Undergraduate Reading

* Garrett Hardin, “Gregg’s Law,” 265-267), “Nobody every dies of overpopulation” (262-264), “Living on a Lifeboat” and “Trouble in the Lifeboat” (295-98) , “Carrying Capacity as an Ethical Concept” (299-318), “Population Skeletons in the Environmental Closet” (237-49)“Population Control: Dare we Face the Taboo?” (343-350), from Stalking the Wild Taboo.

Undergraduate and Graduate Readings (primary sources ~ read into this as widely as time allows to gain a sense of movement perspectives and internal controversies about these issuess)

Edward Abbey’s views and responses
* Abbey, on “Immigration and Liberal Taboos”, from One Life at a Time, Please, 41-44
Loeffler, with Abbey, on population, technology, lifestyle, and G. Hardin, in Adventures with Ed, 148-50.
Loeffler, with Abbey, on immigration, in Adventures with Ed, 109-11
Loeffler, with Abbey, on Indians, in Adventures with Ed, 136-37
Luis Alberto Urrea, “Down the highway with Edward Abbey,”from Resist Much, Obey Little, 40-47
Barbara Kingsolver, adios, final thoughts, from Resist Much, Obey Little, 232-33
* Terry Tempest Williams, “A Eulogy for Edward Abbey,” from Resist Much, Obey Little, 199-203

Misc movement articles on population and immigration
* Dave Foreman (under pseudo. Chim Blea. “Reducing Population.” Earth First! (1 August 1983): 3.
Noss, Reed. "Deep Ecology, Elitism and Reproduction." Earth First! 4, no. 5 (1 May 1984): 16.
* Christopher Manes (under pseudo. Miss Ann Thropy). "Technology and Mortality." Earth First! 7, no. 1 (1 November 1986): 18. Criticizes technological innovations that prolong life and suggests that they, and the western religious ideas that accompany such efforts, must go. Foreman comments in support telling bleeding heart Christians, humanists or Marxists, need not bother to send rejoinders.
* Stoddard, Tom. "Oh, What a Wonderful Famine!" Earth First! 6, no. 5 (1 May 1986): 26.
*Miss Ann Thropy (pseud. for Christopher Manes). "Overpopulation and Industrialism." Earth First! 7, no. 4 (20 March 1987): 29.
* Christopher Manes (under pseudo. Miss Ann Thropy). “Population and AIDS.” Earth First! 7, no. 5 (1 May 1987): 32. Beginning "If radial environmentalists were to invent a disease to bring human population back to ecological sanity, it would probably be something like AIDS", Manes offered "an ecological perspective on the disease" premised on the axiom "that the only real hope . . . is an enormous decline in human population.” This is one of the most controversial articles ever published in Earth First!, and while qualifications in it were widely ignored, it arguably suggested genocidal solutions to the population-fueled environmental crisis. Such articles were used against the movement by social ecologists and social justice advocates alike and, combined with Foreman’s and others anti-immigration statements, were taken by many to represent the movement’s mainstreams.
Foreman, Dave. "Is Sanctuary the Answer?" Earth First! 8, no. 1 (1 November 1987): 21-2. Concludeed controversially: "In the long run the most humane solution is the one advanced by Edward Abbey; send every illegal alien home with a rifle and a thousand rounds."
Flowers, Will. "This Is Pro Life?" Earth First! 9, no. 5 (1 May 1989).
Barnes, James. "Dieback: A Vision of Darkness." Earth First! 17, no. 8 (1997): 3,13. On overshoot/population dynamics as natural law/remedy; natural selection will continue.
Tara the Sea Elf. "The Earth Liberation Front." Earth First! 16, no. 7 (September-October 1996): 18. Denounces reactionary anti-immigration positions of American Earth First! movement, while discussing the emergence of the Earth Liberation Front.
Stoddard, Tom. "The Human Horde." Earth First! 10, no. 1 (1 November 1989): 23.

* Sandy Irvine, “The great denial: puncturing pronatalist myths,” 45-62, in Tom Butler, ed., Wild Earth
* MacDougall, Kent, “Humans as Cancer,” Wild Earth , Fall 1996, 81-88.
* Terry Tempest Williams, “Labor,” from Red (originally in National Geographic), October 2000.
Kelpie Wilson, The Lysistrata Strategy, originally in Wild Earth (Winter 1997/98).

Additional graduate readings:

* Garrett Hardin, Living within Limits, if possible, peruse the entire book, reading carefully: ch1, ch 3, ch 4, ch 6, ch 9, ch 10, ch 11

Further readings
Miller, Monique A. "Population Growth and the Wildlands Vision." In Place of the Wild: A Wildlands Anthology, ed. David Clarke Burks. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1994.
Sessions, George. "The Sierra Club, Immigration, and the Future of California." Wild Duck Review, 1998, 24-5.
Martin Lewis, Green Delusions, “Introduction & ch 1 (1-26), read ch 2 (43-81)
Joel Cohen, How many people can the earth support? (Norton 1995)
Bouvier, Leon F and Lindsey Grant. How Many Americans? Population, Immigration, and the Environment. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1995.
Weiner, Myron. Global Migration Crisis: Challenge to State and Human Rights. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

The Case Against Immigration

(Week 13) ~ Radical Environmentalism and social philosophy – including conservation science and considering the possibility (promise?) of reformist environmentalism.

Undergraduate & Graduate Readings

Bron Taylor, “Deep Ecology and its Social Philosophy: A Critique,” in Beneath the Surface: Critical Essays on Deep Ecology. Eds. E. Katz. A. Light, D. Rothenberg. (Boston: MIT Press, 2000), 269-299.
Foreman, Rewilding, 109-176 (part II)

Additional Graduate readings

Lewis, Martin, ch 3, “A question of scale” (82-116), from Green Delusions

Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism

(Week 14) ~ Ecotopian and dystopian visions & strategies

Graduate Student research papers due by midnight 15 April 2006, emailed to Professor Taylor (see email address above).

Guest presentation Wednesday evening, 18 April, by Australian Deep Ecologist/Activist John Seed, in the HPNP Auditorium, at 7:00 p.m. (There will be an additional opportunity to see him, on Thursday evening 19 April, details of which will be announced when available.)

Undergraduate Readings

From Stephen Best and Anthony Nocella, eds., Igniting the Revolution (AK Press 2006)
*** Derrick Jensen, “What goes up must come down” (284-300).

Foreman, Rewilding, 177-229 (part III)
Environmental Review 2001 Interview with Dave Foreman (recommended)
Turner, Jack. “The Quality of Wildness: Preservation, Control, and Freedom.” In Place of the Wild: A Wildlands Anthology, ed. David Clarke Burks, 175-89. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1994. Turner here, and in his subsequent book, criticized the scientific/conservation biology turn of some radical environmentalism, fearing the central knowledge that comes from direct perception in wild places is being lost. Cf. The Abstract Wild. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996. For contrast, see:
Reed Noss (as pseud. Diamondback, "Scientific Ecology and Deep Ecology." Earth First! 10, no. 1 (1 November 1989): 21.

Additional Graduate readings

Lewis, Martin, ch 4, “Technophobia…” (117-149) and ch 5 “The Capitalist Imperative” (150-190)

Recommended

Third World Development

(Week 15) ~ (last day of class)

Final Take Home Essay Exam, and guidelines for final reflection paper, distributed. There will likely be an in-class identification portion for this final exam. These exams will be due, without exception, by 5 p.m. May 4 (in same manner as mid-term exams, see above).

ADDITIONAL READINGS & VIDEO TRIMMED FROM FALL 2005 COURSE, BUT STILL PERTINENT TO COURSE THEMES:

Video: Native Forest Network, Lacandona: The Zapastistas and the Rainforest of Chiapas, Mexico. 1998.

Taylor, Bron, ed. Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism, skim 1-6 & 11-26, read Lorentzen (56-69), Hadsell (70-83) Gedicks (89-107), Lohmann (109-127), Akula (127-145), Tandon (161-176), Wisner (177-197), Rothenberg (201-218).

Indigenous Environmental Activism & Indigenous Environmental Network

Kenya Greenbelt Movement

Donga Tribe & Dragon Environmental Network (United Kingdom)
Scotland

Bioregionalism

THE TIME AND PLACE FOR THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN CLASS AND BY EMAIL.

Resources

Writing Well
Joshua Sowin's 'A guide to writing well'
Bron Taylor's Writing Well Guide

Outline Articles
‘Environmental Ethics’ (by Andrew Brennan and Yeuk-Sze Lo) in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Video

Websites
Academic Organizations and initiatives involved in Environmental Ethics:
The International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE)
International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP)
Center for Environmental Philosophy
Centre for Applied Ethics
Environmental Ethics (Journal)
Environmental Values (Journal)
Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale University
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

Additional resources, such as links to podcasts, music, slideshows, video, music, and websites, will be made available here during the course. Students are encouraged to send their own ideas for resources to the course instructors.

Feel free to read ahead in the DesJardines textbook, if you wish, following the previous syllabus.
Both required textbooks will be the same: Joseph Des Jardins, Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy (Thompson/Wadsworth, 4th edition), and Daniel Quinn, Ishmael (Bantam, 1992).