“When you’re screaming at the top of your lungs and no one hears, what are you supposed to do?” — Daniel McGowan

The Earth Liberation front is a radical environmentalist group whose members use unorthodox and extreme tools like arson and tree spiking to combat environmentally disruptive corporate behavior. No one has ever died due to E.L.F. arson, and all activities are coordinated based upon the absence of humans to avoid casualties and injuries. Despite this, members like Daniel McGowan now face multiple counts of life in prison for what the government has deemed “eco-terrorism.” The question which should be posed is this: are the E.L.F. a terrorist organization? Is the use of  such discursive notions and their respective connotations fair when these people are being compared to  the likes of al-Qaeda?

Please watch the following two minute clip from the incredible documentary If a Tree Falls which focuses on the E.L.F.

Man stands in the remnants of a logged forest in Oregon

What's more radical?

The question McGowan poses is an important one, for how does one make a disconnected society pay attention? How do you combat corporations when they have politics in their pockets? What is terrorism? Is it burning down an empty building to prevent further destruction, or standing by while these organizations destroy our world? Maybe terrorism is cutting down our forests to build a twelve million dollar ski lodge in Vail (much like the one the E.L.F. burnt down in Oct. ’98) when 95% of our nations forests cease to exist. What’s more radical — cutting down the last five percent or fighting to save it? Who are the real terrorists — organizations like Cavel West Slaughterhouse, whose aim was to round up and slaughter the last of America’s wild horses to clear contractor land, or the E.L.F., who could not stand by idly and torched them to the ground, making them unable to operate again?

Is the line between activist and terrorist really so thin? I do not aim to condone such action, merely give food for thought — thought being an activity sorely lacking in our society. Follow the story of McGowan, the E.L.F., and this amazing documentary here.