Dear HCN,
Out of Edward
Abbey’s novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang,
came the term, “eco-terrorist,” defined as an extremist who so
radically loved the ecosystems that sustain the earth, that he
tried to protect them by “monkeywrenching” the tools of big
extractive industry — dozers, dams and draglines — thus
destroying the industrial juggernaut that was wrecking the planet.
The Bush administration’s
anti-environmentalism (Margolis, HCN, 3/26/01: The environmental
movement is a-muddle) brings a whole new meaning to the term
eco-terrorism. Bush-Cheney-Norton and Co. are fast becoming
infamous as “the New (real) Eco-terrorists”: extremists who so
radically love big business and short-term profits, that they
propose to protect the industrial machine by “monkeywrenching” the
tools of government — its environmental safeguards —
thus hastening the destruction of ecosystems that sustain the
earth.
They are in a hurry, and like all
radical extremists, they can do tremendous damage very quickly. The
next four years will be plenty of time for them to dismantle much
of the progress made since Earth Day 1970, unless the public
catches on soon and demands they stop their destructive game.
Gene Sentz
Choteau, Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bush-Cheney bunch are the new eco-terrorists.
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