The term eco-warrior is a self-description for an
environmental activist
Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...
that adopts a "hands-on" effort to save a plot of land. In the UK it coined the term in the 1990s, a label that many people actively taking ecological direct action resisted, for philosophical reasons.
A common symbol of an eco-warrior is the
Eco Warriors Flag
Beginning as a conservation movement, the environmental movement in Australia was the first in the world to become a political movement. Australia is home to United Tasmania Group, the world's first green party.
The environmental movement is r ...
.
Another use of the term refers to an environmental activist who engages in illegal activities, also known as
eco-terrorism
Eco-terrorism is an act of violence which is committed in support of environmental causes, against people or property.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines eco-terrorism as "...the use or threatened use of violence o ...
. However, an eco-warrior is also someone who utilizes the
courts to halt, suspend, or otherwise derail a human activity that the activist believes adversely impacts the environment.
Types
An eco-warrior can be someone who engages in an
environmental organisation
An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements
that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces.
In this sense the environment ...
(e.g.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
) or an environmental company that delivers safekeeping or improvements for the environment (e.g. directly by selling environmental products).
Notable eco-warriors and warrior actions
* In 2006, an eco-warrior group who sabotaged heavily polluting terrain vehicles became known in Paris (France), calling themselves "
Les Dégonflés Les Dégonflés is a French vigilante group launched in 2005 that deflates tyres on SUVs parked on the streets of Paris in order to protest against their sales and the associated high emissions
Emission may refer to:
Chemical products
* Emission ...
".
* Another well-known British "eco-warrior" is Daniel Hooper, who is also known as
Swampy.
*
Chico Mendes and
Ken Saro-Wiwa are the most famous green activists in Brazil and Nigeria, respectively.
* Made famous in the US for a hurling a brick through the window of a McDonald's during the so-called "Battle in Seattle", French activist and small-scale cheese farmer
José Bové has been fighting neo-liberalism on his home turf for decades.
*
Paul Watson and the direct-action conservation group known as the ''
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society'', which he founded, can be called eco-warriors for their direct engagements of ships engaging in overfishing and commercial whaling.
*
Penti Baihua is an internationally known
Huaorani. The Huaorani, like many other
indigenous peoples, are very much interested in putting a stop to
illegal logging on their homeland, and also embrace the concept of
ecotourism to supply in funds to help in the protection of their local biodiversity.
*
Timothy Treadwell was an activist for the protection of grizzly bears in Alaska.
* The direct action of
William Bunting saved the wildlife habitat of
Thorne Moors
Thorne and Hatfield Moors form the largest area of lowland raised peat bog in the United Kingdom. They are situated in South Yorkshire, to the north-east and east of Doncaster near the town of Thorne, and are part of Hatfield Chase. They had ...
from the planned dumping of 32 million tons of fuel-ash, peat-cutting and drainage, and caused the reinstatement of public footpaths on maps of the same Moors.
See also
*
Eco Warriors Flag
Beginning as a conservation movement, the environmental movement in Australia was the first in the world to become a political movement. Australia is home to United Tasmania Group, the world's first green party.
The environmental movement is r ...
References
{{reflist
Environmentalism