''Ecotage!'' was a 1972 paperback book edited by Sam Love and David Obst and published by

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishin ...

. The book was a collection of ideas that had been solicited by the group Environmental Action over the previous year in preparation for the publication of the book, for using sabotage, attention-grabbing stunts, and other ideas to draw attention to environmental issues.Cheryl R. Jorgensen-Earp, ''In the Wake of Violence: Image & Social Reform'' (

MSU Press Michigan State University Press is the scholarly publishing arm of Michigan State University. Scholarly publishing at the university significantly predates the establishment of its press in 1947. By the 1890s the institution's Experiment Stations ...

, 2008), ,
Excerpts available
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

. "Ecotage" is a contraction of ecological (or economic) and

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identiti ...

. The cover of ''Ecotage!'' features a photograph of a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

throwing a pie in the face of a business executive. The book is credited as one of the early inspirations for radical environmental activism, along with similar works such as

Edward Abbey Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an Americans, American author, essayist, and anarchist, environmental activist noted for his advocacy of environmentalism, environmental issues and criticism of public land policies. His ...

's 1975 novel ''

The Monkey Wrench Gang ''The Monkey Wrench Gang'' is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975. Abbey's most famous work of fiction, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the ...

''.Thomas Carl Austenfeld, Dimiter Daphinoff, Jens Herlth, eds., ''Terrorism and Narrative Practice'' ( LIT Verlag Münster, 2011), , p. 211
Excerpts available
at

. The book was inspired by the actions of an individual who operated in the

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

area. Calling himself " The Fox", he engaged in such activities as plugging smokestacks and entering the offices of corporate executives to dump sewage on their desks. In turn, some of the actions suggested in ''Ecotage!'' actually began to be carried out, particularly billboarding, when small groups in the early 1970s such as the one calling themselves the "Eco-Raiders" in

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive ...

, began cutting down billboards. The term

ecotage Ecotage ( ) is sabotage carried out for environmental reasons. Cases All damage figures below are in United States dollars. Some well-known acts of ecotage have included: *Circa 1969–1985; ecological activist James F. Phillips, operatin ...

may have originated with this book;Clarence Petersen
"Paperbacks"
''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

'', March 26, 1972 ("''Ecotage!'' ... adds a new word to the language ..."). the term has since passed into general use as a synonym for various

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to othe ...

tactics (see also

monkeywrenching Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

Publication

*Love, Sam and David Obst, eds. (1972), ''Ecotage!''

References

1972 non-fiction books 1972 in the environment Environmental non-fiction books Books about environmentalism Radical environmentalism {{environment-book-stub