The first article that popped up on my CNN.com homepage this morning informed me that several luxury homes on the “Street of Dreams” development, in Washington state, have been purposely set afire. It is believed that the houses were set afire from those associated with the organization called “ELF”. ELF stands for Earth Liberation Front but is an ecoterrorist group. But wait, isn’t that a contradictory sentence? I’m confused. I did some research and found out that ELF is a group of anonymous individuals who use economic sabotage and guerilla warfare to stop the exploitation of the natural environment. So, if ELF was created in attempt to save our earth then why are they at the same time setting homes afire and destroying nature. Ecoterrorism is the concept of terrorism conducted for ecological or environmental causes—but this sounds like such an oxymoron. Ecoterrorism is also defined by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Domestic Terrorism as “the use or threatened use of violence for environmental political reasons, or aimed at an audience beyond the target, often as a symbolic nature.” An easier to understand definition of ecoterrorism that I found is: “an act that terrorizes other species and threatens the ecological systems of the planet.” So why does an organization like ELF, whose purpose is to stop the destruction of natural environment, set houses afire and disrupt and destroy nature anyways? I’m very confused. Is there a concept that I’m not understanding correctly? Has anyone else ever heard of ELF?
These days there is much concern about saving our earth and protecting the longevity of our earth that reading about ecoterrorists is something I never thought I would come across. I never knew ecoterrorists existed until I read this article and it disturbs me (and even wierds me out) to think that there is an organization which believes in saving the earth by destroying the earth? Maybe destroying the luxury homes is symbolic of destroying materialistic beliefs—maybe it was an act against wealthy people who act as though they do not care about the environment but instead build beautiful homes to live in. I have no idea what the motive is but I still think there is something contradictory about the ELF organization and its beliefs and its actions. Any thoughts?
You can read the article at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/03/seattle.fire/index.html
3 comments:
Personally, I didn't think that the article was completely a surprise.
My thoughts would be that they were doing this purely for attention purposes - A pure "act of terrorism", I mean, isn't that what an act of terror is? I don't think they even took into consideration the harm they were doing to the environment as much as they just wanted to send out a warning signal to the public. They also probably thought that the harm to environment was already done. I think their main goal was to send a message to the developers, in attempt to put a stop to all this development. If they believe that it is the development that is harming the environment,they want developers to know that if they continue building these complexes, there will be harmful consequences.
I have actually heard of ELF before, when a member supposedly set off a firebomb in the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001. It's ironic too, because as you said, there acts are extremely counterproductive. Most of the buildings they have destroyed or damaged will be repaired or rebuilt, so it's not as if attacking a structure near a threatened habitat is going to save said habitat. Additionally, the fire releases even more carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, not to mention that in the rebuilding of these buildings, even more wood will be chopped down for building supplies. But as we have seen in previous years, terrorists do not necessarily employ rational thinking in their plans.
It's a misfortune that these people are tainting the name of decent environmentalists. I feel that it may lead society to view us all as the crazy "tree-hugger" sort of nature lovers who would shoot a person for eating a steak. I can only hope they eventually realize they are actually doing more to hurt the environment than to help it.
I have never heard of ELF, and I also did not know that eco-terrorist groups existed. Although they are trying to get some point across to developers, by doing it in this way they are further contributing to the destruction of the environment. If they are convinced that the benefits will outweigh the negative effects I definitely think they are wrong and should rethink a new way to get their message across. It is very contradicting that they are trying to save the environment by further destroying that, and it makes the public take them less seriously. I don't think there is much of a point to have eco-terrorists, and they should instead go about environmentalism in a more productive and beneficial way.
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