Eco-warrior
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term eco-warrior is sometimes a self description for environmental activist that adopts a "hands-on" effort to save or salvage a plot of land, or to advance some ecological ideology. In the UK it was the media that coined the term in the 90s, a label that many people actively taking ecological direct action resisted, for philosophical reasons.
An eco-warrior can be someone as mundane and non-confrontational as a tree sitter or someone who engages in direct action, ranging anywhere from planting tree spikes into trees on public lands, to keep the lumber industry from cutting them down, to sit-ins which occupy a corporate office.
Another use of the term refers to an environmental activist who engages in illegal activities, also known as eco-terrorism. 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. Steven Seagal waged eco-war through his film work, especially in 1994's On Deadly Ground.
One of the best written books about the subject is Confessions of an Eco-Warrior by David Foreman, co-founder of Earth First! who was marginally implicated in the FBI operation, THERMCON.
A well known British "eco-warrior" is Daniel Hooper, who is also known as Swampy.
