Ecoterrorism

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The term ecoterrorism describes politically dimensioned violations of law that are related to the environment ( ecology ). According to various understandings, it means either

  • Actions with the aim of using the environment or protecting it from damage or
  • Acts with considerable damage to the environment.

The word creation goes back to various reports on the security situation in the United States of America by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the reactions of various environmentalists and refers to the activities of the ecological and animal rights movement . Since 2006, the term terrorism has also been used to denote a law against activism, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act .

Different conceptions

Ecoterrorism was coined by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as:

“Domestic [eco-] terrorism is the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or individual based and operating entirely within the United States (or its territories) without foreign direction, committed against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. "

"... the illegal use or threat of violence against any person or property by a politically or socially motivated group or individual citizen of the United States with the aim of intimidating or pressuring a government, society or group."

- FBI 2002

Environmentalists see it as a propaganda term used by law enforcement agencies to criminalize their largely legal protests . According to their opinion, one tries to deceive the public, to highlight individual cases and to evade the substantive argument.

Examples of the different uses

In general, the term ecoterrorism is used for acts of sabotage against industrial plants or people. In addition to simply smashing metal objects into trees to prevent them from being cleared, examples are attacks on genetically modified plants or even arson attacks.

Environmentalists understand the term ecoterrorism to mean, for example, the clearing of primeval forests , the high CO 2 emissions of industrialized nations, the pollution of the environment with chemical waste , the general overexploitation of nature or the continuous use of unsafe nuclear power plants. The Canadian David Suzuki called the Prime Minister of Australia , John Howard , an eco-terrorist in 2005 because of his responsibility for the failure of the Kyoto Protocol .

numbers

The damage caused by ecoterrorism from sabotage in the United States from 1980 to 1999 is estimated at US $ 42.8 million. Since 2003, the FBI has attributed $ 200 million in property damage to the ecoterrorists.

The government ( SEPA ) put the damage caused by "environmental degradation and the waste of resources" in the People's Republic of China at 200 billion US dollars per year. That is 10 percent of the gross national product and corresponds to the annual economic growth.

reception

Ecoterrorists sometimes appear in literature and film. The characters Poison Ivy and Ra's al Ghul (both from the DC comic universe , especially in Batman comics and various film adaptations ) use criminal methods to defend the environment against human influence. Such a character also appears in the comic The Secret Service ( film version 2014 ) with Richmond Valentine.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b James F. Jarboe: The Threat of Eco-Terrorism , FBI , February 12, 2002 (English).
  2. ↑ In English , the term “Ecotage” is used for this.
  3. ^ S. E. Smith: What is Tree Spiking? Wisegeek.com (English).
  4. ↑ Christel Lauterbach: "Planned and targeted attacks" on an independent research project ( Memento from August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Science Information Service , June 6, 2006.
  5. ^ Paul-Anton Krüger: Eco-Arsonists - Fire and Flame for Nature. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010.
  6. ^ Tropical rainforest ( memento from October 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), www.brasilien.de.
  7. ↑ Wendy Frew: PM dubbed eco-terrorist , The Sydney Morning Herald , May 26, 2005.
  8. ↑ Why Animal Experimentation Matters: The Use of Animals in Medical Research (2001), Jeffrey Paul and Ellen Frankel Paul, p. 11.
  9. ↑ Brent Baldwin: Wade's War , Styleweekly.com, February 6, 2008 (English).
  10. ↑ Harald Maass: Destructive Growth , Tagesspiegel.de , June 7, 2006, accessed on October 10, 2012.