Ecoterrorism

Since the late 1980s, ecoterrorism, a blanket term referring to various forms of violence and sabotage committed in the name of the environment, has accounted for about one-third of the “single issue” domestic terrorist threats in the United States; antiabortion and animal rights terror groups are other examples. The growing radical environmental movement has become a pressing concern of the FBI, which estimates that more than 600 ecoterrorist acts (doing damage of nearly $45 million) were committed between 1996 and the end of 2001.

Radical environmentalism went public in the United States in 1969, when a small group of environmental activists—the Don't Make a Wave Committee—boarded a rented boat they called Greenpeace and attempted to halt nuclear testing on the Aleutian Islands. Although this mission failed, the movement grew. Five years later, Greenpeace was known worldwide for its Save the Whales campaign, in which members ...