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We’re No. 28!

U.S. environmental performance ranks below Malaysia, Chile, 25 others We beat Cyprus! Yeah, boyee! The Mediterranean island nation comes in at 29th in a landmark pilot study ranking countries by their environmental performance. The U.S. comes in at a blazing 28th — just behind most of Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Chile, and, […]

Time to Bust Out the Scare Quotes

Feds indict 11 people for alleged eco-crime conspiracy On Friday, 11 alleged “eco-terrorists” were indicted on a total of 65 counts in connection with a five-year string of arsons and vandalism. The indictments were announced at a press conference attended by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, FBI Director Robert Mueller, ATF Director Carl J. Truscott, U.S. […]

If ELF didn’t exist, the Bushies would have to invent it.

Why are the DOJ, FBI, and ATF making so much noise about "eco-terrorism"?

FBI deputy assistant John Lewis said, "The No. 1 domestic terrorism threat is the eco-terrorism, animal-rights movement."

Put aside for a moment the conspicuous running together of two different movements. By no reasonable metric would eco-terrorism and animal-rights direct action combined be judged the premiere domestic threat of our times. The number of lives taken and property damaged by organized crime swamps anything done by the ELF, even if we accept every claim made on its behalf. Drugs, prostitution, smuggling, piracy -- all kill more and damage more property. Hell, white collar crime makes the $23-million-over-10-years attributed to "eco-terrorism" look like a laughable rounding error.

In terms of lives and lucre, there are manifold forms of crime under the FBI's jurisdiction that do more damage. Other than its status as "terrorism," as determined on the sole authority of the executive branch, what marks "eco-terrorism" worthy of the enormous time and resources being devoted to it?

Especially since, as we were all recently reminded, Osama bin Laden is still very much alive, and radical Islamic terror has already done more than $23 million in damage -- in one day, you might recall.

The cynical among us might suggest that it is to the executive branch's great benefit at the moment to be seen securing high-profile victories over terrorism, however defined or identified. It is also to this administration's advantage to associate environmentalism -- a source of vocal and embarrassing bi-partisan and international criticism -- with violence and extremism. If the ELF didn't exist, the Bush administration would have to invent it.

So say the cynics. Dirty, no-good cynics!

Who will be the next UN Secretary General?

The search for the new UN Secretary-General is starting to find its way into the press and public commentary. Although the SG focuses day-to-day on issues deemed remote from environmental concerns, the person at the top can really make a difference in how the UN tackles environment, population, health, and poverty questions.

Former Norwegian Prime Minister and WHO head Gro Harlem Brundtland, for example, is a commonly mentioned candidate. Brundtland chaired the mid-80s panel that produced Our Common Future, the influential volume that helped set the agenda for the 1992 Rio Summit and provides the most commonly used definition of sustainable development.

Asian countries believe it is their turn, but splits between China and Japan, among others, may keep a single Asian candidate from emerging.

You can read all the gossip on who is up and who is down at "Who will be the next Secretary General?"

It’s pretty low-end

I would hope it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: I do not condone the acts of the ALF or, to the extent it's extant, the ELF. Arson is a crime and should be prosecuted. Flooding, vandalism -- not cool. Graffiti, well, it's a menace.

To deem one's cause more worthy than a living, breathing human being is the ultimate in jackassery. As yet, ELF has not gone there.

But destroying people's stuff is also jackassery. A distinctly lower-order form of jackassery, but jackassery nonetheless. Only a jackass indulges in jackassery.

And let's face it. Somebody's going to get hurt. The more the feds inadvertently (?) publicize ELF, the more ELF will attract attention and self-proclaimed membership. Eventually it will attract a crank who will injure or kill someone. My sympathy for that crank is nil and I'm all for throwing the book at him.

My concern is not whether "eco-terrorism" should be morally or legally condoned -- it obviously shouldn't. My concern is whether it is particularly significant, in terms of threats to the health and welfare of Americans. It seems to me the Bush administration is using it quite crassly, for political purposes, in a manner all out of proportion to the real danger it poses.

Eco-terrorist commits suicide

This raised my eyebrow:

[U.S. Attorney Karin] Immergut said a pledge by the defendants to never reveal each other's identities to law-enforcement officials made the investigation more difficult. But investigators persuaded some alleged participants to act as informants, providing details of the crimes.

...

[40-year-old Arizona bookstore owner William C.] Rodgers, who also was identified by federal prosecutors as the mastermind of the 1998 arson at Vail, Colo., but was not charged in connection with that crime, committed suicide last month in an Arizona jail.

From the indictment, Rodgers appeared to be a key figure in the cell, allegedly involved in many of the most high-profile crimes.

There are differences

It doesn't seem to me that the ELF and the ALF should always be spoken of in the same breath. The Animal Liberation Front is decades old and well-established in over 20 countries.

The Earth Liberation Front didn't really appear on the radar until 1998, when a Vail ski resort was torched. There are questions about the communique in which ELF claimed responsibility. There are questions about the authenticity of ELF website. There are questions about whether the ELF exists as an organization in any ontologically robust sense.

In general, the animal-rights movement has a much longer and more storied history of violent direct action than the environmental movement. Lumping them together as one amorphous threat is driven as much by the political needs of the powers-that-be as by events on the ground.

Two new eco-movies on the way from Participant Productions

Speaking of Participant Productions, I just discovered they have two more environmentally themed films in development:

1) Luna

Luna is based on the true story of Julia Butterfly Hill, a drifter turned environmentalist who galvanized the movement in the early 90's to save the redwood trees in Northern California from deforestation.

Julia Hill was a young woman without direction or purpose whose travels brought her to Northern California and the quiet majesty of the ancient Redwood trees. At that time, junk bond king Charles Hurwitz was leading a campaign to clear cut the redwoods via his newly acquired company Pacific Lumber to ensure maximum profits. Eager to protect the trees she had come to love, Julia agreed to work with a small environmental agency called Earth First to stage a tree "sit" which involves living up in the trees for days at a time to prevent the trees from being cut down.

Days became months and months turned into years, as Julia refused to come down from her tree until she knew the Redwoods would be protected. She braved fierce weather, injury and attacks from lumber men to save her tree, Luna, and the old growth trees around her. Julia's struggle drew massive media attention and she became an eloquent spokesperson for the Redwoods and the environmental movement.

2) Electric Dreams

Based on the book by Caroline Kettlewell, Electric Dreams tells the story of a rag tag group of rural students beating all odds to win a competition to create an electric car. Led by an idealistic new teacher and a garrulous shop instructor, the kids work together to convert a 1985 Ford Escort into an electric vehicle they call "Shocker." To the surprise of the community, Shocker takes the winning prize, beating out the better-funded and well-bred schools nearby. The students come away having learned about engineering, alternative energy, and about themselves.

For a complete list of movies coming soon, in theaters, on DVD, and in development, visit the Participant Productions website. Good stuff.

Shade-grown coffee not quite taking off

I made up that part about Starbucks. Coffee gets credit for just about everything. Depending on the day, you will find that it either causes or prevents cancer, depression, heart attack, and ostensibly, sex. However, the article did get me wondering how the shade-grown coffee campaign was going.

Apparently, sustainable coffee accounts for less than half of one percent of all coffee sold, and can be split into three categories: Organic, fair trade, and shade grown. Shade-grown coffee presently accounts for about 0.1 percent of all coffee sold. (99.9% is not sold as shade grown).

ClimateCrisis.net

All films by Participant Productions are accompanied by a "campaign" and campaign website. So too with An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary that "weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change."

As Dave mentioned, An Inconvenient Truth is debuting at Sundance this month, where I expect viewers to be directed to ClimateCrisis.net. Here we find the ubiquitous carbon-footprint calculator, ways you can make a difference, information about the campaign and movie, and a list of scientific advisors that includes Rosina Bierbaum, Eric Chivian, Henry Kelly, James McCarthy, Mario Molina, Michael Oppenheimer, Ellen Thompson, and Lonnie Thompson.