Earth First!

A collection of people, green-anarchist radicals, as many would call them, sit cross-legged in the grass, listening to various musical acts and speakers, while absorbing the old growth redwood trees they are surrounded by. They are voicing their pleas of protection for the very earth their toes were sinking into, the very nature they found themselves surrounded by, the very nature they were watching be destroyed. Collectively, the words of the immoral, dedicated fighter Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. echoed around them: “If a human being doesn’t have something they’re willing to die for, they don’t deserve to live”1
The early 1980s in America saw a stark transition of political power – the end term of humanitarian Jimmy Carter, transitioning to eight years of Ronald Reagan. 2 As the global population hit 4.5 billion and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere passed 335 ppm, Reagan responded with cuts left and right to the budget and staff of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).2 Yet in a bumpy, swaying Volkswagen van traveling across the American Southwest desert, three frustrated conservationists discussed their inner drive for change in the environmental movement- a new direction soon to be known as Earth First!.3
In early April of 1980, Dave Foreman, Howie Wolke, and Mike Roselle were out in the desert, searching for peace of mind and answers to their problems with the big green groups they had been affiliated with.3 Common feelings of frustration, defeat, and anger were among them; groups like the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society who promised wilderness protection were just simply “debating societies,”1 as Foreman put it, and weren’t living up to their proposals. Foreman had worked as a conservation lobbyist in D...

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...al of these protests is the media and public attention that is gained. Earth First!ers don’t believe their actions will directly change discourse and policy, but more importantly will hopefully stir up a shift in public thinking and opinion on these environmental issues. Radical activists act on radical issues, and because of their efforts, those issues are publicized, where otherwise they may have been “swept under the rug.”7
While forcing the loggers out of business, the drilling wells to be closed, and the pipelines to be terminated is the overall goal – these radical groups would not be successful that was the direct result of their actions.7 The more important aspect is that the public knows why these companies and infrastructures should be shut down and stopped. Their overall goals are recruitment to the movement, and a change in the American public ideology.