Earth First!
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was founded on April 4, 1980, by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar.
Today there are Earth First! groups in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States,
Inspired by several environmental writings, including Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Aldo Leopold's land ethic, and Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, a small group of environmental activists composed of Dave Foreman, ex-Yippie Mike Roselle, Wyoming Wilderness Society representatives Bart Koehler and Howie Wolke, and Bureau of Land Management employee Ron Kezar, united to form Earth First!. While traveling in Foreman's VW bus from the El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in northern Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico, the group pledged, "No compromise in defense of Mother Earth!".
The co-founders of the group were called to action during the second "Roadless Area Review and Evaluation" (RARE II) by the U.S. Forest Service, which they considered a sell-out by mainstream environmental advocates. The activists envisioned a revolutionary movement, with the goal to set aside multi-million-acre ecological preserves all across the United States. Their ideas drew upon the concepts of conservation biology, which had been developing for over twenty years by notable scientists like E. O. Wilson; however, mainstream environmental groups were slow to embrace the new science. These events and ideologies coalesced after a grueling hike, as the men were headed toward Albuquerque. After "Foreman called out 'Earth First!', Roselle drew a clenched fist logo, passed it up to the front of the van, and there was Earth First!"
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See also
- Conservation ethic
- Extinction Rebellion
- Green anarchism
- Green syndicalism
- Hayduke
- List of environmental organizations
Further reading
Books about the early Earth First!
- Davis, John, ed. The Earth First! Reader: Ten Years of Radical Environmentalism (1991) (Template:ISBN)
- Foreman, David. Confessions of an Eco-Warrior (1991) (Template:ISBN)
- Foreman, David. Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching (1985) (Template:ISBN)
- Manes, Christopher. Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization (1990) (Template:ISBN)
- Scarce, Rik. Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement (2006) (Template:ISBN)
- Wall, Derek. Earth First! and the Anti-Roads Movement: Radical Environmentalism and Comparative Social Movements (1999) (Template:ISBN)
- Zakin, Susan. Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and the Environmental Movement (1993) (Template:ISBN)
- Lee, Martha. Earth First!: Environmental Apocalypse (1995) (Template:ISBN)
Books about the post-1990 Earth First!
- EF! Publications. Do or Die - Voices from the Ecological Resistance (Template:ISBN) (ISSN 1462-5989)
- Bari, Judi. Timber Wars (1994) (Template:ISBN)
- Scarce, Rik. Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement (2006) (Template:ISBN)
- Wall, Derek Earth First and the Anti-Roads Movement (1999) (Template:ISBN)
- Chadwick, Paul "Concrete: Think Like A Mountain"
- King, Elli (Editor) LISTEN: The Story of the People at Taku Wakan Tipi and the Reroute of Highway 55 or The Minnehaha Free State(2006)
Books critical of Earth First!
- Arnold, Ron. Ecoterror: The Violent Agenda to Save Nature (1997) (Template:ISBN)
- Bradford, George. How Deep is Deep Ecology? (1989) (Template:ISBN)
- Clausen, Barry. Walking on the Edge: How I Infiltrated Earth First! (1994) (Template:ISBN)
- Coleman, Kate. The Secret Wars of Judi Bari (2005) (Template:ISBN)
