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JUSTIFYING ECO-TERRORISM

Commentary by Harold Hough Oct/Now 2008

A recent court case in Great Britain should worry the mining industry. An English jury decided that the threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than $50,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station. The six defendants, who were members of Greenpeace had used the "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

If this type of legal thinking comes to American shores, the mining industry and coal powered electrical industry could be in big trouble. According to the Department of Homeland Security, eco-terrorists are already a major threat. According to one of their reports, the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front are major threats that have attacked America hundreds of times and could even support Al Quada in attacks in the United States. During the last few years, these eco-terrorists have hit across the country. These attacks have moved from isolated businesses in the country to the heartland of American life - the bedroom community. They have attacked luxury homes and SUVs, the symbols of what they see as the destruction of the Earth. Today, ELF is the Homeland Security’s number one domestic terrorism priority. The organization has done more than $100 million in damage.

Of course, we are all pro-environment. Everyone wants clean air, water and land, and no one wants to turn Yellowstone National Park into a gravel pit. Unfortunately, that is where Americans and the eco-radicals part. They have taken environmentalism to a higher, weirder, and more dangerous level. And, the legal defense that they are just protecting the earth from a greater damage will only make them more aggressive.

Now that energy prices have made Americans more willing to drill and Governor Palin, who supports drilling in ANWR, has joined the Republican ticket, environmentalists are becoming more concerned that the democratic process and the will of the people will push their eco-policies to one side. That may mean that we will see more eco-terrorism, not less.

The heart of this eco-terrorism is the Gaia Hypothesis developed by James Lovelock. The idea is that the Earth is a living creature with a consciousness of its own. When we meditate, we can become part of this overall Gaia consciousness. When we mine, we can destroy this all-important Gaia consciousness.

Just as with Islam, eco-terrorism is breeding terrorists from an early age. In Saudi Arabia, students are sent to radical Islamic schools that teach hatred for anything that isn’t Islamic. In America, students are sent to schools, with politically correct teachers and textbooks, that provide a stream of poorly educated, unscientific students who have been taught to hate profit, science, construction, technology, mining, democratic process, or anything else that interferes with the goddess Earth.

The next step in terrorism is to create a feeling of worthlessness so people feel forced to act. In the book, Lost Gospel of the Earth, Tom Hayden says, “The mainstream scientific view is that the universe is, after all is said and done and all the reports have been made, meaningless...and so your life is meaningless.”

Unfortunately, for some, meaning is given to their lives by hate, sabotage, and terrorism. ELF members are usually recruited by activists who bring them under their spell with this eco-religion. The goal is to impregnate them with a deep hatred of the whole world that does not see the Earth as they do.

One such case is that of Jacob Sherman, a former college student, who was recruited and brainwashed by Michael Scarpitti, known as the Tree Arrow, a forest activist and FBI most wanted eco-terrorist. Arrow groomed Sherman and inducted him into radical environmentalism, including a strict vegan diet. He then sent Sherman out to firebomb logging trucks, which led to his arrest. Arrow escaped (ever notice how terrorist leaders are never in the forefront of the battle, but in the rear where it’s safe?)

Committed environmentalists have reached a point that they see the Earth as a goddess. And, it appears that some juries are beginning to buy the argument. We can no longer rely upon the common sense of English Common Law to protect mining, energy generation, and property rights.