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Environmental Movement Extremism

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Environmental Movement Extremism

The environmental movement, also described as the ecology movement, is a diverse

social, philosophical, and political arrangement with the primary function of tackling issues that

affect the environment. Among the advocacies of the movement are sustainable and just resource

management and environmental stewardship through modifications of individual behaviors and

public policies. Since the movement reorganizes human beings as the ecosystem's primary

participants, ecological activists are always centered on health, human rights, and ecology. The

movement also varies from nation to nation because of the differences in countries' rules and

regulations. Given the significant number of members and variety of beliefs, the movement is not

always united in attaining its goals. While responding to environmental harm, the actions of

some activists cause more devastating impacts than the damage that the ecological threat could

have caused, hence causing an issue of environmental extremism. The phenomenon of

environmental extremism is gaining momentum and raises significant concerns among the

population, but it is critical to understand the scale of the issue, its nature, and possible

implication to create own perception of such a controversial issue.

Acts of environmental extremists are commonly described as eco-terrorism, which is

violence committed to supporting environmental causes against property or people. Eco-

terrorism is the use of violence against individuals guilty of harming the environment.

Environmental movements should be working to promote the environment's safety, protecting it

from factors such as pollution, which in turn makes the living surroundings safe and

accommodating. However, environmental extremists have committed damage in terms of both

property and environmental destruction. Environmental extremists' actions usually concern how

humans use natural resources and gain the ultimate benefits from their surroundings. Among the
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devastating actions of environmental extremists is the incident that occurred in 1999, when the

agriculture building at the Michigan State University was set on fire, resulting in about 1 million

US Dollars in damages (Rottweiler, Gill, & Bouhana, 2022). The Earth Liberation Front was

responsible for the action, arguing that the university's project threatened the natural world. This

case of unmotivated violence with good motives is only one of the many cases of environmental

extremism that have occurred over the years.

Recent incidents of environmental movement extremism involved Fossil Fuel Protestors

throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh's "Sunflower" in a London gallery. After the act, the two

activists glued themselves on the wall under the painting. According to the statement from the

gallery, the painting was not damaged, with only minor damages on the frame. The protestors

were later charged with criminal damage offenses after tempering with a painting worth 84.2

million US Dollars (Edwards & Mendonca, 2022). Another Fossil Fuel Protestor was charged on

the grounds of attacking the iconic "New Scotland Yard" sign outside London's police

headquarters. The three environmental extremists were linked to Just Stop Oil, a representation

of a coalition among groups working to stop the United Kingdom government from licensing the

exploration and production of fossil fuels. As a result of the protests, 28 arrests were made

(Edwards & Mendonca, 2022). Although the protests were directed towards stopping an

environmental damage issue, the protestors targeted famous works of art to get attention and

divert it to the adverse role of fossil fuels in climate change. In July 2022, Stop Oil members

glued themselves to Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Super" copy at the Royal Academy of Art as

a continuation of the protest. In the same month, more activists from the group glued themselves

to a National Gallery held masterpiece while Italian climate activists glued themselves to

Botticelli's "Primavera" in Florence (Edwards & Mendonca, 2022). Extinction Rebellion's

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climate activists were also arrested for gluing themselves to Picasso's "Massacre in Korea" in

Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria (Edwards & Mendonca, 2022). However, the above

actions of environmental activists are just a small manifestation of the length to which extremists

can go to protect the environment.

Environmental extremism is usually caused by solid beliefs, emotions, and the desire to

respond to a feeling of resentment towards the people who do not support the desired position

when it comes to elements in the environment. As described above, although the intentions of

their actions are always directed towards environmental protection, the environmental extremists'

actions to meet their goals could be harmful and can have devastating impacts. After committing

crimes, the groups claim credit for their actions or leave a trail to be caught to acquire the

public's attention. The acquired attention is then used to spread and communicate their extreme

environmental ideologies, which demand that the targeted individuals engage in activities that do

not negatively alter nature.

Environmental extremism is a complicated crime to prevent, tackle, and sometimes

prosecute the responsible parties. Despite the existence of regulations to counter the behavior and

limit its occurrence in society, environmental extremism always finds a way to emerge as a result

of emotions and solid beliefs that people have towards their surroundings. From my perspective

eco-terrorism can only be contained by making people understand that there are many different

ways of handling problems which do not involve violence. Leaders of the environmental

movements can therefore be instructed to educate the activists on the approaches to apply while

advocating for environmental protection to avoid actions that result in property destruction and

life loss.
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The nature of the phenomenon is rather decent, which is important to understand while

handling such cases, but the performance of such activists could cause adverse consequences

incommensurable with the target issue they are fighting. The people who take part in

environmental extremism break the law by preventing, terminating, and minimizing business

operations, the functionality of institutions, and the usual living styles of the species in the target

environment, in addition to spreading their ideologies. Like other deviant behaviors,

environmental extremism seeks approval from organizations and people with similar interests,

ambitions, and ideologies toward protecting the environment from destruction. It is better to

address the issue by educating environmental activists and motivating them to select more

acceptable performances which do not involve violence, property destruction, or loss of life.
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References

Edwards, C., & Mendonca, D. (2022, October 14). Fossil fuel protesters charged after tomato

soup thrown on Van Gogh's 'sunflowers' in London Gallery. CNN. Retrieved October 22,

2022, from https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/oil-protest-van-gogh-sunflower-soup-intl-

scli-gbr/index.html

Rottweiler, B., Gill, P., & Bouhana, N. (2022). Individual and environmental explanations for

violent extremist intentions: a German nationally representative survey study. Justice

Quarterly. Retrieved from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07418825.2020.1869807?

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