Tonight, I went to see a documentary on deforestation in the United States by Marshall Curry. The story was about this one man living in New York who was arrested for being an environmental terrorist. You are probably wondering: What the heck is an environmental terrorist? Is it a tree hugging Osama Bin laden? The short answer is “NO”.

To explain what an environmental terrorists are, it is first important to understand that these so called “terrorists” are just normal educated American men and women who were just trying to protect trees from being cut down.  In the beginning (or before environmental terrorism existed), a group of environmentalists were protesting against large logging companies that were cutting down large sections (90%) of forests in the state of Oregon. Note that these were peaceful protests aimed to stop the rapid deforestation. However, these peace protesters were eventually arrested and brutally tortured by the law enforcement officers. They thus realized that these peaceful protests were not working because they repeatedly lost the battle to the large logging companies. Since these environmentalists were overpowered by the large corporations, more protesters resorted to physically harming these logging companies. They started burning down buildings and destroying property that was owned by these companies. During these more violent acts, the protesters always made sure that they were not putting anyone’s life at risk (even the CEO of the lumber company!). These “burning demonstrations” spread rapidly throughout the United States to areas that were trying to stop deforestation. This one guy that I first mentioned was a man who previously participated these burning protests. He was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. Other people like him were caught and were also sentenced to lifetime imprisonment and would be labeled as terrorists for the rest of their lives.

Does this seem fair to call these environmentalists “terrorists” I don’t think so.  Just because a person does something against corporate America does not mean they are terrorists. To me, these were just concerned citizens who were trying to save the last 10% of the forests before the mountains were totally bare. Though I do think these protesters might have gone a bit too far by burning down the factories, I also do believe in equal representation. Because the governments were in cahoots with businesses involved in the logging industry, they tended ignore  the concerned citizens. Because the protesters were not gaining any political attention, they had to resort to a bolder way of protest; destroying. Because they did not injure anyone during these protests, I think these “environmental terrorists” should have instead been called “environmental protectors”.

With all the environmental problems we face today, I think that it is important to note that these problems will not just go away.  We have to deal with the consequences and try to prevent any further destruction before it gets worse. It is unrealistic to think that we will find another habitable planet any time soon that will “act as a spare when the earth wears out”.  We need to think more “down to earth”.  It can even be as simple as being thoughtful about the items you consume in your daily life. So go forth and be an environmentally conscious person, or as some would call it an “environmental terrorist”!