Environmental Ethics Course Schedule

Activist Links

To link back to the Reading Questions

These organizations support, encourage, or report on activism ranging from definitely non-violent, to violent against inanimate human 'stuff', to violent against people. Some respect the law, some don't. Where is YOUR line on this continuum? (Obviously you don't have to tell us, but we hope you think about it!)

The Sky Island Alliance is a local environmental organization that works to maintain "preservation and restoration of native biological diversity in the sky islands of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico." It is a volunteer organization and often has openings for volunteers. Its website is at www.skyislandalliance.org.

The Sea Shepherd started as a more radical offshoot from Greenpeace. Check out Watson's write-up of the "cultural" killing of a female Pacific Gray whale off the coast of Washington State.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Peta's home page

Earth First! has a description of itself, the goals, philosophy, and suggestions for being an activist at http://www.enviroweb.org/ef/primer/

From that page you can also access their "action" page which describes semi-current projects (or else they don't update their 'last updated' part of the page)
For the official Earth First! stance on Monkey-wrenching, see the Monkey wrench page.

Being an activist has its dangers. One Earth First!er, David Chain, died September 17, 1998. Was it accident, manslaughter or murder? A description of his death is given at http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/9901/farmer.html. There are further links at the bottom of that page to more information.

The Animal Liberation Front has several different pages. At one site, they report some of activities done by ALFers. Three people in Britain were sentenced to prison terms for reporting ALF activity. Is reporting such activity an "inciting" of others to perform illegal acts or is it within the bounds of reasonable, and therefore sanctioned, freedom of speech?

Linking from the ALF page is a "McSpotlight" site that includes information about the recent arson of the McDonalds at Campbell and Ft. Lowell. See http://www.mcspotlight.org/

The Justice Department, the most radical arm of the ALF, used to have a web page giving their rationale and purpose, but it apparently no longer exists. Too bad in a way, they were explicit.

ALF activities are written up at deseretnews.com (though often this link doesn't work). One action was the creation of a tube bomb, disguised in Christmas paper destined for the teenage daughter of an Oxford professor.

Another ALF/Justice Department act was the kidnapping and branding of a filmmaker. This was discussed on the National Animal Interest Association pages; I have not been able to substantiate their report (but then I haven't tried very hard either.)
Also at that site are reports of razor-blade booby trapped envelopes, sometimes the razor blades have been dipped in rat poison.
The home page for the National Animal Interest Association homepage, is at http://www.naiaonline.org/body/about_naia.htm. In their opening page, they write, "Naia caters to a wide variety of people ranging from dog breeders, biomedical researcher, farmers, fishermen, hunters, pet owners, etc. All of these people share a belief in providing for the welfare of animals and the environment." So, they are activists, too. They also maintain a site describing some recent demonstrations and attacks. See http://www.naiaonline.org/body/articles/archives/arterror.htm.

Another site describing activism is found at Fur Commission web site.

For information reporting on some of the Earth Liberation Front's activities, check this article from ABCNEWS.com: Earth Liberation Front

There is also information about ELF at the Fur Commission site found at Fur Commission USA

The Humane Society web site: HSUS

What has happened, possibly as a consequence of activism. If you think activism was in part responsible, what type of activism do you think was the most effective in getting the following changes to occur?

http://www.fbresearch.org/press-skin.html reports that legislation has now changed so that chemicals, before release in products, that before HAD to be tested on rabbits can now be tested by a different mechanism.

The Draize test (applying chemicals to rabbits' eyes to see if irritation occurred) is also not REQUIRED so much, if at all, anymore. I have tried to find out how many rabbits were used in the Draize tests in the past and now, but haven't come up with the numbers. Please let me know if you have any information on that.

Also, partly as a consequence of Lyman's work, there is now a National Organic Standards Act. More information on that is available at the National Organic Program, which is part of the USDA concerned with the National Organic Standards Act: http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/

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