Future Primitive: The Politics of Militant Ecology

This study examines the philosophical and political principles informing radical environmental activism in the United States. The major groups that comprise this movement – Earth First!, the Earth and Animal Liberation Fronts, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society – are united by a particularly militant breed of ecocentrism: a commitment to defend the integrity of wild nature by any means necessary, including illegal and potentially violent tactics. This study is the first to depict militant ecology as an intellectual as well as political movement, one with its own theorists and philosophical antecedents, which expresses a coherent and compelling alternative to the philosophical and political outlook of modernity.

The first part focuses on the scientific, metaphysical, religious, and anthropological principles informing militant ecology activism. Comparisons with other schools of contemporary green political thought show that, despite its unsystematic nature, militant ecology offers the most consistent articulation of an ecocentric political theory. However, the movement is not monolithic in its interpretation of these principles. For some activists, ecocentrism entails a commitment to uphold the natural order and defend wilderness against human greed and hubris, while others understand it as a call to end oppression and fight for justice for all life on Earth – humans included. For the purposes of this study, these two camps are described, respectively, as ecowarriors and total liberationists.

The second half examines the “future primitive” political program of militant ecology. In the end, it is apparent that despite many valid critiques of the contemporary political system, certain aspects of the militant ecology program are incompatible with the movement’s commitment to effective action in defense of wild nature. Particular attention is devoted to the differences among total liberationists and ecowarriors and determining which camp is more consistent in its commitment to the principles of militant ecocentrism. Though ecowarriors have been most frequently criticized for their indifference to social justice, this study concludes that it is in fact the total liberationist wing, with its more anthropocentric focus and higher likelihood of co-optation by the political left, that poses a greater threat to the radical core of militant ecology.