The Monkey Wrench Guerrillas
Is ELF ready to wage a more violent war for the environment?
Some members appear to be listening. “We will no longer hesitate to pick up the gun to implement justice,” stated a communiqué issued after the firebombing of a U.S. Forest Service research station last September.
The statement has stirred a growing debate among longtime ELFers like Coronado, who remains committed to the group’s nonviolent plank. Yet he readily admits that in a headless, virtually anarchic organization, he has no control over how or where those in the trenches will strike next. While, in the past, he and his contemporaries tended to choose targets like fur farms and timber mills in the forests, the new generation of activists appears to favor the icons of urban environmental destruction, such as SUVs and McMansions. “These are the tactics of a younger generation of kids who’ve grown up in the middle of urban sprawl,” says Coronado. “They’re angry and they have none of the patience that us older environmentalists have.”
If that’s the case, then maybe it’s time to trade in the Hummer.
A former Wall Street Journal staff reporter, Alex Markels is a Ted Scripps Fellow at the University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism.
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