E-M:/ redefining radical: Bulldozers and Chainsaws are Getting Away with Murder

[Doug Cornett <drcornet@up.net>]

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Enviro-Mich message from Doug Cornett <drcornet@up.net>
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>From "Target Earth" magazine at:
http://www.targetearth.org/te_temagazine_set.html


redefining radical 
Bulldozers and Chainsaws are Getting Away with Murder 
contents 
archive 

Target Earth 



 
It's not unusual, after making a public presentation on the environment 
at a church or Christian college chapel, to be asked the "radical" 
question. People want to know what I think of "those people," you know, 
the ones who give environmentalism a bad name. And it pretty much comes 
down to the same set of impressions: GreenPeace volunteers blockading a 
ship transporting nuclear weapons (or scaling a smoke stack that is 
belching poisons into the air), or Earth First! folk who are chaining 
themselves to a tree or cementing their feet into a logging road to 
prevent bulldozers from entering an old growth forest. 

What's really being asked of me is to condemn those deeds and therefore 
show myself to be a more "reasonable" environmental activist. The main 
problem I have with these questions is that they are reading the notion 
of radical from the wrong end of the issue. But more on that later. 

My first response to these questions has to do with the integrity of 
those people who are out there protesting environmental abuse. As I read 
the scripture, it makes it pretty certain that I am supposed to first 
take the log out of my own eye before detailing the splinter in someone 
else's eye (I guess that's one form of logging environmentalists need to 
support!). I like to explain my feelings toward these so called radicals 
as being admiration and respect. Bottom line is, they are out there 
risking their reputations and comforts to communicate a message that is 
central to their core values. They aren't hurting anyone doing it. Yes, 
there are always the few examples of a couple people who spike a tree in 
a way that hurts a logger, but that doesn't define these activists any 
more than a guy who shoots an abortion provider describes abortion 
protesters. We have to avoid the error of judging a movement by its most 
tragic elements. These environmental activists are doing more about 
their convictions than am I and for that they have my thanks and 
affection. It would be hypocritical of me to write them off as extreme 
radicals, when in fact, they reflect my values more perfectly than does 
my own lifestyle. 

But the real issue lay with our notion of what a "radical" act is. 
That's where I think we have got this whole thing wrong. 

"What's so radical about cementing your feet into the ground?" I like to 
ask folk. "What's so radical about being chained to a tree?" Typically, 
people look at me as though I didn't get that week's nutritional 
requirement, because it's abundantly clear to them that these are 
outlandish, silly, radical deeds. 

On the contrary. The real radical act is going into an ecosystem that 
took over a thousand years to build, into an ecosystem that supports an 
incredible array of life and a vital set of services for humans and the 
rest of creation, and then firing up the bulldozers and chainsaws and 
simply destroying the whole thousand year old project in a matter of 
hours. Boom. Gone. Destroyed. That's radical. Tying your pitiful body to 
a tree to stop the mega ton trucks is almost laughable in contrast. 

The word 'radical,' of course, comes from the Latin word 'root.' What an 
appropriate thought in the context of describing the destruction of an 
ancient ecosystem to its very root. That's what we are doing when we 
furiously cut down the last 5% of ancient forest in the United States. 
That's what we are doing when we devour our river ways with toxins that 
kill people who enter them. That's what we are doing when we cause 
severe cancers and breathing disorders in ethnic minority communities 
with the waste products of our chemical factories. That's what we are 
doing when we destroy children through marketing cigarettes to them 
under the rhetoric of "carrots are also bad for your health if consumed 
in large quantities." 

If we really think that 'radical' is climbing a smoke stack to hang a 
banner versus shooting toxins out of the smoke stack 24 hours of each 
day, we have lost our bearings on what really matters in this life. I 
want my kids to wince at the sound of a chainsaw that gets rid of God's 
miracle work. I want them to wrap a blanket around the shoulders of the 
college students who can't move because they are immobilized by the 
cement around their ankles. I want my kids to abhor the injustices of a 
government that grants permits to companies to dump toxins in poor 
neighborhoods. I want my kids to worship the person who nailed himself 
on a tree in Jerusalem to correct this whole mess driven by our sin. 
That's the right kind of radical and that's where I plan to set my feet 
in cement. 

Next time someone says your simple deeds of environmental integrity are 
too radical, cut down all the trees in their backyard and empty your 
antifreeze on their lawn. After they recover from the shock of your 
perfectly normal approach to environmental issues, tell them you'd be 
happy to take the buzzsaw to their house as well. But don't chain 
yourself to their rosebushes. That would be an offensive, despicable act 
deserving of ridicule, imprisonment and marginalization. You wouldn't 
want to appear too radical now, would you? 

Gordon Aeschliman
Editor 
[ back to contents | archive | Target Earth ] 


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