Deep Ecology, Part 12: Putting Earth First 101 – On Saving The Planet

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Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, Part 12: Putting Earth First 101 – On Saving The Planet with Dave Foreman, Guboo Ted Thomas, Julia “Butterfly” Hill, Timothy Hermach, Kelpie Wilson, Cecilia Lanman, Reed Noss and Dick Roy

“The attitude that the natural world is merely a collection of resources for the use of industrial human beings is a very radical, extreme, violent attitude.” Dave Foreman, co-founder of the Earth First! environmental activist group, disagrees with critics who claim its tactics are too extreme: “Wanting to protect other species and remaining wild habitat is conservative, is reasonable, is proper, is respectful.” This exciting program contains stories directly from the front lines of the battle to preserve old-growth redwoods and other endangered species, along with well-thought-out reasons for passionate involvement in this struggle. We also hear from the late Australian aboriginal elder Guboo Ted Thomas, tree-sitter Julia “Butterfly” Hill, ecologist Tim Hermach, activists Kelpie Wilson and Cecilia Lanman, conservation biologist Reed Noss, and voluntary simplicity advocate Dick Roy. (hosted by Michael Toms)

Topics Explored in This Dialogue

• A first-person account of activism in the woods
• A live report from atop an ancient redwood tree during a hailstorm
• Turning anger to understanding in environmental action
• Monkey-wrenching—an American tradition since the Boston Tea Party
• The many reasons for preserving forests as nature designed them
• American clear-cuts from the air—“a hideous sight” worse than Vietnam
• The far-reaching consequences of development, logging and strip-mining
• Why “shallow environmental” defenses aren’t enough to save nature
• The disastrous effects of treating the world as a resource for human use
• Why thinking globally may not be helpful
• Wolf-friendly beef production, and restoring wolves in the Arizona wilds
• A sample of an aboriginal song asking the nature spirits to return