View source for Ecotage

{{Short description|Sabotage for environmental reasons}}
{{for|the crime of damaging ecosystems|Ecocide}}
'''Ecotage''' ({{ipac-en|'|i|k|@|,|t|a:|zh}} {{respell|EE|kə|TAHZH}}) is [[sabotage]] carried out for [[environmentalism|environmental reasons]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ecotage|title=Dictionary.com &#124; Meanings & Definitions of English Words|website=Dictionary.com|accessdate=March 6, 2024}}</ref>

==Cases==
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2020}}
[[Image:StopUrbanSprawl.jpg|right|thumb|''"Stop [[Urban Sprawl]]"'' was spray-painted on this multimillion-dollar house to protest the development. [[Mansion]]s in the [[United States]] are a frequent target by the [[Earth Liberation Front|ELF]].]]

{{See also|Timeline of Earth Liberation Front actions}}
All damage figures below are in [[United States dollar]]s. Some well-known acts of ecotage have included:<!-- Incomplete list of the more well known cases here -->

*February 22, 1974 — Concerned about the planned [[Montague Nuclear Power Plant]] slated for construction in Montague, MA, activist Sam Lovejoy used a crowbar to topple a 550-foot weather monitoring tower at the future site.  Lovejoy then turned himself in to police.  The action sparked local resistance against the nuclear plant which led to its cancellation.
*Circa 1969 to 1985 – ecological activist [[James F. Phillips]], operating covertly under the codename "The Fox", carried out a series of ecotage actions and [[subvertising]] campaigns against corporations that were polluting the [[Fox River (Illinois River tributary)|Fox River]] in [[Illinois]].
*1998 &ndash; Arson of buildings at [[Vail]] Mountain in the [[United States]] by the [[Earth Liberation Front|ELF]] (Earth Liberation Front).
*March 11, 1999 &ndash; [[Genetic engineering|Genetically engineered]] potatoes uprooted at Crop and Food research centre in [[New Zealand]].<ref>[http://www.gene.ch/info4action/1999/Mar/msg00061.html Wild Greens Attack GE Potatoes], ''Genetic Engineering Network'', March 11th 1999.</ref>
*December 25, 1999 &ndash; In [[Monmouth, Oregon]], fire destroyed the main office of the Boise Cascade logging company costing over $1&nbsp;million (${{inflation|US|1|1999|r=1}} million in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}} dollars). [[Earth Liberation Front|ELF]] claimed responsibility.
*2001 &ndash; Members of the ELF were prosecuted for setting off a firebomb that caused $7 million in damages (${{inflation|US|7|1999|r=0}} million in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}} dollars) at the [[University of Washington]]'s Center for Urban Horticulture.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bernton |first=Hal |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/earth-liberation-front-members-plead-guilty-in-2001-firebombing/ |title=Local News &#124; Earth Liberation Front members plead guilty in 2001 firebombing &#124; Seattle Times Newspaper |publisher=Seattletimes.nwsource.com |date= October 5, 2006|accessdate=2010-09-01}}</ref>
*August 1, 2003 &ndash; A 206-unit condominium being built in [[San Diego, California]] was burned down causing damage in excess of $20&nbsp;million (${{inflation|US|20|1999|r=0}} million in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}} dollars). A 12-foot banner at the scene read "If you build it, we will burn it," signed, "The E.L.F.s are mad."
*August 22, 2003 &ndash; Arsonists associated with the [[Earth Liberation Front|ELF]] attacked several car dealerships in east suburban [[Los Angeles]], burning down a warehouse and vandalizing over 100 vehicles, most of them [[SUV]]s or [[Hummer]]s (chosen for their [[gas-guzzler|notoriously poor fuel efficiency]]) and causing over $1 million in damage (${{inflation|US|1|2003|r=1}} million in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}} dollars).
*2016 - Activists from Climate Direct Action in the USA turned the emergency valves of 4 pipelines carrying oil to Canada causing the stop of up to 2.8 million barrels of oil a day. In the action the activists had to cause some property damage in order to access both the facilities and unlock the valves; they  warned the present workers about what was going to happen.<ref name=":0" />
*From 2016 to 2017 - Activists [[Jessica Reznicek]] and Ruby Montoya, were responsible for around [[Dakota Access Pipeline protests|6 million dollars damages]] to the [[Dakota Access Pipeline]] (DAPL) construction sites and to the pipeline itself. Jessica Reznicek, was sentenced to 96 months imprisonment on June 30, 2021; Ruby Katherine Montoya was sentenced to 6 years.<ref name=":0" /> <ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-23 |title=Southern District of Iowa {{!}} Arizona Woman Sentenced to Six Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Damage the Dakota Access Pipeline {{!}} United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdia/pr/arizona-woman-sentenced-six-years-prison-conspiracy-damage-dakota-access-pipeline |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=www.justice.gov |language=en}}</ref>
*August 7, 2023 – Tyre extinguishers drilling holes in 60 SUVs in a Vertu Jaguar showroom in Exeter, Devon, UK for both social and environmental reasons.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gayle |first=Damien |date=2023-08-07 |title=Activists drill holes in tyres of more than 60 SUVs at Exeter car dealership |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/07/activists-drill-holes-in-tyres-of-more-than-60-suvs-at-exeter-car-dealership?CMP=share_btn_url |access-date=2025-05-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
*January 20, 2024 – Shut the System activists cut fiber optic cables to many insurance companies in the UK demanding them to immediately end all underwriting for fossil fuel expansion projects.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gayle |first=Damien |title=As Europe criminalizes environmental protest, some activists turn to sabotage |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/climate-activists-europe-england-environmental-protest-laws-criminalization-pipeline-fossil-fuel-industry-vandalism-sabotag/ |access-date=2025-05-22 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}</ref>

==In literature and popular culture==
In their 1972 environmental-action book ''[[Ecotage!]]'', Sam Love and David Obst claimed to have coined the word "ecotage" by combining "ecology" and "sabotage" to describe a "branch of tactical biology".

In fiction, the practice of ecotage was popularized in [[Edward Abbey]]'s 1975 anarchistic novel ''[[The Monkey Wrench Gang]]'' and its sequel ''[[Hayduke Lives!]] (''1990). It has also been treated in other novels including [[Carl Hiaasen|Carl Hiaasen's]] ''[[Tourist Season]]'' (1986) and ''[[Sick Puppy]]'' (2000), [[Neal Stephenson|Neal Stephenson's]] ''[[Zodiac (novel)|Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller]]'' (1988), [[T. C. Boyle|T. Coraghessan Boyle's]] ''[[A Friend of the Earth]]'' (2000), [[David Foreman|Dave Foreman's]] ''The Lobo Outback Funeral Home'' (2000), and [[Richard Melo|Richard Melo's]] ''[[Jokerman 8]]'' (2004). Radical depictions of environmental protection also inform major Native American novels including [[N. Scott Momaday|N. Scott Momaday's]] ''[[House Made of Dawn]]'' (1968), [[James Welch (writer)|James Welch's]] ''[[Winter in the Blood]]'' (1974), and [[Leslie Marmon Silko|Leslie Marmon Silko's]] ''[[Ceremony (Silko novel)|Ceremony]]'' (1977).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Aitchison|first=David|date=2013-07-25|title=Revolution as technē: place, space, and ecotage in the American radical novel|url=http://journals.openedition.org/trans/851|journal=TRANS-. Revue de littérature générale et comparée|volume=16 |language=fr|issue=16|doi=10.4000/trans.851|issn=1778-3887}}</ref>

Several books written specifically for children and young adults have also explored radical responses to environmental endangerment including Carl Hiaasen's [[Hoot (novel)|''Hoot!'']] (2002), ''[[Flush (novel)|Flush]]'' (2005), and ''[[Scat (novel)|Scat]]'' (2009), Claire Dean's ''Girlwood'' (2008), S. Terrell French's ''Operation Redwood'' (2011), and Silas House and Neela Vaswani's ''Same Sun Here'' (2012).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Aitchison|first=David|date=2015-05-15|title=Little Saboteurs, Puerile Politics: The Child, the Childlike, and the Principled Life in Carl Hiaasen's Ecotage Novels for Young Adults|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/581693|journal=Children's Literature Association Quarterly|language=en|volume=40|issue=2|pages=141–160|doi=10.1353/chq.2015.0018|s2cid=142407527 |issn=1553-1201|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Ecotage is mentioned in the [[Mars trilogy]] of science fiction novels by [[Kim Stanley Robinson]] as a means of protest shown by the Red political party. Typically, the "Reds" would destroy terraforming ventures in an effort to slow the [[terraforming of Mars]].

The [[Concrete (comics)|Concrete]] miniseries ''Think Like a Mountain'' is centred about ecotage aimed to protect first growth forests in the [[Pacific Northwest]].

Ecotage also informs movies such as ''[[Choke Canyon]]'' (1986) and ''[[On Deadly Ground]]'' (1994).

== Academic literature ==
In an article released on 23 May 2024 by Springer Nature, Dylan Manson tries to develop a [[Just war theory|just war]] inspired theory that could justify defensive activism and hence eco-tage: "The conscientious defensive activist can only engage in permissible eco-sabotage when she acts with just cause as constrained by necessity, with proportionality, with a reasonable chance of success, and without putting life at excessive risk." 

The author makes then a distinction between anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric eco-tage and questions whether the real cases he brings meet or not the aforementioned moral criteria.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Manson |first=Dylan |date=2024-09-01 |title=Eco-sabotage as Defensive Activism |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10677-024-10449-w |journal=Ethical Theory and Moral Practice |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=505–522 |doi=10.1007/s10677-024-10449-w |issn=1572-8447|doi-access=free }}</ref>

In The Morality of Ecosabotage (2001), Thomas Young argues that some arguments against Ecosabotage cannot prove it always wrong and that there’s some ground for a utilitarian justification of ecotage.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Thomas |date=2001 |title=The Morality of Ecosabotage |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3197/096327101129340886 |journal=Environmental Values |language=en |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=385–393 |doi=10.3197/096327101129340886 |issn=0963-2719|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Eco-terrorism]]
*[[Environmental movement]]
*[[Green Scare]]
*[[Operation Backfire (FBI)]]
*[[Radical environmentalism]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading==
* Arridge, Alexander S. "Should We Blow Up a Pipeline?: Ecotage as Other-Defense." ''Environmental Ethics'' (2023).
* Bondaroff, Teale Phelps. "Throwing a Wrench Into Things: The Strategy of Radical Environmentalism." ''Journal of Military and Strategic Studies'' 10.4 (2008), emphasis on Canada. [https://jmss.org/article/download/57662/43332 online]

* Diehm, Christian. "Ecotage, ecodefense, and deep ecology." ''The Trumpeter'' 27.2 (2011): 61-80 [https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/download/1160/1581 online], a Canadian perspective.

* Plows, Alexandra, Derek Wall, and Brian Doherty. "Covert repertoires: Ecotage in the UK." ''Social Movement Studies'' 3.2 (2004): 199-219. [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28874624.pdf online]

* Ross, Derek G.  "Monkeywrenching plain language: Ecodefense, ethics, and the technical communication of ecotage." ''IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication'' 58.2 (2015): 154-175 [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7108061 online].
* Sumner, David Thomas, and Lisa M. Weidman. "Eco-terrorism or Eco-tage: An argument for the proper frame." ''Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment'' 20.4 (2013): 855-876. [https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=englfac_pubs online]
* Vanderheiden, Steve. "Eco-terrorism or justified resistance? Radical environmentalism and the 'war on terror'." ''Politics & society'' 33.3 (2005): 425-447. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steve-Vanderheiden/publication/249674439_Ecoterrorism_or_Justified_Resistance_Radical_Environmentalism_and_the_War_on_Terror/links/0c960527aa8ee65bb6000000/Ecoterrorism-or-Justified-Resistance-Radical-Environmentalism-and-the-War-on-Terror.pdf online]

* Wagner, Travis. "Reframing ecotage as ecoterrorism: News and the discourse of fear." ''Environmental Communication'' 2.1 (2008): 25-39.

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline}}
*{{Commonscatinline}}
*[http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=3994 Ecodefense: A Field Guide To Monkeywrenching] - Online text

[[Category:Eco-terrorism]]
[[Category:Radical environmentalism]]
[[Category:Protest tactics]]
[[Category:1970s neologisms]]
[[Category:Sabotage]]