- The FBI in Washington state has been investigating at least 41 incidents of eco-sabotage.
- The most serious eco-sabotage incident in recent memory resulted in 29,000 gallons of crude oil being spilled and the evacuation of 120 people.
- As Indigenous rights and the climate crisis become intertwined, activists are mobilizing direct action, such as blockading railways and other critical infrastructure.
As Changing America previously reported, Earth First is a radical eco-saboteur group that, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, vandalized logging equipment, destroyed logging roads and spiked trees in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in Montana.
“A lot of these things were meant as a form of psychological warfare … especially with tree spiking, to make loggers so afraid that they don’t want to go to work,” Beda said.
For some groups, climate activists were once considered opponents to some Indigenous communities; The Guardian cites GreenPeace opposing the Inuit seal hunt as one example. But now the intersection of environmental protection and Indigenous rights are at the forefront of many activist groups.
On Jan. 7, 2020, the Wet’suwet’en nation called for solidarity from Indigenous and non-Indigenous people after a judge granted an order against its community members. The Wet’suwet’en tribes were already raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who were authorized to use lethal force against them.
“Light your sacred fires and come to our aid as the RCMP prepares again to enact colonial violence against Wet’suwet’en people,” they said in a statement. They asked that people act peacefully.
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America: The Good and Not So Good 