Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization

They lie down in front of bulldozers, drive spikes into trees marked for logging, practice ``ecotage'' (damaging equipment)--all in the name of preserving wilderness. Mannes, a law student at UC Berkeley and a member of the ecology group Earth First!, here offers a spirited defense of radical environmentalism. He charges that mainstream environmental groups see our relationship with nature only in utilitarian terms, that they have become too conservative. Earth First! is committed to the belief that the natural world should be preserved for its own sake , not for any real or imagined benefit to humanity. Mannes looks at the Green movement in Europe and other single-issue radical organizations such as Sea Shepherd and Animal Rights; discusses ``deep ecology'' and ecotage, noting that radicals aim to harrass more than obstruct; and makes a plausible case for biocentrism instead of anthropocentrism. Readers interested in preserving our environment will find the book very much worth their time. (June)