Green Glossary: Earth First!

You gotta love an eco-group that offers this welcome on their website: "Are you tired of namby-pamby environmental groups? Are you tired of overpaid corporate environmentalists who suck up to bureaucrats and industry? Have you become disempowered by the reductionist approach of environmental professionals and scientists?"

Earth First! was named in 1979 "in response to a lethargic, compromising, and increasingly corporate environmental community. Earth First! takes a decidedly different tack towards environmental issues. We believe in using all the tools in the tool box, ranging from grassroots organizing and involvement in the legal process to civil disobedience and monkeywrenching."

As reported by Wiki, Earth First! Was "inspired by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Aldo Leopold's land ethic, and Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, a group of activists pledged `No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth!' Environmental activist Dave Foreman, ex-Yippie (Youth International Party) Mike Roselle, Wyoming Wilderness Society representatives Bart Koehler and Howie Wolke and former Park Ranger Ron Kezar were traveling in Foreman's VW bus from the Pincate Desert in northern Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico."