[.ca] Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching (ISBN 0963775103)

Ummm, look at Ohio....:
Despite the bad review given by the reader from TireFactory, USA, this is a great book - whose main point is that it's never too late to fight the Ohioification of the rest of the United States.

It's the planet, stupid!:
You know what's really refreshing about this book? It actually dares to take seriously the "I-don't-give-a-damn-I've-got-mine" attitude that's destroying the planet. Too many of us are content to talk, talk, talk about the ecocide we see going on around us daily. We lament global warming, the loss of species, the deforestation of the earth, the pollution of land and water and air, and frequently become so overwhelmed by it all that we throw up our hands and adopt an "apres moi, le deluge" cynicism. And in the meantime, by the way, we continue to drive our SUVs, blithely drink our plastic-bottled water, and keep realtors in business (did you know that 46 acres of prime farm land is developed every hour in this country?!) as if there's no tomorrow--which of course there won't be if all we do is talk and waste! The folks who put "Ecodefense" together are tired of talk and collaboration. They advocate a NONVIOLENT defense of imperiled nature, and they're willing to belly up to the bar and pay the price of their convictions. State and federal prisons house a goodly number of people who've had the courage to monkey-wrench in defense of Mother Earth. Instead of condeming them, as an earlier reviewer of "Ecodefense" does, we should see them as prophets and political prisoners. The conviction, passion, and courage in this book should, if nothing else, make the rest of us ashamed of our inaction. If the tactics of monkey-wrenching aren't for you, fine. But at least let this book nudge you to get off your duff long enough to work "within the system" to bring about changes in public complacency and corporation-driven public policy. Please, though: don't carp about monkey-wrenchers if you're sitting on your hands and doing nothing. And double please: wake up to the unpleasant but indisputable fact that if you're not part of the solution, you're most definitely part of the problem.

How to fight the REAL criminals:
This is a well-organized book that gives a lot of useful info on how to fix the greed-crazy corporate S.O.B's, especially developers and loggers, that are systematically and uncaringly destroying this country for profit. Is this stuff criminal? Well, the laws passed by the corporately paid-for Legislatures may say so, but any real human being knows better. Ludd and Abbey weren't always right, but far milder souls than these may be become too outraged and....at least now they know how to do it right. Don't like it, corporate America? Then shape up your ethics that you learned at Enron.

A good read and thought provoking ideas!:
Gail Norton will allow the BIG CORPORATE DEVELOPERS free reign . Perhaps this book should be read by those who think enough is enough.

A "must have" in your ruck sack while hiking:
If a stranger batters your door down with an axe, threatens your family and yourself with deadly weapons, and proceeds to loot your home of whatever he wants, he is committing what is universally recognized-by law and morality ­as a crime. In such a situation the householder has both the right and the obli­gation to defend himself, his family, and his property by whatever means are necessary. This right and this obligation is universally recognized, justified and even praised by all civilized human communities. Self-defense against at­tack is one of the basic laws not only of human society but of life itself, not only of human life but of all life. The American wilderness, what little remains, is now undergoing exactly such an assault. Dave Foreman has summarized the character and scale of the assault in the first chapter of this excellent and essential book. With bull­dozer, earth mover, chainsaw and dynamite the international timber, mining and beef industries are invading our public lands-property of all Americans ­bashing their way into our forests, mountains and rangelands and looting them for everything they can get away with. This for the sake of short-term profits in the corporate sector and multi-million dollar annual salaries for the three-piece ­suited gangsters (M.B.A., Harvard, Yale, University of Tokyo, et alia) who control and manage these bandit enterprises. Cheered on, naturally, by Time, Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal, actively encouraged by those jellyfish Government agencies which are supposed to protect the public lands, and as always aided and abetted in every way possible by the quisling politicians of our Western states (such as Babbitt, DeConcini, Goldwater, Hatch, Garn, Symms, Hansen, Wallop, Domenici-to name but a few) who would sell the graves of their own mothers if there's a quick buck in the deal, over or under the table, what do they care. Representative democracy in the United States has broken down. Our legis­lators do not represent those who elected them but rather the minority who fi­nance their political campaigns and who control the organs of communica­tion-the Tee Vee, the newspapers, the billboards, the radio-that have made politics a game for the rich only. Representative government in the USA rep­resents money not people and therefore has forfeited our allegiance and moral support. We owe it nothing but the taxation it extorts from us under threats of seizure of property, or prison, or in some cases already, when resisted, a sud­den and violent death by gunfire. Such is the nature and structure of the industrial megamachine (in Lewis Mumford's term) which is now attacking the American wilderness. That wilder­ness is our ancestral home, the primordial homeland of all living creatures in­cluding the human, and the present final dwelling place of such noble beings as the grizzly bear, the mountain lion, the eagle and the condor, the moose and the elk and the pronghorn antelope, the redwood tree, the yellowpine, the bristlecone pine, even the aspen, and yes, why not say it?, the streams, wa­terfalls, rivers, the very bedrock itself of our hills, canyons, deserts, moun­tains. For many of us, perhaps for most of us, the wilderness is as much our home, or a lot more so, than the wretched little stucco boxes, plywood apartments, and wallboard condominiums in which we are mostly confined by the insatiable demands of an overcrowded and ever-expanding industrial culture. And if the wilderness is our true home, and if it is threatened with invasion, pillage and destruction-as it certainly is-then we have the right to defend that home, as we would our private rooms, by whatever means are necessary. (An English­man's home is his castle; an American's home is his favorite fishing stream, 'his favorite mountain range, his favorite desert canyon, his favorite swamp or patch of woods or God-created lake.) The majority of the American people have demonstrated on every possible occasion that they support the ideal of wilderness preservation; even our politicians are forced by popular opinion to pretend to support the idea; as they have learned, a vote against wilderness is a vote against their own re-election. We are justified in defending our homes-our private home and public home ­not only by common law and common morality but also by common belief. We are the majority; they-the greedy and powerful-are the minority. How best defend our wilderness home? Well, that is a matter of strategy, tactics and technique, which is what this little book is about. Dave Foreman explains the principles of ecological defense in the complete, compact and conclusive pages of his short introduction. I can think of nothing I could add nor of anything I would subtract; he says exactly what needs to be said, no more and no less. I am happy to endorse the publication of Ecodefense. Never was such a book so needed, by so many, for such good reason, as here and now. Tomor­row might well be too late. This is a book that will fit handily in any saddlebag, in any creel, in any backpack, in any river runner's ammo can-and in any pic­nicker's picnic basket. No good American should ever go into the woods again without this book and, for example, a hammer and a few pounds of 60-penny nails. Spike a few trees now and then whenever you enter an area condemned to chainsaw massacre by Louisiana Pacific and its affiliated subsidiary the U.S. Forest Service. You won't hurt the trees; they'll be grateful for the pro­tection; and you may save the forest. My Aunt Emma back in West Virginia has been enjoying this pleasant exercise for years. She swears by it. It's good for the trees, it's good for the woods, it's good for the earth, and it's good for the human soul. Spread the word-and carry on!