Environmental Radicalism: The Extremes and the Earth

In the forest, a protestor U-locks her neck to a bulldozer set to plow a road through an immaculate Redwood grove. On the seas a small, agile boat chases after a much larger whaling vessel to interrupt its hunt. In the courtroom, a scrappy legal team demands an injunction to protect the habitat of an elusive, endangered panther. The extent to which these images seem familiar is a testament to the effectiveness of the radical environmental movement's entry into the mainstream of American consciousness. In the 1960s and 1970s, large national organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Natural Resources Defense Council surged in membership and helped pass landmark legislation such as the Wilderness Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.