In his new book No Option But Sabotage, published this month by Oxford University Press, SPA Professor Thomas Zeitzoff traces the rise and fall of the radical environmental movement—and whether the threat from climate change will lead to its reemergence.

"No compromise in defense of mother earth!" That was the slogan of Earth First!, the radical environmental group that emerged in the early 1980s. Earth First! believed activists couldn’t work within the system to protect wilderness, and embraced sabotage—or "monkeywrenching" as they called it—as a legitimate tactic. The group defined a generation of radical activists, and set the stage for even more radical offshoot groups, like the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), to emerge later in the 1990s.

Groups like the ELF used clandestine tactics including property damage, arson, and sabotage, to stop what they viewed as environmental harms. But what happened to these groups, which after 9/11 were labeled top domestic terror threats? Will these tactics reappear, or have the threat of increasing state repression neutered the movement forever?

"A student asked, ‘Professor, given worries about climate change, why haven't we seen more radical environmental terrorism, such as that of Ted Kaczynski?’" he shared.

That question sent Zeitzoff digging into groups known for direct action and sabotage, including Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front.

State of the Movement
"I found out that after 9/11, the number one domestic terror threat was radical animal and environmental activists, or ecoterrorism, as it was called," he said. The revelation surprised him: "How was a movement that never killed anyone considered the number one domestic terror threat?"

He conducted more than 150 interviews across the U.S., with former and current activists, leftists, experts, and law enforcement and built a database of more than 1,300 incidents, ranging from tree sits and vandalism to arson and tree spiking. His interviews revealed a movement that grew through the 90s before fracturing and dropping off in the early 2000s, when the FBI’s Operation Backfire decimated many core groups. Activists refer to the period as “Green Scare," marked by heavy-handed surveillance and informant tactics.

The persecution left its mark. Zeitzoff found that interviewees took great pains with security, demanding ID, rejecting Google calendar invites, using PO boxes, and preferring encrypted messages.

Further, these interviews revealed generational and ideological divides within radical environmental circles.

"Different generations of activists have different views on nature," he explained, describing a split between biocentric defenders of wilderness and later activists who embraced what he called "social ecology” an intersectional, antiracist, anti-capitalist approach that links environmental concerns to broader social justice struggles. "Some older activists argued that you can't be an everything movement and still be the environmental movement," he said. "Others say, ‘We can't have an environmental movement if we don't have a democracy."

Darker Associations
The splits also were emblematic of the darker history of the environmental movement. Zeitzoff was struck by the movement’s racist and anti-immigrant past, with many citing arguments from scientific racism, like those of Madison Grant—the famous conservationist, eugenicist, and immigration opponent—in the early 20^th century. Population anxieties and nativist thinking surfaced in factions of the movement, producing internal conflicts over goals, rhetoric, and ethical guidelines.

"Most in the Earth Liberation Front, Animal Liberation Front, and even in Earth First!, wanted to inflict maximum damage on those who they thought were destroying the environment," he said. "But they weren't willing to harm humans or animals."

The specter of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, still hangs over the movement. While some activists found aspects of Kaczynski's critique of industrialization and environmental destruction resonant, they rejected his violence. "’He’s this like creepy uncle, right? He's still in your family,’" Zeitzoff paraphrased one interviewee. "’But I don't know if we want him at our family gathering.’"

The book also highlights an unexpected cultural root of radical activism: the punk scene. "Throughout the country, but especially in the Pacific Northwest, there was this energy from the anarchist, and straight-edge, hardcore punk scene." For some, punk went beyond aesthetics, funneling participants into more organized direct action, particularly on issues of animal rights and the environment.

Recent scholarship and debate, such as the ideas in Andreas Malm’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline, have intensified the conversation. "[Malm’s] question is similar to mine: given the threat from fossil fuels, why haven't we seen, as he called it, more environmental terrorism directed at the fossil fuel infrastructure?" Zeitzoff said. The answers from activists ranged from sympathy with Malm’s approach, to concerns about provoking further repression.

An Uncertain Future
On the international front, Zeitzoff noted growing state responses to disruptive environmental tactics, such as coal mine protections in Europe. At the same time, he suggested it remains unclear whether movements will shift toward more violent forms of sabotage in response to accelerating climate harm.

"During the current political moment, when there's a lot of debate about what constitutes terrorism or political violence, some worry that movements that are not necessarily violent have gotten labeled as terrorism," he said. That labeling, he emphasized, shapes activists' strategic debates and their willingness to take risks.

As for his own stance, Zeitzoff framed his book as inquiry rather than prescription. "The title is rhetorical," he said. He added that many interviewees asked for research on best practices in nonviolent tactics, suggesting a movement still searching for effective strategies in a rapidly changing political and environmental landscape.

"They don't know the answers,” Zeitzoff said. “Movements stumble. They experiment."

No Option But Sabotage is available for purchase from Oxford University Press.