The term eco-terrorism usually refers to an act of violence in support of environmental causes, against property or people. But can this really be called terrorism?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines terrorism as “violent action or threats designed to cause fear among ordinary people, in order to achieve political aims” (the Oxford Dictionary wouldn’t let me see without signing in). But this isn’t strictly aligned with what eco-terrorism claims to be all about, so what gives?

Eco-terrorism, as I understand it, is primarily about protecting the supporting the environment when it is under threat, because the environment cannot protect itself. The only people we want to strike fear into is the people who are actively enabling the destruction of the environment. Because this rules out the general population and focuses specifically on the big wigs at the top of the economic food chain, that part of the definition can be ruled out as incorrect. The part about political aims? Yes and no. In some cases, the sole purpose of an act of eco-protest is to achieve political change, or draw attention to wrongdoing, but it can also be about stopping the destruction before it happens. Go look up Julia Hill (not a terrorist).

So can eco-terrorism really be called terrorism? I say no, the goal is to damage property, slow down processes to reduce profit and hurt the company, not the people, and drive fear into the one directly responsible for the destruction.

So why did this name come about? One suggestion is that it was used to levy the social stigma of the word ‘terrorism,’ an inherently negative and scary word, used to describe enemies of the state, to turn the masses against the activists trying to do good in the world. They attempted to Lump activists in with ISIS and Al Qaeda is a good way to automatically shift public opinion against activists, when the use of the name is inherently incorrect, even though what they are doing is more often than not in favour of the common people

Chances are, you’ve got a whole lot more in common with someone sabotaging a digger than a rich foreign investor trying to decimate old-growth forests and destroy local ecosystems for a quick buck.