Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Ecotage

Sabotage with an ecological motive; terrorism carried out against companies and institutions which are considered to be causing unnecessary damage to the environment.

1971 Newsweek
"A Washington-based antipollution lobby called Environmental Action is sponsoring a national contest to develop and publicize new ways of harassing alleged corporate polluters. The contest... is entitled ‘ecotage’."

1985 Maclean's
"Said Richard Bailey, an Oregon trucker, former logger and member of Earth First: ‘Ecotage is almost like a religion.’"

1987 New Internationalist
"Earth First is crammed with stories of civil disobedience or ‘ecotage’."

Hence ecoteur n. [after saboteur n.], a person who carries out acts of ecotage.

1972 Observer
"Environmental Action this week published a paper-back collection of the most creative and feasible..entries. A foreword says that if Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were alive today they would be ‘ecoteurs’ by night."

1990 Seattle Times
The Sea Shepherds are a small band of ecoteurs dedicated to saving whales.

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