Another friend recommendation... my friend Val lent me Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado's War to Save American Wilderness by Dean Kuipers. This book is an account of one man's efforts to stop fur farming and the destruction of our natural ecosystem, going to extreme measures to do so. The author uses the phrase “radical environmentalism” often to describe Coronado's acts of theft, vandalism, and arson, a term I was unfamiliar with but find a bit fascinating. It's an interesting story about how he came to begin his acts of protest, the escalation of them, and his eventual arrest. After the story the author offers commentary, or rather raises questions, about this form of activism. He brings up questions of freedom of speech and the definition of violence. I was also lent a book of critical essays on this same subject that I've begun but will likely not finish for quite a while. These questions do interest me, though I admit I had never thought much about them. That introduction to ideas that are unfamiliar is part of the thrill I find in reading anything. It changes the way you see the world and this book helped me look at the issue of radical environmentalism from several different angles. Again it'll be weeks or months before I finish that other book, but eventually I will. Stay tuned.
(the author)
(Rod Coronado)
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