Comments on: “Eco-terrorist” SUVs and Saddam Hussein

By: Will Potter

Will Potter — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:48:17 +0000

Tracy: I was at an event once and gave someone my card, and they said, “Oh, is that like PinkIsTheNewBlog.com?” Ha ha. Maybe I should turn this into a gossip/fashion blog! All the latest news about what “eco-terrorist” celebrities are wearing this season (probably black, black and more black).

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:36:22 +0000

That image is so true.
Regarding the name of your blog, when I first heard about it, I thought you were trying to say that being “green” was in fashion. And I was like, “Why didn’t he say ‘green is the new black’?” (as in black is always in fashion — little black dress, for example). And then, of course, I read your blog and realized why you call it “green is the new red.”

By: Will Potter

Will Potter — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:35:46 +0000

Hi Ansel. Thanks, I just corrected the typo. Also, there’s a lot of dispute about the origins of the term. Ron Arnold of the Center for Defense of Free Enterprise wrote a response to the Indypendent article you reference, claiming that he coined the term long before the reporter. Will

By: Ansel

Ansel — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:40:14 +0000

Funny quote from Krauthammer. (He’s a columnist at the Washington Post, not the Times.)

I was about to ask if you knew who first coined the term “eco-terrorist,” but found this after some searching:

The word “eco-terrorist” first appeared in a March 1990 article in The Oregonian about a “tree-spiking” tactic used by the environmental group Earth First!. Three months later, Rep. Denny Smith (R-Or.) deployed the term in a stage-managed White House meeting to lobby against stricter environmental legislation in the Pacific Northwest.

So some reporter, not the government or a corporation, came up with the word without thinking too much about it. Media framing in action.