While I was on book tour, I stopped by the studio of KEXP in Seattle for “Mind Over Matters.” KEXP created a video of the interview, which focused on the specific tactics that corporations and industry groups have used to create the idea of “eco-terrorism.

Thanks to Mike and the folks at KEXP for having me on the show! (Video after the jump)

Mother Jones has a new article by Jim Ridgeway about my book, and the corporate and government campaigns to label animal rights and environmental activists as eco-terrorists.

It’s a great big-picture look at the FBI’s targeting of political activists, and the chilling implications for free speech. Ridgeway also discusses secretive political prisons called Communications Management Units, and investigates some of the confidential counter-terrorism unit reports that have briefed law enforcement on my lectures and website. He concludes:

When I phoned the Bureau of Prisons media relations office to ask about this report, a spokeswoman said I would have to request the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.  “I know what you mean,” she said, “but I can’t comment on it.”

Read the full article in Mother Jones.

I was on The Alyona Show on Earth Day talking about my new book, and the corporate-led campaigns to target environmentalists as terrorists. We talked a bit about how Earth Day has been co-opted (a good example of this is the 10+ emails I received from PR agencies pitching new “green” products that weren’t green at all).

We also talked a bit about how these campaigns against animal rights and environmental activist are about more than money. They are about a war of values, and the ideological threat that posed by these growing movements.

Check it out here, and let me know what you think!

I was on Pacifica radio’s Flashpoints last night talking about Earth Day, my new book, and corporate campaigns to silence dissent by labeling activists as “eco-terrorists.” I think it was a great discussion, and an introduction to how, as everyone is “going green,” the environmental movement is increasingly under attack. Listen below (my section starts at 42:50).

This project has consumed so much of my life, for so long, that writing this “official announcement” is ridiculously hard. So I’ll leave it at this: Next month, City Lights Books will release Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege…

Special thanks to Casey, Denis, Hal, and Matthew at Open Road Films for their incredible work creating this trailer.

And thank you to everyone who has been reading and supporting this site over the years. I feel strongly that this book will contribute something to the national discussion of these issues that hasn’t been possible in blog posts or magazine articles. I hope you’ll feel the same way.

The book is available for pre-order through City Lights Books or Amazon.

Arte TV recently aired a fantastic new film that examines the persecution of environmental activists as “eco-terrorists.”

“Les Insurgés de la Terre” (loosely translated: “Eco-Warriors) is a documentary by Philippe Borrel that has aired in France and Germany.

The full film is available on the Arte website in French and German. But don’t worry, if you don’t speak either of those languages (like me) there is a webpage of extended interviews, in English, from:

• Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd
• Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International
• Jeff Luers, sentenced to 22 years in prison as a terrorist
• Cécile Lecomte, a French activist in Allemagne
• Will Potter, GreenIsTheNewRed.com
• Earth First Humboldt

I’m featured in the film talking about the government’s misplaced priorities, along with the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Here’s the clip from the film (I’m right after an FBI agent and David Martosko). And below are a couple excerpts from the interview.

In the aftermath of the Arizona shooting, FBI agents are investigating what they say may be another act of domestic terrorism: spraypaint on fishing boats.

The Boston Herald reports that slogans including “Commercial fishing first class rape” and “sea life kidnapped, murdered, maliciously” were spraypainted on fishing boats in North Plymouth, Massachusetts this week.

The FBI is investigating whether it was the work of the Earth Liberation Front, or ELF, which FBI officials have called the “number one domestic terrorism threat.”

As the FBI and local press rush to label this vandalism “terrorism,” though, there’s reason to doubt whether it was a crime by environmentalists at all. Local fisherman are upset about government regulations restricting overfishing. And two of the spraypainted slogans were signed “Greenpeace” (a national group which condemns property destruction).

It reminds me of another incident in Massachusetts, where a pet store owner burned down his shop after spraypainting ALF at the scene. It was an insurance scheme.

As I wrote recently, the FBI has already been warned by the Justice Department that its obsessive focus on environmentalists ignores more violent threats.

I think it’s safe to say that this is not the “targeting” that most of the country is concerned about right now.

As a new study warns that estimated global temperature increases in our lifetime would cause catastrophic food and water crises, and as nearly 200 nations are gathered at the climate summit in Cancun, how is the United States responding?

By labeling actor Mark Ruffalo a “terrorist” for attending a screening of the movie GasLand. (This is according to Ruffalo, and hasn’t been confirmed by the Pennsylvania DHS. But that branch of DHS, as you recall, also compared Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society to Al-Qaeda and monitored local groups opposed to gas drilling.)

Well, that’s not all, of course. The U.S. is also pointing fingers at China. And even if U.S. delegates agree to a binding plan to reduce carbon emissions at Cancun, nutty members of Congress are determined to stop any substantive reform.

I was on the Alyona Show last night talking about these inverted priorities. Here’s the the video.

What do you think? Is it possible for the United States to take a leading role on climate change?