I believe Eco-Terrorist Kitteh was behind this.

Happy Friday.

(Payoff is at 1:09)

Thanks to Mongo for the video.

McDonald’s has rolled out a new logo in France, replacing the iconic red background of the golden arches with green. Here’s some info from ZLOK design blog, and here is where I saw the story originally (although I can barely stumble through the French!), at TerraEco.net.

There has been so much fluff news lately about “easy ways to go green.” You know what’s an even easier way to go green? Changing a logo. And adding some hippies into your advertisements! If anyone has friends in France, I would love to hear more about how this transparent green-washing has been received there.

News like this is a little bit outside the normal content of the website, but I think it’s striking how environmental activists are the “number one domestic terrorist threat” at a time when nasty, multinational corporations are simultaneously climbing all over each other to appear “green.”

Avatar earned $1 billion in two weeks, already making it the fourth-biggest-grossing movie to date. James Cameron said early on it would cost, and make, ridiculous amounts of money. He also said it has been a dream of his for more than a decade. According to industry groups and right wing pundits, though, the film really has a more sinister motive: recruiting “eco-terrorists.”

Avatar has a similar archetypal narrative to countless other sci-fi films. The Na’vi are an indigenous race on a far-off planet, Pandora. Humans want to mine Pandora. The Na’vi fight back. Give ‘em some fur, and it sounds a little Return of the Jedi-ish.

But the usual corporate cheerleaders have been warning audiences that Avatar is actually pushing a radical environmentalist message, because the Na’vi are, um, defending their utopian planet against complete annihilation.

Richard Swier’s column at Red County is a good example. He compares the Na’vi to the Earth Liberation Front, the FBI’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” He warns:

This movie justifies the use of force against companies dedicated to finding, mining and processing natural resources… AVATAR is the celebration of and a recruiting tool for ELF, ALF, Greenpeace and the Sierra Clubs around the world.

It would be kind of hilarious if I still had a sense of humor for all of this stuff. Unfortunately, this has happened many times before. One of my favorite examples is when a children’s movie, Hoot, was labeled “soft core eco-terrorism for kids.” The same thing happened with Charlotte’s Web.

It’s easy to dismiss these kinds of columns, but the underlying values that prompt them should not be ignored. A Hollywood sci-fi mega-blockbuster like Avatar can be viewed by some people as “eco-terrorism” because the core values held by the protagonists parallel the core values held by an increasing number of real people.

Over at Mother Nature Network, Avatar was described as “transforming the shrill cries of a tired activist movement into pure, gravity-defying magic.” Mainstream activists and publications can revel in the film, cheering on natives killing invaders, because it all safely takes place in a movie theatre. None of this has happened in real life; the ALF and ELF have never harmed a human being. If they did, these same green groups would undoubtedly be condemning them.

That’s really the take away-message of all of this. The radical environmental movement is a threat not because of its tactics, but because of its beliefs.

Swier makes that very clear:

This is the final goal of eco-terrorists. Deny humans access to the natural resources on earth in order to save the planet. You see environmentalists truly believe that humans are an infestation upon the earth.

What did you think about the message of the film?

Ed Abbey’s classic The Monkey Wrench Gang is being made into a big-budget Hollywood movie starring–wait for it– Matthew McConaughey and John Goodman. And the director of “Twilight” is set to direct. I feel ill.

The Monkey Wrench Gang is Abbey’s classic tale of George Hayduke, an ex-Green Beret, leading a band of outlaws in a campaign of sabotage to defend the environment. Plenty of folks say the novel influenced the formation of Earth First! and later the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. If you haven’t read it, please do.

What’s most bizarre to me about all this is how, in the hands of someone like Matthew “Just Keep Livin’” McConaughey and the “Twilight” teenage-vampire crew, a story about property destruction is great fodder for a mass-appeal Hollywood film.

But in the hands of activists, the same narrative, in the form of a children’s book, is “eco-terrorism.” For instance, the government said Daniel McGowan was “promoting the criminal activity of others” by linking to the website of The Secret World of Terijian, a children’s story of a pint-sized Monkey Wrench Gang. (The government even included the full text of the children’s book in it’s response to McGowan’s motion for summary judgment.)

Monkeywrenching can be sexy and fun when it’s “just a story” produced by Hollywood. When the same narratives are connected to political struggles, it’s “terrorism.”

Continuing the theme of the last few weeks, here’s another one for the Blatant Hypocrisy file. Photos surfaced that show Jessica Alba “defacing Oklahoma City property with posters of a great white shark.” The posters were about the declining numbers of the species, and were glued to a downtown bridge and at least one billboard.

Property destruction in the name of the environment. Sounds like what corporations call “eco-terrorism,” right? American Idol star Carrie Underwood was called a terrorist for much less. But no, for Jessica Alba (pictured here in her Earth Liberation Front starter kit, minus the black mask of course) it’s just “vandalism.” And she doesn’t even get a slap on the wrist.

Geez, I’m getting more and more confused by all of this. I think I’m going to come up with some kind of flow chart to determine who gets labeled a terrorist. For instance: “Are you totally hot and famous?–If so, congratulations, you’re not a terrorist!”

UPDATE: To be absolutely clear, I am NOT saying that she should be labeled an “eco-terrorist,” or that anyone should. My reason for making this post is that, to me, this example shows how opportunist the “eco-terrorist” rhetoric is. When it’s useful and convenient, the term is applied (to increase prison sentences, to smear activists, to chill dissent). When it could backfire (labeling a prominent figure that way, and exposing to a wider audience how absurd all of this is) there’s nothing but silence.

There’s now a GreenIsTheNewRed Flickr account, as well as a Green Scare Flickr group! I’m hoping ya’ll will enjoy them, for a few reasons:

• You can easily post these photos to your blogs and websites through Flickr.
• You can submit your own images to the group: benefit fliers, photos of Green Scare defendants, protest photos, scare-mongering ads, and of course photos of you at work in your “domestic terrorist” aprons. Post them to the group, and we’ll run some here on GreenIsTheNewRed.
• You might find some articles you haven’t seen. The photo descriptions are full of links to content that, by the nature of the blog, gets burried as time goes on.

To start things off, here’s an image I just uploaded. It’s from Burnout, the graphic novel by Rebecca Donner and Inaki Miranda (which I noted here a while back). It’s a love story about two teenagers who become “eco-terrorists.” I was skeptical, to say the least, of anything that uses the buzzword of “eco-terrorism,” even if it’s just as an idea for a plot. I think the more folks use the word to describe everything from comic books to Law & Order episodes, the more people accept that non-violent activists really are “terrorists.” So I was pleasantly surprised that the book is not only beautiful, but it felt critical of the “terrorist” rhetoric, and cleverly gives some historical background of radical activism that puts the mainstream media to shame.

What do you think? (About the Flickr accounts, and also about Burnout?)

Oh good grief, I knew I spoke too soon when I posted about the new “comedy” based loosely on non-violent activists being labeled “terrorists.”

Looks like the “eco-terrorism” buzz has also been milked for a romance novel. Ugh.

The blurb for Leave No Trace by Lynn Romaine:

For undercover DNR agent Nick Seek, what begins as an investigation of ecoterrorism in the Ozarks turns deadly when she becomes a suspect and a target for murder.

Her uncle dead, her aunt missing, a regretted night of passion, and Nick flees, running from the law, a murderer, and her inner fears, searching for answers.

Hawt.

I’m starting to think I’ve chosen the wrong career. Anyone have other ideas of how to cash in on this government repression and the “Green Scare”?

“Eco-terrorists” have already been fodder for Law & Order episodes, Internet TV shows, and “soft-core eco-terrorism” children’s movies. They’ve unleashed armies of the undead and let loose a virus that kills 5 billion people. Those have been fairly minor roles, however. Now it looks like the “Green Scare” is ready for the big screen, big time. No, I’m not talking about my much-hoped-for sequel to Red Dawn. Even better. Err, worse.

“Scent of Adam” is being dubbed an “eco-terrorism thriller described as similar to the Bourne series.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the novel is “about a woman who unwittingly finds herself at the heart of the eco-terrorism movement and conspiracy after freeing lab animals at a research facility in Poland.”

Wait, let’s go back a paragraph. The Bourne series. THE BOURNE SERIES. Several things must be said about this.

First, I never trusted that Matt Damon (even though this almost redeemed him).

Second, how can this be like the Bourne series when “eco-terrorists,” at the very worst, have sabotaged property and vandalized SUVs? According to the FBI, not only have there not been roundhouse kicks and sniper fire, there hasn’t been physical violence, period. However, some former Earth Liberation Front activists have participated in a mean pie-ing.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal has reported on ripped, ass-kicking vegans, but it must be said that, for the most, picturing most “eco-terrorists” I’ve met as action movie stars is absolutely hilarious.

Josh Harper, one of the SHAC 7 defendants, would I’m sure be quite flattered, as he has an affinity for (bad) action movies, and the FBI once commented on his Van Damme movie collection when raiding his home. And Jeff Luers, well, judging by his most recent photo he could actually play the part. But these, I think, are exceptions to the rule.

Nevertheless, my interest has been piqued. Now, if only we can combine all of these things– namely zombies, Matt Damon, and tofu– we’d have a real blockbuster.

Along those lines, the new Bond movie has a slightly different take on “eco-terrorism.”