Earth First! is a radical
environmentalist organization that emerged in the
USA, in the great southwestern desert during the spring of 1980. Inspired by
Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring,
Aldo Leopold's land ethic, and
Edward Abbey's
The Monkey Wrench Gang, a group of activists fed up with mainstream environmental organizations pledged "No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth!". Environmental activist
Dave Foreman, ex-
Yippie (Youth International Party) Mike Roselle, Wyoming Wilderness Society representatives Bart Koehler and Howie Wolke and former Park Ranger Ron Kezar were traveling in Foreman's VW bus from the Pincate Desert in northern Mexico to Albuquerque. Provoked by what they considered a sell-out by mainstream enviros during the RARE II (the Forest Service's Roadless Area and Review Evaluation) meetings, the activists envisaged a revolutionary movement to set aside multi-million acre ecological preserves all across the United States. "Suddenly Foreman called out 'Earth First!' The next thing you know, Wolke says, "Roselle drew a clenched fist logo, passed it up to the front of the van, and there was Earth First!"
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