Environmental groupsCritical question 2
Has the institutionalisation of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth turned
them into ‘protest businesses’?
◗ The resurgence of grassroots environmentalism?
By the 1990s the growth of the environmental movement prompted
widespread concern that its new-found success might also be its undoing,
foramovement that could not mobilise its supporters against government
or corporations would rapidly see a decline in influence. The institutionali-
sation of the movement had denuded its radical spirit, and environmental
protests were apparently in decline.^8 Ironically, it was the grassroots environ-
mental movement that came to the rescue. There has always been a grass-
roots sector alongside the major environmental organisations, but during
thelate 1980s and 1990s it was revitalised in several countries, notably in
the UK andUSA, very often as a direct response to the perceived failings
of the institutionalised mainstream environmental movement. The term
‘grassroots’ conceals many differences, but three broad categories can be
identified: first, radical social movements such as the Sea Shepherd Society,
Robin Wood (Germany) and Earth First!; secondly, small local groups cam-
paigning against a specific locally unwanted land use (LULU); and, thirdly,
broad coalitions of groups, such as the US environmental justice movement
and the UK anti-roads protesters, which may contain groups from both the
other categories. This section assesses the significance of the grassroots sec-
tor by examining each of these three categories.
The first category of groups holds an explicitly ecological, counter-cultural
orientation and makes up the most radical strand of the grassroots move-
ment. Although many of these groups have developed a national, or even
international, structure, they are grassroots in their commitment to partic-
ipatory, decentralised structures and in their fierce rejection of all forms of
institutionalisation. Many were set up by activists disillusioned with main-
stream environmental groups. Robin Wood was formed by a breakaway
group of Greenpeace Germany activists who wanted a more participatory
organisation with an explicitly German agenda focusing on acid rain and
forest decline (Bl ̈uhdorn 1995 :197–200). Ex-Greenpeace activist Paul Watson
founded the Sea Shepherd Society, which is notable for dramatic acts such
as sinking two Icelandic whaling vessels in 1986 (Chatterjee and Finger 1994 :
72). The most radical group is Earth First!, founded in the USA in 1980 by
five activists critical of the bureaucratic structures and moderate stance of
major conservation groups such as the Wilderness Society and the Sierra
Club (Gottlieb 1993 ; Rucht 1995 ).
The founders of Earth First! were deep ecologists committed to
confrontational direct action, including acts of civil disobedience and