Political Media Review

Derrick Jensen is particularly skilled in finding new ways to say the same old thing: this guy has been hammering away at industrial civilization in print for years now, and he always finds a new approach, a different tack, for each of his books.

Derrick Jensen just won’t quit, that’s for sure. The word “prolific” doesn’t really do Jensen’s output justice; this guy is like an anarcho-primitivist version of Stephen King. And much like Stephen King, he’s constantly finding new ways to evoke a feeling of terror in his readers.

Underwater cameras capture the peaceful sway of sea plants beneath the surface in Taiji, Japan. As the scene progresses, the plants become obscured by creeping wafts of dolphin blood. Rapidly, the entire screen turns crimson, the ocean water thick with the grisly evidence of slaughtered dolphins. The Cove, a 2009 Oceanic Preservation Society film, follows a team of activists

In 2001, Hollywood actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson and a group of friends set out on a tour of the West Coast to raise awareness about sustainable living. Traveling in a bio-fueled bus and on bicycles, Harrelson and his entourage headed down the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at university campuses to promote natural, organic living.

Greenpeace. Earth First!. Rainforest Action Network. These organizations are synonymous with the struggle to defend the environment through non-violent direct action.

…we are animals, and aren’t able to decide not to have feelings. Just like the earth, we are going to quake if sufficiently shaken. We don’t get to choose whether or not traumatic events will damage our psychic infrastructure.

As globalization penetrates the hearts and souls of many lives and as transnational capitalist interests work beyond the sovereignty of many states to weaken both socioeconomic and environmental regulations, accelerating people’s impoverishment along with ecological catastrophe as a result, the world needs revised thinking and action.