Podcast Summary:

New Books Network — Interview with Thomas Zeitzoff, Author of "No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis"
Date: February 19, 2026
Host: Caleb Zakrin
Guest: Thomas Zeitzoff, Professor, American University

Overview

This episode features a timely conversation between host Caleb Zakrin and political scientist Thomas Zeitzoff about his new book, No Option But Sabotage. The book provides an in-depth exploration of radical environmental movements, chronicling the evolution of direct action, sabotage, and property destruction, as well as contentious debates, motivations, and the movement's intersections with animal rights, punk subculture, and contemporary climate activism. Zakrin and Zeitzoff discuss the fraught history, internal conflicts, present landscape, and future uncertainties of radical environmentalism amid a growing climate crisis, state repression, and shifting political landscapes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of Radical Environmentalism

• Genesis & Motivations:

  • Zeitzoff’s interest began with a student query about eco-violence—a reference to Ted Kaczynski ("Unabomber")—prompting his multi-year investigation.

    “I had a student who asked me, you know, professor, given all the threats from climate change, why don't we see more actions like Ted Kaczynski?” ([02:56] Zeitzoff)

• Early Conservationist Roots:

  • Many early conservationists, such as Madison Grant, were also proponents of racist, nativist ideas.

    “A lot of the, you know, origins of the environmental movement and the modern conservation movement are pretty racist and pretty horrible.” ([05:36] Zeitzoff)

  • The uneasy mix of left-wing and right-leaning environmental thought persisted through the 1980s.

• Earth First! as Forerunner:

  • Formed in 1980 by disaffected conservationists blending countercultural pranks and “monkeywrenching” sabotage, inspired by Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang.

2. Intellectual Traditions & Internal Tensions

• Influential Texts & Figures:
  • 1960s works: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”, Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb.
• Ecological Schisms:
  • Deep Ecology vs. Social Ecology:
    • Deep ecologists focus on the intrinsic value of wilderness, often ignoring social issues.
    • Social ecologists emphasize the constructed nature of wilderness and demand intersectional attention to societal issues like racism and inequality.

    “Wilderness is a terrible topic... inherently wilderness is like a social construction. And... we can't address the environmental problems if we ignore the human problems.” ([09:43] Zeitzoff)

  • Accusations of misanthropy and racism dogged the movement.

    “Part of this fight was, you know, the social ecologist accused the deep ecologists of being racist, fascist because a lot of them, you know, held pretty strong immigration restrictionist views.” ([10:45] Zeitzoff)

3. Defining Radical Environmentalism

• Criteria:

  • Ecological threat seen as urgent and inadequately addressed by mainstream politics.
  • Willingness to use confrontational, extra-legal tactics: from blockades and tree-sits to sabotage and property destruction.
  • Non-hierarchical, affinity-based organizing—no set membership, as with groups like Earth First! and the Earth Liberation/Animal Liberation Fronts.

    "The radical environmental movement is not a hierarchical movement... It's much more loosely and affinity based..." ([14:12] Zeitzoff)

• Relationship with Mainstream Orgs:

  • At times symbiotic, at times antagonistic; radicals push the “Overton window,” making mainstream positions seem more moderate.

    “Maybe Sierra Club needed Earth First to push the envelope, to be, you know, move the Overton window.” ([16:48] Zeitzoff)

4. Subcultural Crossroads: Punk, Animal Liberation, and Radical Green

• Unexpected Punk Influence:
  • Radical environmental and animal rights activism in the '90s to early 2000s shared substantial overlap with anarchist and punk subcultures, especially in places like Eugene, Oregon.

    “You couldn't write about the radical environmental movement without writing about the animal liberation... movement kind of at the same time. And you couldn't write about radical environmental activists and animal liberation folks without talking about the punk scene.” ([24:10] Zeitzoff)

  • Zines, direct action how-tos, networking at punk shows.

5. Earth First! to Earth Liberation Front: Change in Tactics

• Shift from Direct Action to Leaderless Sabotage:
  • Some activists moved from Earth First!’s place-based campaigns to the more decentralized, militant Earth Liberation Front (ELF), focusing on property destruction (e.g., arson, sabotage) rather than only blockades or pranks.

    “They were kind of maybe fed up a little bit with the pace and maybe that it was seen as too much, you know, civil disobedience and not enough sabotage or property destruction.” ([28:38] Zeitzoff)

  • Tensions: Old guard saw ELF as reckless “urban anarchists” less connected to traditional environmental values.

6. State Repression: The "Green Scare"

• Operation Backfire & Legal Crackdowns:
  • Post-9/11, ELF targeted by multi-agency firings; activists dubbed “the Family”; infiltration by informants after long period of law enforcement frustration.

    "It was this targeted period of, of repression... burning down the Vale ski lodge in Colorado...When you're targeting entrenched business interests, you're going to get a pretty strong response." ([33:01] Zeitzoff)

  • Property destruction (not violence against people) was reframed as “eco-terrorism,” resulting in heightened federal scrutiny.

7. Changing Climate, Changing Tactics: Rise of Climate Justice

• From Place to Planet:
  • New generation of activists organize around global climate justice, intersectional issues (e.g., race, capitalism), and mass protest—yet struggle to make global and abstract targets (CO2, system change) as tangible as local forests or rivers.

    “People are willing to save the forest… But the idea of stopping carbon… it's a harder problem and it's a global problem. It's trickier for people to organize.” ([37:57] Zeitzoff)

• Legal Backlash:
  • Recent years have seen new state and federal laws criminalizing pipeline protest and critical infrastructure blockades, raising risks for direct action.

8. Influence of Andreas Malm and Debates Over Direct Action

• Malm’s Book & the Left:
  • How to Blow Up a Pipeline (and its film adaptation) galvanized debate; law enforcement flagged even the movie as potential inspiration for “ecoterrorism.”
  • Internal disagreements over the morality and strategic wisdom of property destruction versus mass, disciplined nonviolence.

    "The idea. Is it moral or not to engage in property destruction? For younger climate activists, I think most of them would say it's, you know, it's okay. The difference, though, is whether they think it's…a wise strategy…" ([42:19] Zeitzoff)

9. Measuring Effectiveness & Activist Reflections

• Did Radical Tactics Work?
  • Even some law enforcement officers, in hindsight, credit blockades with preserving old-growth forests, though uniformly condemn violence and firebombings.

    “My hats off to them that they were able to block and hold and prevent the logging from happening.” ([47:01] Zeitzoff, quoting a detective)

  • Divergence among former activists: some regret nothing and see themselves as part of a broader anti-capitalist arc; others now favor the idea of mass movement building.

    “I interviewed...an Animal Liberation Front [activist]...Yes, I definitely have some regrets. I wish I had done more. I wished I had realized prison wasn’t as hard...Wear all black, and leave your cell phone in a Faraday bag…” ([48:48] Zeitzoff)

10. Contemporary Right-Wing and "Eco-Fascist" Currents

• "Make America Healthy Again" & Wellness Subcultures:
  • Zeitzoff notes the rise of right-wing “healthy living,” anti-vaccine, raw milk movements, sharing environmentalist concerns (toxins, big ag) while rejecting climate science.

    “[They’re] worried about contaminants...But again, they do not believe in climate change and they believe it is a globalist hoax.” ([53:45] Zeitzoff)

  • Reference to Madison Grant’s racist strains in conservation and the persistence of such themes in “great replacement” and “eco-fascist” ideologies.

Notable Quotes

• On Subculture and Tactic Transmission:

  “At these punk shows, there were these zines…They’d support the Earth Liberation Front. One of the people...told me, ‘I was throwing rocks through windows. Then...I went to a punk show and…I figured out these are the windows where I need to throw it.’” ([24:10] Zeitzoff)

• On Internal Movement Tensions:

  “You know, the old guard of Earth First, their view…of the Earth Liberation Front was entirely…negative. They were like, these…anarchists...didn't care about building campaigns…kind of lost the plot, in their view.” ([28:38] Zeitzoff)

• On “Green Scare” Surveillance Culture:

  “I had people, like one person, ask to see my faculty ID to make sure I wasn't in law enforcement…another who declined a Google Calendar invite: ‘We don’t use Google products.’” ([19:14] Zeitzoff)

• On Effectiveness of Radical Action:

  “One...detective...said…‘the people who did this...blockade...they're the reason we have old growth forests in Oregon. Not now, I wouldn’t have said it at the time. But my hats off to them.’” ([47:01] Zeitzoff)

Important Timestamps

• [02:56] Zeitzoff’s initial interest in radical enviromentalism, sparked by a student’s question linking ecological threat to terrorism.
• [05:36] Discussion of the racist roots of American conservationism.
• [08:56] 1960s/70s: intellectual currents, and schisms between deep and social ecologists.
• [14:12] Zeitzoff’s definition of radical environmentalism.
• [19:14] Security culture and paranoia among radical activists.
• [24:10] Surprising role of animal liberation and punk subculture.
• [28:38] Transition from Earth First! to Earth Liberation Front, and tensions between generations.
• [33:01] "Green Scare": Operation Backfire, increased federal crackdown, and eco-terrorism narrative.
• [37:57] Modern climate justice movement—differences in framing, tactics, and challenges.
• [42:07] Debates over the influence of Andreas Malm and property destruction as strategy.
• [47:01] Reflections on the efficacy and legacy of radical actions, including direct testimony.
• [53:45] The rise of right-wing “healthy living” populism in environmental politics; intersection with conspiracy and anti-expert sentiment.

Memorable Moments & Closing Thoughts

• The podcast exposes the layers and paradoxes of radical environmental history: from racist conservationist forebears to militant anarchists, and now to a climate justice movement wrestling with the enormity of planetary crisis and state backlash.
• The story is peppered with ironies: left and right sometimes sharing “purity” concerns but for opposing purposes; law enforcement grudgingly crediting blockades long after the fact; radicals and moderates enabling each other’s strategies.
• Zeitzoff notes that activists are shifting focus to broader anti-authoritarian and democracy-defense work due to mounting threats to democracy—and that the radical environmental movement continues to invent itself under dire global circumstances.

Recommended:
If you're interested in radical politics, social movements, the environment, or simply how subcultural energies migrate and merge, Zeitzoff’s No Option But Sabotage provides both gripping stories and critical insight into the past, present, and possible futures of green activism.