The following is a condensation of “Creative Reconstruction of the Technological Society,” in the forthcoming book Sustainability Beyond Technology (Oxford Univ Press). Visit Dr. Skrbina’s website for more information. Technology is our glory and our curse. With simple stone tools and controlled use of fire, we conquered the savannah and established ourselves as the dominant Read More
Managing the Wild Back Into the Wilderness
Originally published in Earth First vol. 7, no. 2. I am a wilderness outlaw. I worry more about meeting a wilderness ranger than about encountering a grizzly bear or an avalanche. I avoid ranger stations. I seldom seek advice about an area I intend to explore. I almost never obtain wilderness permits or file travel Read More
What is the Sound of One Billboard Falling?
This article was originally published in the Berkeley Barb. Ed and I sat in a fire tower above Aztec Peak, a 7,748-foot-high mountain in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. Slowly he stood up, grabbed a half-full carton of sour cream, walked outside the lookout tower, and heaved it far into the forest below. The container rested near Read More
Remarks, Glen Canyon Dam, Spring Equinox, 1981
Edward Abbey’s remarks at “the cracking of Glen Canyon Dam,” the first public action by the radical conservation group Earth First! Greetings. How nice to be back in Page—or Paje, Arizona—shithead capital of Coconino County. We are gathered here today to celebrate three important occasions: the rising of the full moon, the arrival of the Read More
The Wildernist Archives
The Wildernist was a student conservation magazine published from 2015-2016 by a group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The group was originally known as UNC Freedom Club (UNCFC), named after the “ecoterror group” eventually identified as the Unabomber (they later changed their name to avoid controversy!). Magazines authors include David Gessner, Read More
Earth First!: A Founder’s Story
This article was first published in 2006 on Lowbagger, a magazine run by another founder of Earth First!, Mike Roselle. Dave Foreman’s old Volkswagen bus wobbled on unbalanced tires to the northeast across the Plains of San Augustine on New Mexico Highway 12. The salsa at the Mexican restaurant in the town of Reserve had Read More
An Ecological View of the Indian
This article was first published in Earth First!, vol. 7, no. 7. I believe the concept that Indians were the “first ecologists” is more myth than fact, and not the result of a conscious conservation ethic as much as a primitive technology which prevented widespread control of natural forces. Most environmentalists tacitly assume that primitive Read More
The Approaching Transhumanism
The Approaching Transhumanism and the Inhibition of Ethical Discourse, by Laura Drake, Ph.D. Amidst the never-ending chatter about matters like health care, taxes, and race relations, a new postindustrial power elite is rising in the background whose agenda transcends, and threatens to affect everyone a great deal more than, all these other matters combined. This Read More
On the Question of Technological Slavery: A Reply to Campbell and Lipkin
In October 2013 The American Reader published a piece by Thomas Campbell and Michael Lipkin on the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. David Skrbina, a philosophy professor who wrote the introduction to Kaczynski’s book Technological Slavery, was asked to write a reply, but it was never published. Below is Skrbina’s response. Let’s do a quick study in comparative morality. Late in the Read More