Review of If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011) by Jereme R — 15 Feb 2012

I must have seen a shortened version of this film as the one broadcast by the BBC was only eighty minutes long, but what I did see I found rather gripping and moving. "If a Tree Falls" (a probable reference to Berkeley's famous question, ironically applied to the general public's lack of effective concern for deforestation) narrates both the story of Daniel McGowan, a mild-mannered twenty-something who is under house arrest pending his trial for "eco-terrorism"; and that of the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmentalist group through which McGowan committed his acts of vandalism.

I found the film rather balanced. As a vegan who cares a lot about the environment, and who thinks human civilisation will have collapsed within the next few decades; and as a former Objectivist and a Catholic convert who now considers himself a conservative and has no leftist gut-hatred of big business, I tend to straddle the fence on these issues. It does seem strange that a group that never harmed people and always targeted property should be considered America's most dangerous terrorist group. I do understand that the importance of the issues justifies some sort of response that goes behind mere petition-signing, but my main objection to the type of arson practiced by the E.L.F. is that it seems to be ineffectual at stopping the abuses (just like burning abortion clinics or killing abortionists), it alienates public opinion, it helps demonise the environmental movement, it sometimes targets innocent victims (as in the case of an ill-informed double arson against GMOs), it may fail to see the big picture (one logger claims they replant six trees for every tree felled - I don't know how true or effective this is), and it may land you a life sentence.

One of the E.L.F. members, Jake Ferguson, was a rather unsavory figurehead for deep ecology: a smoker and heroin addict with a kind of Manson-like charisma (much of which he loses after he puts on weight and starts talking), he escapes from prison charges because of his cooperation with the FBI, which seems rather unfair. However, what the film does not say, because it ends in 2007, is that he was arrested in mid-2011 on drug charges and sentenced to five years in prison (I'm told he also "neglected and endangered his child"), which means that **** SPOILER **** McGowan should be out before him.