A group of people, radical green anarchists, as many would call them, sit cross-legged on the grass, listening to various musical performances and speakers, while taking in the ancient redwoods by which they are surrounded. They are voicing their calls for protection for the same land they dug their toes into, the same nature they found themselves surrounded by, the same nature they were watching being destroyed. Collectively, the words of the immoral and devoted fighter Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. resonated around them: "If a human being does not have something to die for, he does not deserve to live." The 1980s in America saw a harsh transition of political power: the end of Jimmy Carter's humanitarian mandate, the transition to Ronald Reagan's eight years. 2 As the world population reached 4.5 billion and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere exceeded 335 ppm, Reagan responded by cutting the budget and staff of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) left and right. desert of the American Southwest, three frustrated environmentalists discussed their inner drive for change in the environmental movement, a new direction that would soon be known as Earth First!.3 In early April 1980, Dave Foreman, Howie Wolke and Mike Roselle were in the desert wilderness, seeking peace of mind and answers to their problems with the large green groups with which they were affiliated.3 Among them were common feelings of frustration, defeat, and anger; groups like the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society that promised wilderness protection were simply “debating societies,”1 as Foreman put it, and fell short of their proposals. Foreman had worked as an environmental lobbyist in D...... middle of paper ...... all these protests are the media and public attention they earn. Earth First! they do not believe their actions will directly change discourse and policy, but more importantly, they hope to spark a change in public thinking and opinion on these environmental issues. Radical activists take action on radical issues, and through their efforts, these issues become publicized where they would otherwise have been “swept under the carpet.”7 As they force loggers out of business, drilling wells shut down, and pipelines to be eliminated is the overall goal: these radical groups would not succeed, which would be the direct result of their actions.7 The most important aspect is that the public knows why these companies and infrastructure should be shut down and stopped. Their overall goals are movement recruitment and a change in American public ideology.