Thomas Zeitzoff, "No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis" (Oxford UP, 2026)

About this episode

Thomas Zeitzoff discusses the history and evolution of the radical environmental movement in the context of the climate crisis.

An authoritative history of the radical environmental movement in the United States, No Option But Sabotage explores how far activists are willing to go to defend the planet in the face of repression and the escalating climate crisis. After 9/11, the radical environmental movement was considered the number one domestic terror threat by the U.S. government. But by the end of the decade the movement had largely gone silent. What happened? And given the threat from climate, why haven't more radical tactics re-emerged? In No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2026), Thomas Zeitzoff traces the origins, rise, fall, and potential rise again of the movement. Using in-depth interviews with past and current activists, as well as experts, Zeitzoff covers the main factions and actors. These include: Earth First! and its early advocacy for "monkeywrenching;" the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and his years-long anti-technology bombing campaign; the connections between animal liberation, punk, and the emergence of the Earth Liberation Front and its arson campaign; and more recent climate activists and their use of disruptive…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Thomas Zeitzoff

Topics covered

• radical environmental movement
• climate crisis
• activism
• domestic terrorism
• sabotage
• property destruction

Keywords

• radical environmentalism
• climate activism
• sabotage tactics
• Earth First!
• Ted Kaczynski
• Earth Liberation Front
• climate crisis history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Oxford University Press, Earth First!, Earth Liberation Front

More episodes of New Books in Animal Studies

• Christos Lynteris, "How Plague Got Rats: Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026) · May 30, 2026 · 49 min
• Kenneth G. Zysk, "South Asian Animal Divination: A Critical Anthology" (Brill, 2025) · May 14, 2026 · 41 min
• Sezai Ozan Zeybek, "Animals, Justice, and the Politics of Violence: Shared Struggles in Turkey" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) · March 9, 2026 · 41 min
• The Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic · March 5, 2026 · 60 min
• Anne Mendelson, "Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood" (Columbia UP, 2023) · February 22, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Josh Milburn, "Food, Justice, and Animals: Feeding the World Respectfully" (Oxford UP, 2023) · February 21, 2026 · 1h 16m