“The Great Refusal”: Radical Environmental Resistance Against Contemporary Ecological Breakdown

The litany of socio-ecological perturbations that mark the Capitalocene has lent a heightened sense of urgency to the present, perhaps most starkly exhibited by radical environmental activists (REAs) as singular individuals engaged in fervent mobilisations against the socio-ecological deficiencies of the “now”. REAs often engage in physically interventionist tactics – i.e. road blockades, tree-sits, property destruction – in their attempts to significantly stem the tides of ecological breakdown afflicting the Earth. Through their post-anthropocentric worldviews and oppositional modes of activism aimed at refusing the status quo of growth-oriented modern capitalism, these prefigurative socio-political movements call for “second-order” transformations in dominant socio-economic structures and modes of perceiving and relating to the nonhuman world. Featuring analyses of empirical data in the form of 26 semi-structured interviews conducted with REAs between August 2017 and August 2018, this chapter aims to shed critical light on their post-anthropocentric worldviews and, crucially, how these serve to motivate and sustain engagement in emotionally and physically taxing direct-action feats. The chapter concludes with critical reflections on charges of eco-terrorism increasingly levelled against REAs and the role of radical tactics during times of climate and ecological breakdown.