Where did the phrase 'tree hugger' come from?

[Steve Bullman]

Interesting article I just came across, source Where Did the Phrase “Tree-Hugger” Come From? | Latest News | Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Institute

 

 

The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being slaughtered by the foresters. But their action led to a royal decree prohibiting the cutting of trees in any Bishnoi village. And now those villages are virtual wooded oases amidst an otherwise desert landscape. Not only that, the Bishnois inspired the Chipko movement (chipko means “to cling” in Hindi) that started in the 1970s, when a group of peasant women in the Himalayan hills of northern India threw their arms around trees designated to be cut down. Within a few years, this tactic, also known as tree satyagraha, had spread across India, ultimately forcing reforms in forestry and a moratorium on tree felling in Himalayan regions.

Despite this powerful history of nonviolent resistance, we still consider tree hugger a derogatory term. Meanwhile, a current example of forest protection in Brazil, where the country’s environmental agency has a special ops team that hunts down illegal loggers, gets all kinds of glory. Not that it shouldn’t, considering Brazil has cut deforestation by nearly 80 percent since 2004. But do environmental heroes need to, as the BBC recently described Brazil’s forest agents, “wear military fatigues, with heavy black pistols slung casually on their thighs” in order to get any respect?

In Africa, there are several conservation organizations that have a shoot-to-kill policy when they see a suspected poacher. Private security firms in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi provide military-style protection for the iconic animals that Western tourists flock to see. While some have argued in support of these desperate measures–pointing to the dramatic rise in poaching in recent years–the “shoot first and ask questions later” approach has led to the deaths of locals, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. These incidents of course lead to resentment toward conservation, which has been shown to be most effective when local communities are involved in the process.

Not surprisingly, people want to protect the land they live on. And like the Bisnhois and people of the Chipko movement, they are often willing to lay down their lives for it–armed only with their own two arms.

 

Edited November 5, 2015 by Steve Bullman

[Canal Navvy]

Interesting read Mr B

[farmer rod]

We all thought Swampy had started it, whats he up to these days?

[Mull]

Yep, no surprise that these ideals originated so long ago , when people understood and absolutely depended on nature and the very basics.

[eggsarascal]

We all thought Swampy had started it, whats he up to these days?

 

He died a young man of a massive heart attack.

[Steve Bullman]

We all thought Swampy had started it, whats he up to these days?

 

Cutting down trees ironically

 

Swampy's new life: Former eco-warrior, 40, lives in a yurt with his four children and he even has a job! | Daily Mail Online

[farmer rod]

He died a young man of a massive heart attack.

 

Well I cant say agreed with his philosophies, but he was a colourful character, may his soul rest in peace

[Steve Bullman]

He died a young man of a massive heart attack.

They offered him a bypass and he turned it down. I found the same joke when I googled him

[Mull]

Cutting down trees ironically

 

Swampy's new life: Former eco-warrior, 40, lives in a yurt with his four children and he even has a job! | Daily Mail Online

 

 

I suppose that cutting down trees is not that ironic for a tree hugger, there are trees that need hugging and trees that ARE "renewables"! It's up to us to tell the difference.(not just talking about trees obviously)

[eggsarascal]

They offered him a bypass and he turned it down. I found the same joke when I googled him

 

In the early nineties I went halves with another lad on an old Bedford truck with the grand idea of going to France then into Spain living in it. I went around to his house one morning to find the house empty and the old Bedford missing. Never did she him or the truck again, last I heard he was down there on the bypass protest..... Ya win some, ya lose some.