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Diary of an Eco-Outlaw: An Unreasonable Woman Breaks the Law for Mother Earth
Diane Wilson is an activist, shrimper, and all around hell-raiser whose first book, "An Unreasonable Woman," told of her battle to save her bay in Seadrift, Texas. Back then, she was an accidental activist who worked with whistleblowers, organized protests, and eventually sunk her own boat to stop the plastic-manufacturing giant Formosa from releasing dangerous chemicals into water she shrimped in, grew up on, and loved.But, it turns out, the fight against Formosa was just the beginning. In "Diary of an Eco-Outlaw," Diane writes about what happened as she began to fight injustice not just in Seadrift, but around the world-taking on Union Carbide for its failure to compensate those injured in the Bhopal disaster, cofounding the women's antiwar group Code Pink to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, attempting a citizens arrest of Dick Cheney, famously covering herself with fake oil and demanding the arrest of then BP CEO Tony Hayward as he testified before Congress, and otherwise becoming a world-class activist against corporate injustice, war, and environmental crimes.As George Bernard Shaw once said, "all progress depends on unreasonable women." And in the "Diary of an Eco-Outlaw," the eminently unreasonable Wilson delivers a no-holds-barred account of how she-a fourth-generation shrimper, former boat captain, and mother of five-took a turn at midlife, unable to stand by quietly as she witnessed abuses of people and the environment. Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and hunger strikes-and generally gotten herself in all manner of trouble.All worth it, says Wilson. Jailed more than 50 times for civil disobedience, Wilson has stood up for environmental justice, and peace, around the world-a fact that has earned her many kudos from environmentalists and peace activists alike, and that has forced progress where progress was hard to come by.
- GenresEnvironment
246 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2011
2 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Diane Wilson
4 books4 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Diane Wilson is an eco-warrior in action. A fourth-generation shrimper, Wilson began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By 24, she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Wilson insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.
Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and countless hunger strikes to raise awareness for environmental and human rights abuses.
Wilson speaks to the core of courage in each of us that seeks to honor our own moral compass, and act on our convictions. She has been honored with a number of awards for her work, including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, Blue Planet Award and the Bioneers Award.
She is also a co-founder of CODEPINK, the Texas Jail Project, Texas Injured Workers, Injured Workers National Network and continues to lead the fight for social justice.
Diane Wilson is an eco-warrior in action. A fourth-generation shrimper, Wilson began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight. By 24, she was a boat captain. In 1989, while running her brother's fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the number one toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Wilson insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay.
Since then, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, and countless hunger strikes to raise awareness for environmental and human rights abuses.
Wilson speaks to the core of courage in each of us that seeks to honor our own moral compass, and act on our convictions. She has been honored with a number of awards for her work, including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones's Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs' Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, Blue Planet Award and the Bioneers Award.
She is also a co-founder of CODEPINK, the Texas Jail Project, Texas Injured Workers, Injured Workers National Network and continues to lead the fight for social justice.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 13, 2011
Let there be no doubt that Diane Wilson is a plucky, tough, and brave woman. I'm glad environmentalists have her on our side and reading about her antics is both entertaining and despairing. Diane freely admits that she's allergic to planning and that even before giving an important talk, she doesn't make any notes or plan what to say. Her writing reflects that. She is charming and uses a lot of interesting phrases but tell a detailed linear story she cannot.
Sometimes her writing is just unclear: (pg. 142) “My personal opinion of Formosa after ten years of talking with their workers was this: Formosa Plastics was the dot on the map that was fixing to turn our country into hell.” A map is trying to turn the country into hell? Or a dot is? A dot sounds tiny and unimportant, like it can’t do much damage. So what is her opinion?
Other times, she skips around so much it's impossible to know when certain events happened. She also leaves out a lot of details (perhaps she covers them in her other books?) and skims over things that happen such that the reader can lack a detailed understanding of seemingly important events (I still don't know why she sunk her shrimping boat).
But, still, she manages to convey the terrible destruction wrought by companies such as Union Carbide/Dow and Formosa Plastics, and the hopelessness of fighting against them when our government agencies are corrupt and refuse to take action even when there is ample evidence of violations of the law.
Sometimes her writing is just unclear: (pg. 142) “My personal opinion of Formosa after ten years of talking with their workers was this: Formosa Plastics was the dot on the map that was fixing to turn our country into hell.” A map is trying to turn the country into hell? Or a dot is? A dot sounds tiny and unimportant, like it can’t do much damage. So what is her opinion?
Other times, she skips around so much it's impossible to know when certain events happened. She also leaves out a lot of details (perhaps she covers them in her other books?) and skims over things that happen such that the reader can lack a detailed understanding of seemingly important events (I still don't know why she sunk her shrimping boat).
But, still, she manages to convey the terrible destruction wrought by companies such as Union Carbide/Dow and Formosa Plastics, and the hopelessness of fighting against them when our government agencies are corrupt and refuse to take action even when there is ample evidence of violations of the law.
September 5, 2012
I definitely enjoyed this book (maybe 3.5 stars if Goodreads would let me do that). I like hearing about strong-minded women who decide to do something to change the world. I think the reason I didn't like it more is just that Wilson's narrative style isn't quite what I go for - it's pretty chatty, and sometimes felt like it was trying a little too hard to be conversational and funny. Also, while I really liked the topics, the storyline jumped back and forth between many different activism issues, and was sometimes hard to follow. I know it's a real autobiography written by a real woman, but sometimes I just wanted to know how one of the things she worked on wrapped up. Which is hard to do, when you're struggling against such big problems, but I couldn't shake the sense that the book just didn't progress very far. On the other hand, it was definitely written well enough that I kept reading, and I always wanted to find out what crazy antics she'd think up to do next. So it's still an interesting read!
March 23, 2015
In a way, Diary of an Eco-Outlaw could be any woman’s story. A newspaper article and a telephone call changed the course of Diane Wilson's life.
Readers you are about to become Diane Wilson’s time- traveling companion as you go back in time and accompany her to places near and far while carrying on a conversation that lasts for 243 pages.
Diary of an Eco-Outlaw recounts several interwoven stories involving Union Carbide, former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, Texas jails, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Formosa Plastics.
One might expect a non-fiction book filled with tales of injustice, environmental degradation, corporate malfeasance, government indifference, and personal sacrifice to deliver a compelling, distressing, and sometimes shocking narrative. Diary of an Eco-Outlaw does that, yet readers will also find themselves smiling and sometimes laughing out loud.
Diane Wilson is a master storyteller.
Read the whole review at: http://greengroundswell.com/diary-of-...
Readers you are about to become Diane Wilson’s time- traveling companion as you go back in time and accompany her to places near and far while carrying on a conversation that lasts for 243 pages.
Diary of an Eco-Outlaw recounts several interwoven stories involving Union Carbide, former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson, Texas jails, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Formosa Plastics.
One might expect a non-fiction book filled with tales of injustice, environmental degradation, corporate malfeasance, government indifference, and personal sacrifice to deliver a compelling, distressing, and sometimes shocking narrative. Diary of an Eco-Outlaw does that, yet readers will also find themselves smiling and sometimes laughing out loud.
Diane Wilson is a master storyteller.
Read the whole review at: http://greengroundswell.com/diary-of-...
June 22, 2013
I'm not sure this was the intent of the book, but the author did make me laugh with her antics and her utter lack of planning. Her passion shines through and she supports causes that are vital to our survival (she lives in one of the most chemically contaminated counties in the U.S.).
January 25, 2012
i don't know what to say. there are brave people, soldiers, martyrs, heroes - then there is this person. i don't know how she keeps going, but we sure need her.
January 29, 2014
Good book, quick read. Diane is a brave woman fighting the good fight. The book ends rather abruptly, though. But we definitely need more people like her in this world.
November 12, 2019
The author is a plucky person and writes in a chatty style. The book isn't a diary, nor is it a clear concise book. I'm not sure what it is, other than a book full of tales about the author's antics in trying to get some action on behalf of the polluters to help out the people they harm.
There is no beginning, middle, nor ending, the book is a wandering path of things that Diane did. Most of the middle part of the book seems to follow what she did one thing after another, but as she likely does in life, it jumps around a little too. This doesn't help the book; nothing is ever resolved. Nothing came to a conclusion. I'm sure it's part of her wishes otherwise as well. I love the passion she has and the spunk and complete fortitude to go out and do something, anything. She says often she never plans, just does it, and doesn't matter if she ends up in jail.
Most of her protests are against the major polluters in her backyard in Seadrift Texas: Formosa Plastics, Union Carbide, and Dow Chemical who bought or merged with Union Carbide. And then there's the BP oil spill near the end. She also tries to get justice for the Bhopal residents that are still having health issues, and dying, from one of the worst environmental disasters in the world.
The book is very readable. Might make you take another look at plastics in our lives. The problem isn't just after using them and ending up in the ocean, it's also quite toxic to produce to the environment and the workers.
There is no beginning, middle, nor ending, the book is a wandering path of things that Diane did. Most of the middle part of the book seems to follow what she did one thing after another, but as she likely does in life, it jumps around a little too. This doesn't help the book; nothing is ever resolved. Nothing came to a conclusion. I'm sure it's part of her wishes otherwise as well. I love the passion she has and the spunk and complete fortitude to go out and do something, anything. She says often she never plans, just does it, and doesn't matter if she ends up in jail.
Most of her protests are against the major polluters in her backyard in Seadrift Texas: Formosa Plastics, Union Carbide, and Dow Chemical who bought or merged with Union Carbide. And then there's the BP oil spill near the end. She also tries to get justice for the Bhopal residents that are still having health issues, and dying, from one of the worst environmental disasters in the world.
The book is very readable. Might make you take another look at plastics in our lives. The problem isn't just after using them and ending up in the ocean, it's also quite toxic to produce to the environment and the workers.
April 13, 2011
Fabulous book. A quick and easy read. It captures Diane's story and her passion fighting for what we all believe in - that our health, communities and environment shouldn't be destroyed because of a corrupt system and greed of corporations.
Some of my favorite quotes:
•The last thing I remembered saying was that reasonable women adapt to the world and unreasonable women make the world adapt to them. And we need more unreasonable women
• No government in the world, he said, could stand up to a population that no longer perceives that government as legitimate, that no longer perceives the government as acting in the interests of the people.
•The problem is not that the police police us; the problem is that we police ourselves. We still, against all evidence, believe too much in the legitimacy of the system created by and for and of powermad psychopaths. Psychopaths who are killing the planet.
•I freely admit that I had spirit eyes. That’s why I dissolved like a bucket of acid was dumped on me when I was out on the bay. And that’s why I could see the bay as an old grandmother with long gray hair and a dress made of matted foaming seaweed flowing out with the tide. I imagined that black drum nibbled on her dress like they nibbled on the oyster spawn caught in the oyster reefs.
•So being innocent as a lamb two months before slaughter, I actually believed that the politicians (local, state, and federal) and the agencies (local, state, and federal) that had been elected, appointed, or hired to serve the people, tell the truth, and do the right thing did exactly that. Oh, yes, I was that stupid.
•Lots of days ended on that sour, unsettling note and it was a good thing I had the hunger fast going on to mellow me out or I’d have been totally bummed out.
•I sat under the tent and sucked some benzene through my teeth. The chemicals wafted across me in waves and a couple were obnoxious enough to make me feel like throwing up, but I didn’t. I was getting conditioned. After a while, I wouldn’t even smell the chemicals. That’s what the workers said. That’s what my brother up on Dow’s steel pipes said. Pay no mind that the chemicals washed off in the bathtub—as yellow as a dead canary.
•They were unsure about the exact chemical, but twelve thousand pounds of a yet unknown industrial solvent had spilled from a pipe after it was run over by a mower. She assured me that the chemical had not gone into the canal. It had only spilled onto the ground. Nothing at all to worry about. The workers were cleaning it up and, after all, they weren’t wearing moon suits. So how dangerous could it be?
Some of my favorite quotes:
•The last thing I remembered saying was that reasonable women adapt to the world and unreasonable women make the world adapt to them. And we need more unreasonable women
• No government in the world, he said, could stand up to a population that no longer perceives that government as legitimate, that no longer perceives the government as acting in the interests of the people.
•The problem is not that the police police us; the problem is that we police ourselves. We still, against all evidence, believe too much in the legitimacy of the system created by and for and of powermad psychopaths. Psychopaths who are killing the planet.
•I freely admit that I had spirit eyes. That’s why I dissolved like a bucket of acid was dumped on me when I was out on the bay. And that’s why I could see the bay as an old grandmother with long gray hair and a dress made of matted foaming seaweed flowing out with the tide. I imagined that black drum nibbled on her dress like they nibbled on the oyster spawn caught in the oyster reefs.
•So being innocent as a lamb two months before slaughter, I actually believed that the politicians (local, state, and federal) and the agencies (local, state, and federal) that had been elected, appointed, or hired to serve the people, tell the truth, and do the right thing did exactly that. Oh, yes, I was that stupid.
•Lots of days ended on that sour, unsettling note and it was a good thing I had the hunger fast going on to mellow me out or I’d have been totally bummed out.
•I sat under the tent and sucked some benzene through my teeth. The chemicals wafted across me in waves and a couple were obnoxious enough to make me feel like throwing up, but I didn’t. I was getting conditioned. After a while, I wouldn’t even smell the chemicals. That’s what the workers said. That’s what my brother up on Dow’s steel pipes said. Pay no mind that the chemicals washed off in the bathtub—as yellow as a dead canary.
•They were unsure about the exact chemical, but twelve thousand pounds of a yet unknown industrial solvent had spilled from a pipe after it was run over by a mower. She assured me that the chemical had not gone into the canal. It had only spilled onto the ground. Nothing at all to worry about. The workers were cleaning it up and, after all, they weren’t wearing moon suits. So how dangerous could it be?
November 22, 2011
At first I was unsure because I'm not much for non-fiction being written in colloquial language but once I got to know the author's character itwouldnt have made sense any other way. The last paragraph of the book is bby far the best. I have a new hero and its Diane Wilson!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews