moral panic Green Scare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Scare https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1544640 Legal action by the US government and moral panic against the radical environmental movement. It alludes to the Red Scares, periods of fear over communist infiltration of US society. The term was popularized by environmental activists. It is first known to have appeared in 2002 in the wake of the February 12 congressional hearings titled "The Threat of Eco-Terrorism", which discussed groups including the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). The spring edition of the prisoner support zine Spirit of Freedom defined the term as "the tactics that the US government and all their tentacles (FBI, IRS, BATF, Joint Terrorism Task Forces, local police, the court system) are using to attack the ELF/ALF and specifically those who publicly support them." The term has been used by activists to describe a sweep of arrests, convictions and grand jury indictments of ELF and ALF operatives on charges relating to acts of property damage, conspiracy, arson and use of destructive devices.