By Lucille Rollins
Everyone hears it: the battle cry of events like Focus the Nation and people like Al Gore.
They bring the pressing issue of global warming to the forefront of everyone's environmental concerns: green and yellow posters that dot windows, doors, and dorm walls.
But what of the other, seemingly smaller, environmental issues? Issues like recycling, pollution, nuclear energy and waste, and finding alternative fossil fuels. Are they buried in the hype about saving the world before it melts away? More and more people are waving the banner of environmental activism in response to global warming's publicity. The destruction of the earth doesn't fail to capture people's attention.
Senior Lacey Riddle, student coordinator for Focus the Nation, believes that by battling global warming itself, people address all of the smaller issues that also bear precedence.
"If you address global warming, you will be addressing interdisciplinary problems as well," she said.
Joanna Spoth, a junior appointed by biology professor Steve Kolmes as Student Coordinator for UP's recent partnership development with SOLV, took another perspective.
"Before getting overwhelmed by global warming, we need to look at what we can do at the local level," she said. "Getting people out into nature to experience dirt under their fingernails, and to see the work that they've done, and appreciate what Oregon gives, may inspire them to look to the greater issues."
Here's a look at environmental groups - both on and off-campus, benign and radical - which focus on efforts besides that of global warming and do so in big and small ways.
College Ecology Group (CEG)
Although the CEG worked with Focus the Nation for the events today, it does not take one particular environmental issue under its belt.
"We try to educate the students about different environmental issues as well as work with the administration to make important changes here on campus," said senior Chelsea Kerr, president and founding member of the group. They have learned to "jump through the hoops," evident in their instrumental influence in UP President, Rev. William Beauchamp, C.S.C.,'s pledge to be carbon neutral in the next couple of years.
The club formed four years ago and has since then been recognized as one of the more active groups on campus. In the beginning, only four active participants attended the meetings. Now, the number has grown to around 25.
"Just sticking around, showing that we're serious has been our greatest accomplishment," Kerr said.
Interested in joining the team? Contact Kerr at ckerr@up.edu or show up on Thursdays at 9 p.m. in the Pilot House.
SOLV
This volunteer-based organization creates projects aimed towards the preservation, clean-up and beautification of Oregon.
"Their focus is at a more local level," Spoth said. "The issues they focus on are those affecting this state, whether it be a result of global warming or not."
Recently, SOLV, the Archdiocese of Portland and UP developed a partnership a year in the making that has led to a collaboration of individuals, including UP students, on Feb. 23rd for stream restoration at Trillium Creek, twenty-five minutes south of UP. Spoth was in charge of recruiting "stream team captains" to lead groups. Training took place last week.
Kolmes and Spoth both emphasized that the University's partnership with SOLV represents the University's belief in "faith, service and learning." In its support of and coordination with SOLV, Spoth stated, "UP is living up to its mission statement."
This is the only special UP-SOLV project so far.
"Every Saturday between January and March there's a (general) tree planting volunteer event. Volunteers from anywhere can come," Spoth said. "If you can't be inspired by little things like that, where are we going to find hope? "
Interested in saving the state? Contact Rhyan Getch at rhyan@solv.org
Sea Shepherds
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was created formally in Washington in 1981. On a daily basis, the group battles pirate whaling, poaching and shark finning.
They achieve their goals by "'innovative direct action tactics,'" Kolmes said. "They're essentially vigilantes."
"We do have a history of engaging in direct action on the high sea," said Amy Baird, the official Outreach Coordinator for the organization. "A lot of people say we're eco-terrorists, but we're not breaking the law, we're enforcing it."
This past week, two volunteer crew members aboard a ship in Antarctica were taken hostage by a Japanese whaling crew.
"It brought the issue to people who weren't aware," Baird said.
Interested in real action? Call (360) 370-5650 or e-mail them at info@seashepherd.org. Campaigns on the sea typically last from one to two months. Get sea sickness? The group offers on-shore volunteer programs as well.
Earth Liberation Front
According to Craig Rosebraugh, founder of the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, this radical group uses destructive and potentially violent methods to deliver its message, focusing on environmental issues ranging from the vast cutting of timberland to excess pollution from SUVs and Hummers.
"Their tactics haven't changed, but the level of activity has definitely dropped since 2001," he said, which he partly attributed to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The government sent eight subpoenas Rosebraugh's way for his involvement and promotion of the group's activities through his news service.
"They're not legal, they blow things up and burn them, and you can't really go to the Statehouse if you've been burning SUVs," said Kolmes about ELF's activities and inability to promote real change.
In its defense, Rosebraugh said, "Property destruction does not always constitute violence, and I don't think they believe they were committing acts of violence at the time."
Kolmes doesn't fear that radical groups present any danger to mainstream groups with more moderate demands.
"They certainly make a bad impression on a lot of people," he said, and then added, "I don't think most people mistake one for the other."
Interested? You'll have to go underground.
