Students join in
anti-Watt drive
The University Survival Center has joined the Sierra Club
in a petition drive to remove interior secretary James Watt
from office.
To protest Watt’s actions and proposals, the Sierra Club
hopes to send one million signatures to Congress.
Survival Center public wildlands coordinator Steve
Kramer says the petition drivd ajdn^'yvon’i remove Watt, but it
is "intended to make a statemenf to me Congress and to the
president that a lot of people don’t like what’s been going on.”
In support of the Sierra Club’s opposition to Watt's
policies, the Survival Center is collecting signatures from
University students. About 400 names already have been
collected, according to Kramer.
The Sierra Club, a national environmental organization,
claims Watt is representing his own economic interests by
undoing environmental protection legislation aimed at pro
tecting natural resources.
“The secretary of the interior has as his foremost re
sponsibility the wise stewardship of our public lands her
itage,” says Sierra Club director Michael McCloskey. "He is
meant to be the country’s number one conservationist.”
By contrast, Watt has "declared virtual war” on the
environment, McCloskey says.
Kramer says he believes Watt intends to promote industry
and development by opening up formerly reserved or pro
tected lands. Natural resources, wildlife, scenic lands and
national parks are all endangered by Watt’s proposals, he
says.
"He’s promoting the interests of the people he’s always
worked with,” claims Kramer.
According to Kramer, Watt’s proposals are so extreme
that any sort of compromises would be unacceptable to
environmentalists. Watt is making unreasonable demands so
that it will appear he’s willing to compromise when he must
give in partially to conservationists, Kramer claims.
“It’s the things he’s said that really scare me. He thinks
environmentalists are wrong morally.
"He believes he's on a mission from God to subdue this
planet.”
21 rescued following 60 days at sea
HONOLULU (AP) - It was
supposed to have been a two
hour, 23-mile pleasure cruise on
a 20-foot cabin cruiser for 21
residents of the sparsely
populated island nation of Ki
ribati.
Two months and 1,300 miles
later, nine were dead and the
other 12 had survived only by
drinking rainwater or sea water
and eating fish — including a
shark — that they had caught
with their bare hands.
The survivors were reported
in good condition Sunday at a
hospital on Moen Island in the
Truk District of the U S. Trust
Territory of the Pacific. A hos
pital nurse said all 12 — includ
ing a 3-year-old boy — probably
would be released and flown
home in about a week.
The islanders had drifted hel
r
plessly in the Pacific Ocean for
60 days until they were spotted
Friday by the helicopter of a San
Diego-based tuna boat about
700 miles southeast of Guam.
Their cramped cabin cruiser
left Abaiang Island the morning
of March 26 to bring the people
to Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati,
formerly known as the Gilbert
Islands.
‘‘A good term to describe the
boat would be overcrowded,”
said Quartermaster Mike
McKiernan, a Coast Guard
spokesman on Guam.
But Cinrata Teaanene, a
police constable on Tarawa,
said it is not unusual for ships on
short trips in Kiribati to be
crowded because there is a
shortage of boats in the poor
island nation.
Most of the people on board
for the two-hour trip were head
ed to Tarawa for a vacation,
Teaanene said. The rest were
bringing food to a market there.
But at one point the ship’s
only engine failed and the boat
began drifting to the west,
McKiernan said. As prevailing
currents carried the boat
through an area of few landfalls,
the islanders lived on the goods
that were being taken to the
market.
The supply of fresh water
lasted about four days — the
food about two weeks.
Once the initial supplies ran
out, those on the ship survived
by catching rainwater and fish
with their bare hands, said
Coast Guard spokesman Keith
Spangler in Honolulu. He said
their last fish, a shark, was
caught two weeks ago.
71
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‘Threats’ on horizon
Survival program to grow
By LESLIE FARRIS
Of the Emerald
Next year will be a particularly
challenging one for conserva
tionists, and the University Sur
vival Center plans to do a little
challenging of its own, says
Steve Kramer, the center’s new
director.
"It will be a big year because
Reagan and company have
been making a lot of threats,
and next year they’ll try to put
those threats into action,”
Kramer says. ’’We'll have to
work to protect the Clean Air
Act, the Marine Mammal Pro
tection Act, public lands, and
keep the community and
campus informed."
Kramer says he hopes to
expand Survival Center
programs so that more students
can get involved To help in
crease their volunteer force, the
staff plans to conduct more
SEARCH classes and to expand
Project Intercept, their campus
wide recycling program.
The center’s long-range goal
is to fund many of its programs
through Project Intercept,
which came out ahead on its
budget this year, Kramer says.
He also hopes to devise some
sort of campus-wide conserva
tion plan to cut down on the use
of electricity and paper.
“This is supposed to be an
environmentalist’s campus, yet
it doesn’t accept responsibility
for a lot of the waste it
generates,” he says.
"In the EMU, it’s Styrofoam
cups or nothing. They’re not
taking into account the total
expense — the cost of making
them and throwing them away.”
As usual, the center will be
active during the primary elec
tion. Kramer says they may have
to battle uranium mining, her
bicides and sagebrush rebels
among others.
“The present administration
seems to believe that a vote for it
was a vote against the environ
mental movement. I don't think
the public feels that way, and
the Survival Center’s job, along
with other environmental
groups, is to not let the present
administration tear apart all the
good that's been done.”
In addition to Kramer,
1981-82 Survival Center staff
members will include Matt
Holmes as assistant director,
Jeff Strang as energy coordina
tor, Norman Babcock as
legislative coordinator, Wendell
Belknap as wildlife coordinator,
Jennifer Holmes as wildlife and
desert management coordina
tor, Rick Paschal as public
wildlands coordinator, Mike
Parr as recycling and Project
Intercept coordinator, Liza
Scully as recycling education
coordinator, Jenny Bell as office
manager, Brooks Dareff as edi
tor of The Oregon Advocate,
and Sheri-Lyn Scully as media
coordinator.
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