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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2007)
F APRIL 2Q. 2QQ7 justputja TIP «6: REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE RECYCLING GENERATES FEWER GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS THAN THROWING THINGS AWAY BUT REBUC1NG WASTE IS AN EVEN BETTER WAY TO REBUCE EMISSIONS ANB CONSERVE RESOURCES TIP #7: PLANT TREES IN ABBITION TO IMPROVING WATER ANB AIR QUALITY TREES REMOVE CO2 FROM THE AIR AS THEY GROW. THE PORTLANB PARKS ANB RECREATION WEB SITE PROVIBES INFORMATION ON TREES THAT ARE APPROPRIATE TO PLANT IN PORTLANB. with humans rather than collide with them in a car.” More-colorful street murals anj inviting coh benches pop up every year as a result of neighborhrxxl and City Repair collaborations. Lien, who identifies as queer, met Doleman at a natural building colloquium in Southern Oregon. She says the work ethic of carpentry and physical labor come naturally to her, having been raised on a dairy farm doing hard work every day. When the concepts of natural building and sustainable living crossed her path, Lien says she began to make connections that made a lot of sense. “The agricultural chemicals 1 grew up around and cancer was the biggest connection,” she says. “I kept hearing, ‘Now this farmer’s wife has breast cancer.’ ” Doleman was in Missouri when she came across a group of lesbian avengers working on a straw bale house. “It pretty much blew my mind,” she says. According to Doleman, natural building can be done affordably and lends itself to artistic expression and the more feminine aspects of a structure, such as organic, curving spaces and spaces that have deeper meanings than purely architectural construction. Doleman moved to Portland five years ago and participated in her first Village Building Convergence, a 10-day City Repair event held every May in which citizens, natural builders and activists come together to help neighborhrxxls design and build their own community amenities. She says Portland appeals to her because it is an open and accepting city. “The concept of beauty is so much broader than in other cities; people are really confident to express who they are, and that makes the city gorgeous,” she says. While both Doleman and Lien agree that City Repair (www.cityrepair.org) as an organization reflects this open and friendly quality, not many people from the queer community have participated in its efforts. “1 find that there are more lesbians in the trades here,” says Lien. “City Repair is great; we’re all on the left. I don’t know why there isn’t more crossover.” According to Doleman, people’s disconnect with nature can lead to its degrada tion and to the oppression of others. “It’s the same thing: You can cut down an old- growth forest only if you don’t understand how valuable it is.” While Lien says she has more compassion for the environment from being in a minority and always rooting for underdog issues, she says protecting the environ ment is not a queer issue alone. “It comes down to your personal health and the health of future generations,” she explains. LIFE DURING WARTIME For Kyle Diesner, it's not about the chil dren. “A lot of people get into the [sustain' ability] movement for their children,” he says. “I know it’s not my driving force. I think ahxit sustaining the life of the human race on the planet.” Diesner did, however, find his environmental roots in childhood. “In an <xld way, my parents raised me to be an environmentalist. My dad’s a conservative Republican who took me camping all the time as a kid and had me out in nature, and my mom has more of an environ mental heart," he says. Now the management assistant at the Portland Office of Sustainable Develop ment, Diesner thought he wanted to study film at UCLA but changed his mind after working at a health fixxl store in his senior year of high school. “I started making connections and thinking about things that were completely off my radar, like organics and why it mattered. I realized my path wasn’t LA.,” he says. The Office of Sustainable Develop ment (www.portlandonline.com/osd) pro vides policy and programs related to ener gy efficiency, renewable resources, waste reduction and recycling, global warming, green building and sustainable fixxl sys tems that support the environmental, social and economic health of Portland. For the past three years, Diesner has worked to provide energy efficiency serv ices to the multifamily community. He works with thé Green Investment Fund, which gives grants for building projects that avoid or reduce negative impacts on the environment. Diesner also staffs Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force, a 12-citizen group that reports to the City Council on the effects of peak oil on Portland and possible ways to mitigate them. “The environmental effects of fossil fuels—from global warming to pollution, from power plants to strip mining for coal to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—coupled with the fact that the majority of the world’s resources are in nations not on the best terms with the U.S....oil is not a secure resource,” Diesner explains. “Marginalized popula tions will be impacted the hardest as the cost of fuel skyrix:k- ets and the cost of everything else rises, like fixxl that trav els 1,500 miles from farm to plate.” According to Diesner, the environment is an issue queers HifaDeco PORTLAND'S TIMV SHOF FULL OF RIG TREASURES THE NATURAL ALTERNATIVE FOR PETFOODS I SUPPLIES think they’re clued in on, but they might not have a vision of the big picture. He says it’s not for a lack of caring. “Speaking as a gay man, gay men tend to be exclusive and hang out with gay men and live in a subculture that doesn’t cross into others easily. That is a major barrier to getting involved in other movements—to leave your comfort zone.” He adds that this phenomenon is similar with other minor ity groups. Diesner says it might take a major environmental disaster to force people to change their lifestyles. “But gay men can affect the change by taking action now to make the world a place we want to live in, have our cities be sustainable and livable,” he says. “Queer people know how to fight for a cause anil defend ourselves—that is a very pow erful skill that every movement needs, and why the gay rights movement has been so successful." 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