BY SAMANTHA CHIRILLO, SHANNON WILSON AND JOSH SCHLOSSBERG
A Response to Failure
Enviros need a change in tactics
L
ately, we’ve been hearing a lot about eco-sabotage and the absurdity of
calling these acts “terrorism.” Yet the question remains: What led once
law-abiding citizen activists to take such desperate measures in the name
of the Earth?
For at least part of the answer, we need look no further than the failure of the
mainstream environmental movement to achieve genuine and lasting protections
for the planet. Now, more than ever before, we must breathe new life into true
grassroots activism by addressing root problems instead of just symptoms. Only
then will we be able to keep people from giving up hope.
Yet today there is an epidemic of environmental groups abandoning strong
stances for a “seat at the table” of politicians. Instead of picking a stance and
fighting like hell for it, the tactics of many greens have devolved to scrambling for
any crumbs brushed off the bargaining table and then crying “Victory!”
Not only have these tactics not influenced government, they have failed to
send a clear message to the public. In fact, many greens have essentially cut the
public out of their operations, expected nothing beyond yearly dues or a token
email.
Further examples of missed opportunities abound in each of the various
“rights” movements – environmental, animal, human/civil, labor – which have cho-
sen to pursue their own isolated missions rather than confront the common
enemy: corporate power and rule. As corporations have gained more power, the
environmental movement, especially, has abandoned its original grassroots
momentum.
While the climate crisis makes national news, strangely absent from the debate
is how logging the world’s forests causes one third of human-made carbon emis-
sions. With all the life-sustaining benefits that forests provide, such as air, water
and soil, when will we see the headline: “Clearcuts Cause Climate Change”?
Disengaged from the citizenry, shunning other movements and capitulating at
every turn, the environmental movement has failed to connect human civilization,
a healthy environment and consumer power in the national psyche. The following
are just a few of the resulting assaults on forests, our global cooling factories:
• BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revisions: a backroom sweetheart settlement
with timber barons to axe old-growth protections from 2.5 million acres of public
forests;
• Fish and Wildlife’s latest Spotted Owl Extinction Plan;
• Logging under the guise of “fire prevention”;
• Forest biomass extraction;
• Bogus “restoration” on public lands, exploiting Latino immigrants.
What we propose is not the whole solution, only a missing part of the solution:
being radical inside the system.
Now is the time to seize the mounting concern over climate change. Now is the
time to add more uncompromising voices truly advocating for the people and the
forest. Now is the time to stop just playing defense and start scoring some points.
With public opinion overwhelmingly on our side, why are a handful of timber
barons calling the shots?
O
ne under-utilized tactic to protect our forests is targeting the pocket-
books of the individuals directly responsible for ecosystem destruction:
the timber barons. The boycott of Umpqua Bank, or StUmpqua (whose
board of directors are the most notorious clearcutters and pesticide sprayers in
Oregon), has already cost the bank tens of millions of dollars.
Instead of burning down buildings, why not educate customers of eco-con-
scious businesses, like Market of Choice, to encourage the company to take its
$100 million account away from Umpqua and do its banking elsewhere? You’d
have to burn down hundreds of buildings to even come close to those numbers!
Some insist that working inside the system can never work as our problems lie
at the very root of civilization. A growing number of these individuals truly are
removing themselves from the culture of overconsumption.
However, while permaculture and bicycling must become commonplace, they
alone will not stop the timber beast from clearcutting valley and mountain, poison-
ing and drying up your drinking water, smothering salmon and exacerbating global
warming. We don’t have the luxury of looking the other way and pretending Earth-
death isn’t happening. The only choice is to confront these issues head-on.
Few would deny that we need massive structural change in our government, in
our society, in our culture. One approach is to pound our fists on the reinforced
walls of the “system” from the outside. But how soon we forget that the most
effective way to bring down any “system” has always been to knock out the sup-
ports from the inside.
Samantha Chirillo, Shannon Wilson and Josh Schlossberg are co-directors of the all-volunteer Eugene-based
group Cascadia’s Ecosystem Advocates. They can be contacted at tsuga@efn.org
4 JUNE 21, 2007
TO THE EDITOR
TAX THE PETS
Personally I don’t have a problem with
euthanasia, but I do have a solution to the
overwhelming pet problem. Tax all pet prod-
ucts just the same as liquor, cigarettes and
gas. If you don’t drive a car, then you don’t
pay a gas tax. If you have a pet, you pay a pet
tax. The only reason we have so many aban-
doned pets is because of the irresponsibility
of pet owners. Rather than lay the burden on
those of us who don’t want pets, pet owners
should have to ante up for this responsibility.
Tax all pet products: food, toys, litter boxes
and litter, leashes, the pets themselves, all
veterinary services and medicine, everything.
This would easily raise enough money to take
care of the overpopulation created by the very
people who are responsible for the problem.
Then fine pet owners a substantial amount
when their pets are picked up running loose.
This amount would need to be high enough to
pay for the personnel needed to pick up the
wayward pets, and make the fine an ever in-
creasing amount for each violation. Pet own-
ers who abuse their animals need to visit the
slammer, and the fine should be large enough
to pay for the entire life of the pet.
Paul Gillespie
Creswell
COUGH IT UP
My grass allergies were so bad
the other night that I was up until
2 am sneezing nonstop for five
hours, to the point where I
thought I had to go to the
emergency room. All this de-
spite being on a $3 a day pre-
scription allergy medicine. In
Eugene, we have the highest grass
seed pollen count in the world, thanks
to Linn County (“Grass Seed Capital of the
World”) grass seed growers. While health
hazards from grass field burning are finally in
the public’s (watering, bloodshot) eye, why
are we not addressing the misery of allergy
sufferers that comes from simply growing the
grass seed in the first place?
I propose that grass seed growers be held
accountable for covering the costs of every
allergy sufferer in the Willamette Valley. I,
myself, will be sending copies of my allergy
medicine receipts, along with a letter asking
for financial reimbursement, to the industry
lobby group: Oregon Grass Seed Council,
1193 Royvonne Ave. S., Suite 11, Salem
97302. I encourage all other allergy sufferers
to do the same. Come to think of it, with all
this recent talk of “sustainability,” why are
we still wasting water, fossil fuels and topsoil
to grow hundreds of thousands of acres of
grass seed for ornamental lawns instead of
the crops we need to feed ourselves?
Michelle D’Amico
Eugene
YAY SAVAGE LOVE
I just wanted to contribute my support for
Dan Savage and his column. I am so de-
lighted that EW runs this refreshing and
sometimes informative feature. I am a mother
of six children and work in the sex education
field and feel strongly that open communica-
tion about all sexuality should be respected
and tolerated. America has the highest teen
pregnancy and abortion rates in the industri-
alized world because here in the U.S. sex is
treated in such an unhealthy manner and chil-
dren are taught to fear their impulses and hide
their curiosity. Nations (such as Germany)
that have more honest and open exposure to
sex have astoundingly lower teen pregnancy
rates. Check out great resources such as
www.theresnoplacelikehome.com
and www.new3rs.info/home.php
Thanks again for continuing to
publish my favorite feature in
EW!
Alex Julian-Swift
Springfield
WALK IN MY SHOES
All my life I’ve had to bite my tongue
when Oct. 12 came around because of the ro-
mantic delusions that a certain cross-section
of the population has with Christopher
Columbus. But the last few years have been
very traumatic for me. Between 2002 and
2004 Lewis and Clark was the focus of cele-
bration, despite the fact that event led to the
mass murder of native people as well as envi-
ronmental devastation. This year in Virginia