Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2011)
viewpoint BY STAN TAYLOR Water for Peace Protecting a basic resource as a public trust I t may seem strange to link the words water and peace together, but in reality they are intimately linked. We live in a world in crisis. Not just some time in the future, but today. Water is an indicator of that crisis at every level — global, national and local. Global climate change, overuse and pollution, have made water a scare resource. Control of water has become a source of confl ict and a source of power. At the recent Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, Vandana Shiva said that climate change manifests itself in water disruption. The melting of the Arctic ice cap and of glaciers around the word, the desertifi cation of vast tracks in Sub-Saharan Africa and the southwestern U.S., and the acidifi cation of the world’s oceans that is killing coral reefs and disrupting ocean food chains, are clear indications she is right. Over-use of water, based upon outdated models that privilege industrial agriculture and resource extraction, has led to the extraction of water from aquifers at rates which exceed their ability to replenish — causing massive water shortages. Studies show that every major waterway and most lakes in the U.S. are polluted with mercury and that all fi sh in these waterways are contaminated. This is just one indicator of the pollutants dumped into our rivers and lakes that undermine the health of our ecosystem. As water scarcity increases, extreme measures are taken that pit users against one another. One example is the proposal to raise the height of the Shasta Dam in northern California by 18 feet to store more water for use by industrial agriculture in the central California valley and for suburban Los Angeles. If this happens, the remaining sacred homelands of the Winnemem Wintu tribe will be submerged, striking a severe blow to their culture and history. The Winnemen Wintu, which means middle water people, are also seeking to restore their sacred salmon to the Mcloud River. The Mcloud salmon were made extinct when the current Shasta Dam was created. Before this extinction occurred, salmon eggs from the Mcloud River were exported to New Zealand and thrived in the Rakaia River. The Maori tribes of New Zealand have re- gifted the salmon to the Winnemem and the salmon are being returned home. The challenge is to rehabilitate the ecosystem so that the salmon may live. Perhaps the most serious threat to water is privatization. Locally, as EW reporter Camilla Mortensen has documented in her “Freshwater Fisticuffs” series, we have private water developers seeking to gain water rights to Willamette River water. Along the Columbia, Nestlé Group — a multinational corporation — is seeking to gain rights to put in a water bottling plant at Cascade Locks that would allow it to take water from Oxbow Springs. In other states where Nestlé has located, water tables have dropped as Nestlé turns local water into a bottled product sold globally. Communities lose control of their local water. Water is necessary for all life and for the Earth’s ecosystem. It seems obvious that water must be a human and ecosystem right, protected as a public trust for the benefi t of all. On Friday, April 15, the Lane Peace Center is holding its annual peace symposium on “Water for Life, Not for Profi t.” You are invited to attend. Information about the symposium is available at: www.lanecc.edu/ peacecenter or by calling 463-5820. letters TEMPORARY TAX I have nothing but gratitude for my children’s education in the Eugene 4J School District. I have experienced dedicated hardworking teachers from the elementary through the high school level. These teachers have been stretched to their capacity to make a difference in the lives of countless children both during and after school. I am afraid that this might come to an end if we don’t do something now. We have asked too much from our teachers already. We are at the bottom of the list on number of school days per year in this country, only beat by one other state. Class sizes are already too large for teachers to attend to students’ independent needs. I support the temporary tax for schools. This tax is intended to preserve school days and class sizes. Some have said that it is unfair that county residents will not have to pay. I urge all non-city residents to join me and many others in pledging to donate the equivalent (or more) to the Eugene Education Fund or the Bethel Education Fund. Our children and the future of this community need our help now. Gwen Gwilym Eugene TAX US, PLEASE Stan Taylor is chair of the Lane Peace Center. He teaches peace studies and environmental politics at Lane Community College. COUPON 1211 ALDER 686-9598 COUPONS GOOD UNTIL APRIL 28 TH , 2011 11AM-MIDNIGHT SUN-THU 11AM-1AM FRI-SAT 11 AM -10PM DAILY SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE 2.00 OFF ANY 18” LARGE $ ® FREE LARGE SODA 2 SLICES W/ PURCHASE OF COUPON COUPON NOW 2 LOCATIONS! A SY'S NEW YORK PIZZA 55 SILVER LN. 654-0603 TO THE EDITOR Public education benefi ts us all — wherever we are in our lifespans, however little we participate directly in public schooling. Our children are grown. Others have no children. Others’ children attend private school. So what? ALL children must learn to think and care for themselves, so they can sustain our shared spaces and public life when they all are grown. We know that, as this tax is written, some who benefi t won’t pay as much — or pay at all. We also know that for a modest price (check your cost at the city’s website under “Education Funding Update”) those who will pay — ourselves among them — will get great value for our dollars. And we will get that value soon, and certainly, rather than maybe someday when, and if, the state reforms school funding. We know money doesn’t guarantee schools’ success. We don’t approve of every school dollar spent; but we also know that too little money guarantees school failure. We know that every public budget is a compromise; and we know that public schools with too few dollars simply cannot do their hugely important job. That’s both a terrible bargain and a true misuse of public funds. So please, Eugene, don’t waste our school dollars. Let’s spend enough to spend them well. Please, raise our income taxes to support public schools! John Holtzapple Vicki Harkovitch Eugene CLOSED-MINDED SLANT I will be watching with interest to see if, and how, EW reports on the recent decision by Springfi eld offi cials not to expand the city’s urban growth boundary. Call me cynical, but I half expect Alan Pittman to fi nd a way put his usual closed- minded slant on the story. Despite Pittman’s assertions over the last couple of years that the only reason to separate Springfi eld’s and Eugene’s urban growth boundaries was to placate the “pro-sprawl” construction interests, it turns out that, after careful review, offi cials in Springfi eld have decided that enough land exists within the city’s current boundary to meet residential needs for the next 20 years, so there’s no need at present to expand the boundary. Imagine that! When Springfi eld is allowed to determine its own future, rather than being bound to its neighbor, the city can sometimes make good decisions! I’ve occasionally complained in this letters column about what I consider EW’s one-sided tactics to promote its editorial point of view. It’s not that I typically disagree with the paper’s stance; on the contrary, as a fellow lefty I long to see intelligent arguments in favor of the positions I support. My problem is with the negative language too often employed by EW, and especially by Pittman, to make its point, as a cheap substitute for the well- reasoned, balanced arguments that would give the paper so much more credibility. When Springfi eld asked the state COUPON 4 APRIL 14, 2011 EUGENE WEEKLY WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
