Eugene weekly., March 01, 2012, Page 10, Image 10

30 PIELC
YEARS
OF
ell your friends “I’m going to spend the weekend at a law conference” and
they’ll fi gure you are in for a really horrible couple days. But when it comes to
the UO’s Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC), attendees are
actually in for some fun and excitement.
From intense discussions of social justice and environmental laws to dance
parties and bumper stickers that ask you to “Eschew Fecundity,” PIELC has it
all. The theme this year, the conference’s 30th anniversary, is “New Frontiers:
The Political Crossroads of Our Environmental Future,” and according to Aileen
Carlos, one of the law student organizers, the conference will continue its tradition of
fostering dialogue and stirring up controversy.
Sometimes that controversy happens at the panels. PIELC co-organizer Bob
O’Halloran Jr. says the scheduled speakers include activists, public interest attorneys
and attorneys from giant corporate law fi rms. Other times the controversy is a little
more stealthy — the halls at PIELC have been stalked by undercover federal agents.
And a large portion of PIELC’s conversations happen in those hallways lined with
tables from an array of organizations that this year will include Occupy Portland,
Oxford University Press, StoveTeam International and Cascadia Wildlands.
Organizer Katie Cummings says PIELC will have panels focusing on the local
— Mayor Kitty Piercy and Commissioner Pete Sorenson are among this year’s
presenters — as well as panels that are more national and international in scope.
Keynoters run the gamut from the multimedia performance of Climbing PoeTree to
Lisa Heinzerling, who was the lead author of Massachusetts vs. EPA, a hugely signifi -
cant environmental case in which the Supreme Court held that the Clean Air Act gives
the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gases.
Environmental geeks will be excited to hear talks by endangered snail darter
attorney Zygmunt Plater and by scientist Tyrone Hayes, whose research has
shown that the widely used herbicide atrazine chemically castrates and feminizes
exposed male amphibians at levels deemed safe by the EPA.
If chemically transgendered amphibians don’t suck you in, go to pielc.org and
peruse the variety of topics the conference features. Conference co-organizer Alek
Wipperman assures EW it will be far from “stultifying.”
At the end of the day, the parties start. Friday night is the PIELC party, or come
dressed as your favorite radical to Saturday night’s Civil Liberties Defense Center
“Solidarity with Earth Defenders Free Radical Dance Craze” at Territorial Vineyards.
The conference runs from the afternoon of March 1 to the morning of March 4 and
organizers say it once again will be fueled by free coffee. PIELC itself is free, but there
are many good causes to donate to.
— Camilla Mortensen
T
HIGH STAKES,YOUNG FOLKS
Half a decade ago, 17-year-old Alec Loorz saw a future so
bright he had to wear shades — and that got him worried.
Now Loorz, speaking March 2 at PIELC, is committed to
saving his generation from the disastrous effects of climate
change.
Without serious action, Loorz warns, he and the rest
of his generation will have to cope with the aftermath of
past generations’ lack of climate policy: fl oods, droughts,
wildfi res, more intense hurricanes, melting glaciers and
species extinction.
Loorz is part of several lawsuits that aim to prevent
the worst of climate change from happening. The suits are
based on the public trust doctrine, which says that certain
resources, such as air and water, are for everyone, and that
individuals can’t ruin them at the expense of the public. Two
Eugene residents, Olivia Chernaik (11) and Kelsey Juliana
(15), brought a suit to the Oregon courts.
“It seems like bringing this issue to the judicial branch is
something that really has a chance to be powerful,” Loorz
says. “It seems like if this has a chance to create some real
change, it really would be ground-breaking — it would be a
historical moment.”
The suits seek to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6
percent each year, effective immediately. The plan is based
on NASA scientist James Hansen’s conclusions on what is
needed to save the planet.
“It has to be big,” Loorz recognizes. “That 6 percent
number, that’s what science says needs to happen if we
actually want to avoid the worst effects of climate change.”
Loorz founded Kids vs. Global Warming at age 12, and he
has spoken to more than 300,000 people about how climate
change will affect his generation. “When I fi rst started doing
this I had nothing: no money, no contacts and no idea what
I was doing,” he says.
He says he’s learned both the scientifi c and the
philosophical in the past fi ve years. He envisions a
widespread change in mindset that questions the way “we
value short term interests like money and convenience more
than anything else, and I feel like if we actually want to solve
climate change that’s what you have to change.”
Loorz isn’t the only teen speaking at the conference.
Nelson Kanuk, a native Alaskan from Kipnuk who is also 17,
will speak about how climate change is already affecting his
family. They’ve lost eight feet of land in the past year, and
the river will reach their home if it rises another 40 feet.
The Atmospheric Trust litigation plaintiffs, including
Loorz, Kanuk and Montana farmer John Thiebes, speak 5:30
pm Friday, March 2, at PIELC. — Shannon Finnell
SOUL SISTERS AT PIELC
PHOTO BY GALERIA DE L A R A Z A
In the realm of microphone craft, there are spoken word artists, there are emcees and
there are vocalists. It is seldom the case that a performer achieves fl uid mastery of all
three talents. Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman of Climbing PoeTree are two artists who
encompass this mastery, as well as an ability to fuse their musical projects with righteous
political intention. They will be performing at PIELC as keynoters 5:30 pm Friday, March 2.
These self-proclaimed soul sisters hailing from Brooklyn bring with them elements of
hip hop, jazz and spoken word lyricism that are politically poignant and artistically bold.
The group sounds as if Erykah Badu and (early) Lauryn Hill have been possessed by The
Last Poets, with shades of Miguel Piñero and Saul Williams bleeding into the mixture of
word, sound and power.
“May we set free the Gods that we are,” says Penniman, in brazen poetic form. And
although this statement may come off as rather transcendental, the path that Climbing
PoeTree has taken is one of artistic activism.
Climbing PoeTree’s performances “speak to the predominant issue of environmental
justice,” says PIELC co-organizer Aileen Carlos, touching on one of the many political
issues addressed by the group’s content.
Education and community organizing are a signifi cant part of Climbing PoeTree’s
contributions. The duo has facilitated workshops in correctional institutions such as
Rikers Island Prison Complex, Clark County Juvenile Detention Center and the New
Haven Correctional Facility, and they’ve developed a curriculum for schools that
incorporates their music and performance in an effort to address issues of violence,
women’s empowerment, environmental justice, racial inequality and human rights.
Their Friday night multimedia performance incorporating spoken-word poetry, video
projection and movement choreography at PIELC is in the UO’s EMU Ballroom. PIELC
offers another politically charged artistic event on Sunday, March 4; check out Greedy Lying
Bastards , a documentary of the BP oil disaster by Craig Rosebraugh. — Dante Zuñiga-West
10 MARCH 1, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
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