Eugene weekly., June 14, 2012, Page 6, Image 6

tribe went well and a practice run involving a closure of the
stretch of riverfront went smoothly.
For those interested in traveling down and lending
support, email info@cldc.org
— Ted Shorack
TRIBAL RIGHTS
GAIN SUPPORT
FROM LOCAL CLDC
SIX AMERICAS
OF LITERACY
ON CLIMATE
The Winnemem Wintu tribe of Northern California has
tried for years to perform their traditional coming of age
ceremony in peace on the McCloud River, but they are often
met with drunken boaters who shout and disregard the
location’s sanctity. This year Eugene’s Civil Liberties
Defense Center (CLDC) is trying to help.
During the coming of age ceremony girls from the tribe
swim across the river, symbolizing childhood being left
behind. On June 30 through July 3, the tribe plans on holding
its coming of age ceremony, which is of utmost importance
because the future chief will be taking part this year.
Members of the traditional matriarchal tribe have tried to
reserve a 400-yard stretch of the McCloud River, which
stretches alongside the Sacramento River, but have not
received an official reservation from the U.S. Forest Service.
The tribe has been left with no other option than to
proceed with the ceremony without a blocked-off area. The
CLDC has partnered with the tribe to address any issues that
may arise during the ceremony this year. “We are advising
them regarding civil disobedience that they may end up
engaging in,” says Lauren Regan, director and staff attorney
for the CLDC. “We are doing know-your-rights training,
we’re organizing legal observers, [and] we’re assisting them
in dealing with various law enforcement.”
The Forest Service excuse for not allowing the river
closure, according to Regan, is that the tribe is not a federally
registered tribe. She adds, at one point the tribe was offered
federal recognition if they built a casino. “They adamantly
refused to do that,” she says.
The CLDC and other organizations up and down the West
Coast are planning to go down and support the tribe on June
30 in solidarity.
“They really have no other option,” Regan says. “They
call it cultural genocide and they believe if they don’t stand
up and resist it at this point they will be exterminated
completely.”
Tribe officials have asked for supporters to use kayaks
and boats to block off the 400 yard stretch for this year’s
ceremony to take place. On June 2 a war dance held by the
What image comes to mind when you hear the words
“global warming”? Ice shelves crashing? Shrinking glaciers?
Polar bears stranded on floating ice chunks?
If you answered one of the above, i.e. melting ice, then
you chose the most common response among Americans in
a poll conducted by Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the
Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. Leisorwitz,
who received the UO’s first Ph.D. in environmental studies
in 2003, returned to Eugene this spring to give a talk on
“Climate Change in the American Mind” at the Many
Nations Long House.
This question is part of a broader study released by
Leisorwitz in 2011, “Global Warming’s Six Americas,”
which explores public opinion trends on climate change and
the state of Americans’ climate literacy. According to the
study, overall public concern for climate change has
decreased since it peaked in 2007-08. Between 2008 and
2011, there has been a 10 percent drop in public understanding
that climate change is human caused and a 13 percent decline
in Americans who believe there is a scientific consensus,
even though 97 percent of climate scientists agree about
climate change. So what gives?
“We have to resist the temptation to point to a single
cause,” says Leisorwitz. A perfect storm of factors has
caused climate change to recede from public consciousness:
the economy and unemployment, the “climategate” email
scandal, the unusually cold weather since 2008 (think
snowpocalypse), an effective denial industry, and a drop in
media coverage. According to Leisorwitz, since 2007 there
has been a two-thirds drop in newspaper coverage and a 90
percent drop in nightly network news coverage.
“Most Americans don’t read the peer-reviewed literature,”
say Leisorwitz. “If the media doesn’t report this issue, it’s
literally out of sight and out of mind.”
He has also identified a new defining factor. “Americans
don’t speak with a single voice on this issue,” he says. The
study polled more than 1,000 people nationwide and found
that the nation falls into six categories:
Alarmed (12 percent): Those who believe climate change
SHAPING HOW CITIES
GROW IN HEALTHY WAYS
Dr. Richard Jackson
6 JUNE 14, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
Noted scientist, public speaker and professor Dr. Richard
Jackson will be visiting cities throughout Oregon this
summer to address the relationship between human health
and the environmental conditions we’ve created in our cities
and suburbs. Jackson’s first stop in the 2012 Healthy
Communities Speaker Series is Eugene’s downtown Public
Library Tuesday, June 19. A reception with the speaker
begins at 5 pm, followed by a lecture and discussion from
5:45 to 7 pm.
“It’s very exciting, very timely,” says Terri Harding of
Eugene’s Planning Division. “He’s really bridging the fields
of planning transportation and public health in a way,” she
says, “that is kind of a call to action to us working on these
things.” Harding acts as the event’s contact for those
interested in more detail about the occasion.
Jackson is also professor and chair within the School of
Public Health at UCLA. He lectures on linkages between
environmental conditions and human health — with an
emphasis on the “built” environment being one such factor
with a major influence on our health — and he has published
is happening, it’s human caused, and it’s an urgent problem.
Concerned (27 percent): People who believe climate
change is happening, it’s human caused, but it’s not urgent.
Cautious (25 percent): The cautious wonder if climate
change is human-caused or natural, if it’s a serious risk or
exaggerated. They are also the most willing to change their
minds.
Disengaged (10 percent): The group that has heard of
global warming but knows nothing about it. “Knowledge is
one of the main barriers keeping them from being engaged,”
says Leisorwitz.
Doubtful (15 percent): They don’t believe that global
warming is happening, and if they do, it’s a natural part of the
climate system.
Dismissive (10 percent): People who are firmly convinced
that climate change is not happening.
“Each one needs to be engaged in their own terms,” says
Leisorwitz. “If you don’t know who you’re trying to reach
and what they know, what they don’t know, and what their
values are, it’s like trying to throw darts in a crowded room
with the lights off.”
Want to know which “America” you fall into? Take the
quiz at http://uw.kqed.org/climatesurvey
— Alexandra Notman
NESTLÉ WANTS
YOUR WATER
The giant multi-national food company, Nestlé, has its
eye on Cascade Locks, a small town east of Portland, for its
first water-bottling plant in the Pacific Northwest. But
environmental watchdog groups and locals are having none
of it.
Oregon has had an uneasy relationship with bottled water
in recent years. The UO has flirted with the idea of banning
plastic water bottles on campus, and Pacific University did
so in 2011. The UO’s Take Back the Tap campaign has
resulted in drinking fountains with spigots for refilling
reusable water bottles and a campaign to give out free
reusable bottles.
But the proposed Nestlé plant brings up other issues as
well, such as public access to water and whether private
companies should be able to own and control large amounts
of Oregon’s water supply. This is an issue Lane County
residents face as well as climate changes makes water even
more valuable. Willamette Water Co., a private company, has
been trying to get the rights to 22 million gallons a day of
water out of Eugene’s water source, the McKenzie River.
The proposed Columbia Gorge plant at Cascade Locks
would draw water from Oxbow Springs and could potentially
books on the topic.
He works in pursuit of changing policy to mirror
conscious, health-centric lawmaking decisions. In California,
his work contributed toward gaining legal rights for people
exposed to pesticides.
In addition to city of Eugene, sponsors of this local event
include Lane Coalition for Healthy Active Youth and
PeaceHealth. State of Oregon sponsors are made up of the
Education and Outreach Committee of the Oregon Chapter of
the American Planning Association, 1000 Friends of Oregon,
Oregon Environmental Council and the Oregon Transportation
and Growth Management Program.
“It’s a very pertinent discussion to be having,” says
Harding, “to shape how our cities grow in a way that is going
to benefit our public health in the best way that we can.”
Jackson is from California, where his research on
biomonitoring chemical levels in community environments
and his influential work in policy is receiving growing
attention.
To learn more about Jackson and the event, visit www.
friends.org/DesigningHealthyCommunities or the Speaker
Series’ Facebook Event page, “Designing Healthy
Communities.”
— Stacey M. Hollis
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM