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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2018)
NEWS BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN ENVIRONMENTAL SHINDIG AT THE UO The annual PIELC conference addresses green topics E very year, as spring returns to Oregon, so do hordes of environmentalists and law- yers. This is the 36th year of the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC), and as always the community is invited to come hear the plethora of green talks at the University of Oregon March 1-4. According to Thomas Boone, one of this year’s PIELC organizers, the confer- ence features 120 panels and five keynote speakers. Boone says PIELC’s variety of panels on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is particularly pertinent in an era in which the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle environmental reforms. Also up against the Trump administration is Juliana v. U.S., the much-publicized law- suit by 21 youth plaintiffs against the U.S. government on the issue of climate change. The Juliana in question is South Eugene High grad Kelsey Juliana. Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit behind the lawsuit, gives a keynote speech 5:30 pm Friday, March 2. Local attendees will be reminded of the fires that blanketed Lane County this past sum- mer at panels such as Saturday’s “Using Fires as an Excuse to Clearcut: Fire Ecology and Federal Forest Policy” and “Wildland Fire in Oregon: Which Way Forward?” also on Saturday. Parker Brigance, a fellow member of the PIELC organizing team, points to the 6 pm Thursday, March 1, keynote speech by Richard W. Spinrad as relevant in light of Trump’s moves to open U.S. waters up for offshore drilling. Spinrad is a professor of oceanography at Oregon State University and retired chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration (NOAA). Other panel topics include films such as WALL-E and The Hunger Games in an envi- ronmental context, beavers, fracking, coal, dams, wolves and more. PIELC also plays host to an extensive array of groups and causes who will be tabling at the UO School of Law over the course of the weekend. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is a perennial favorite. Boone says the conference made an effort to elevate the voices of those who ordinarily go unheard, acknowledging that the environmental movement is “really white and male.” And, he says, the keynote speakers are those who serve the public, “not the big elites, but people who see what the grassroots are putting out there.” ■ PIELC is Thursday afternoon, March 1, through Sunday, March 4, at the University of Oregon School of Law. For more information and a panel brochure go to pielc.org. FREE. REPLACEMENT SPECIALISTS • FINANCING AVAILABLE Mention this ad for EE S FR ATE TIM ES $200 OFF Installation of new equipment www.jamesheating.com CCB #47396 Talk to a serviceman on the phone for free! 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Innocenti Lic. #5242-C Virginia Grise Speaks and Performs Truths We Should Know IT’S ABOUT TIME BY D AV I D WA G N E R MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018 – 3-5PM | 242 GERLINGER Almost thirty years ago a new, annual species of geranium showed up at the Mount Pisgah Arboretum wildflower show. It is known as shining geranium or Geranium lucidum. It spread rapidly through the woodlands of Mount Pisgah. Within 10 years SOFT GERANIUM, it became the dominant under- GERANIUM MOLLE story herb. It is now almost ev- erywhere in western Oregon. Considerable effort is devot- ed to combatting species that disrupt native ecosystems. English ivy was originally widely planted, but now it is illegal to plant because it has proven to be fiercely invasive. With the shining geranium, how- ever, there was never a chance to keep it at bay. It spread so rapidly that we now have to accept it as being here to stay. Many weedy species came with the arrival of Europeans in North America. To the original natives of the continent, Europeans brought with them an invasive culture and invasive plant species. We prefer to call the human invaders settlers, pioneers or migrants, so why not the plants? Their arrival was not by choice but they migrated thanks to opportunities given by some agent like wind or animals. Successful spread is what makes them “invasive.” We cannot always determine if a new arrival is a natural, opportu- nistic migrant or a human-mediated invasive. But when something like shining geranium arrives, it doesn’t matter whether you call it a recent migrant or an invasive. Its presence must be simply accept- ed. It seems to me that those who are now called “illegal immigrants” deserve similar acceptance. David Wagner is a botanist who works in Eugene. He teaches moss classes, leads nature walks and makes nature calendars. He can be contacted through his web- site, fernzenmosses.com. Your Healing is Killing Me is a performance manifesto written by Virginia Grise based on lessons learned in San Antonio free health clinics and New York acupuncture schools; from the treatments and consejos of curanderas, abortion doctors, Marxist artists, community health workers, and bourgie dermatologists. One artist’s refl ections on living with post-traumatic stress disorder, ansia, and eczema in the new age of trigger warnings, the master cleanse, and Kickstarter-funded self-care. Capitalism is toxic but The Revolution is not in your body butter. Part lecture, part performance, part writing workshop. A Special Stage Reading of the sold out, popular local play featuring members of our local refugee and immigrant neighbors! TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018 – 6PM UO EMU Redwood Room 214 (down 18th to University -- between 13th and 15th ave.) FREE ADMISSION Sponsored by: UO Multicultural Center, Community Alliance of Lane County, Eugene Peaceworks, Muslim Student Assoc., No Lost Generation, MEChA, ROAR/Radical Organizing, Activist Resource Center, Arab Student Union, KEPW 97.3 radio, Division of Equity and Inclusion Minority Voices Theatre. Woven together by playwright Nancy Hopps and original director Carol Dennis and Therese Picado eugeneweekly.com • March 1, 2018 7
