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Show www.dailyutahchronicle.corn 5 OPINION Wednesday, February 23, 2011 Climate change too big for small fixes O n Feb. 9, all U students, faculty and staff received an e-mail asking them to take the U Sustainability Pledge. It offered the same recycled, easy ways to "Go Green" most have heard many times. However, for the U to step forward as a leader in climate justice and sustainability, it must take a stronger stance on opposing the damaging aspects of our energy system. The pledge asked respondents to take on actions typically associated with the environmental movement. For example, people could pledge to bring their own reusable bags whenever they shop or to eat healthier food and less meat. All of the options are obvious, beneficial steps that everyone should take. The problem is, they don't match up to the scale of the problem. During a nearly three-hour presentation last week, Emma Bee, a representative of the Beehive Design Collective, which spent more than two years' research on the coal in- LOGAN FROERER 4 Opinion Writer dustry and its effects on people, said that the central question we must ask is, "How do we create a socially and environmentally just energy system?" The massive collaborative banner about "The True Cost of Coal" that she explained throughout the presentation illustrated the complex effects on humans and the environment. It doesn't take charts, graphs or deep scientific understanding to see that the energy system we depend on is not just. The tops of Appalachian mountaintops are being blown off and dumped into sensitive streams to rip out the coal underneath. An expanse of arboreal forest the size of Florida has been ripped up in Alberta, Canada, for tar sands, leaving behind toxic tailing lakes. Future generations will never get to experience those lands. Let's also consider the effects of climate change. In 2050, factoring in climate change, worldwide risk of hunger is projected to "increase by 10 to 20 percent, and child malnutrition is anticipated to be 20 percent higher" than it would without climate change, according to the report on "Climate Change, Food Insecurity and Hunger" submitted by a group led by the World Food Program. Let's look at how the U wants us to respond to these environmental destructions and increasing threats of starvation. We are asked to change our light bulbs and take a bus. We've lost the ability to see just how big this problem is, and continuing to push for these small fixes keeps us distanced from reality. We're told this is the largest crisis humanity has ever faced—that's 66 We've lost the ability to see just how big this problem is, and continuing to push for these small fixes keeps us distanced from reality. probably correct. The easy energy that has fueled society is running out, forcing us to turn to riskier, more damaging sources such as deepwater drilling and tar sands. Meanwhile, external problems, environmental degradation and extreme weather patterns continue to set in. The U should step up to encourage and support direct, meaningful action on behalf of future generations and the right of humans to a healthy environment. Only then will it be a legitimate national leader in sustainability. "(We must) question the basic idea that if we keep buying the right thing, we will change," Bee said. "We have to engage ourselves as political agents to create change." To allow our entrenched, damaging system to continue without change, retreating comfortably into our homes filled with energyefficient appliances, will mean more mountains blown apart, more lands ripped up in search of fuels, and more greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere. This problem is too big for fluorescent light bulbs and cute reusable bags. The U should begin to ask students, staff, and faculty to respond to this problem with actions that reflect the reality of the threat. letters@chronicle.utah.edu LETTERS TO THE EDITOR MEC in a downward spiral and needs to be restored Editor: As a graduate and one-time employee of the Middle East Center, the present situation is deplorable. In a few short years, the center has steadily spiraled downward from a nationally recognized, well-funded institution, to little short of an afterthought. I really don't know all the causes, but when the director is caught plagiarizing in an editorial and then responds that he didn't know he needed to cite his sources, that does not exactly bode well for the future or inspire confidence in students. In addition, the Hebrew program (which certainly was never a priority in the center) is now defunct for all intents and purposes—no one remains from my recent days there and turnover appears to be rampant. After a purge of center faculty and the loss of the federal grant held since the center was founded in 196o, the current situation is very sad, indeed. I hope that measures will be taken to restore federal grants and return the center to a position of strength and relevance. Bryan Buchanan, U alumnus, 2005, Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew Less parking equals less pollution MAX MYERS/The Daily Utah Chronicle Civil disobedience should be commended, not punished T im DeChristopher faces felony charges for what he did after his "Current Economic Problems" final exam at the U. What was it? He disrupted a crime in process. Without intention to pay, DeChristopher bid up prices and won leases in the last-minute Bush administration's Bureau of Land Management auction of Utah's lands to gas and oil companies. This auction failed standards, requirements and also failed to communicate with respective agencies. DeChristopher's reward for fighting crime? Up to io years in prison. His auction was itself illegal. You'd think that would count for something. DeChristopher's defense motioned to use "necessity defense"—a lesser crime was necessary to stop a greater harm—but U.S. District Judge Dee Benson denied it. Yes, it has high criteria. One of Benson's assertions was exceptionally weak— that DeChristopher should have participated in more conventional forms of protests, such as petitions or filing lawsuits. Never mind that what others had done to oppose it had so far failed to stop the auction, and DeChristopher thought that if he didn't do something else, he strongly expected that the auction wouldn't be stopped. DeChristopher's attorneys motioned to use a "selective prosecution" defense. Its criteria is excessively difficult to meet. Benson ruled that it wasn't met. Pat Shea, DeChristopher's attorney and former head of the BLM, said 25 other "bid-walkers" in Utah have won and did not pay in BLM auctions. None were prosecuted. DeChristopher's lawyer filed a re- STEWART THORPE Opinion Writer quest that the government produce internal documents that could show why DeChristopher is being prosecuted and why other "bid-walkers" aren't. Benson denied it. Rest assured, DeChristopher's prosecution is selective prosecution—whether or not it meets technical criteria. This trial is not about the law. It's about making people afraid of standing in the way. The trial is actually a court-drama play written especially for the public—all expenses paid by our taxes and up to io years of a man's life. The verdict is predetermined before the actors enter the final court scene. The government wants us to sit through this play, and come away thinking to ourselves: "Why, you know, civil disobedience just isn't worth its price!" or "Civil disobedience is just bad, bad, bad no matter what!" The apparent criteria for being charged for bidding without intent to pay appears to be motive. If your motives are the highest of motives, you're charged. Otherwise, you aren't. DeChristopher saw that gas and oil companies' acquisition of Utah's lands would further push us into the climate crisis, and he felt this deserved something more serious than just holding a sign. "Rather than all the great facts and figures that we have to answer the question of how serious the climate crisis is, civil disobedience answers that question by saying: `It's so serious that I am going to put myself on the line for it,' " he said in an interview with www.solveclimatenews.com . "I think that reaches people on an entirely different level that's much more motivating than all of the scientific answers we have." The government hopes in its prosecution against DeChristopher that people will overlook the contradictory evidence of social movements' history, something we're reminded of at least annually on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. His and many others' examples are indisputable evidence for a strong verdict in favor of civil disobedience as both morally justifiable and worth the cost. Their lives prove beyond a reasonable doubt that civil disobedience doesn't, in fact, sacrifice your freedom—it gives freedom. It gives people freedom from obedience to injustice and from feeling powerless. DeChristopher said the lesson he's learned of civil disobedience is that, "I do have the power to influence the course of my society." This, for him, "has been extremely liberating," even when it means facing jail time. I don't need to know the trial's verdict. I already know the verdict that matters: Civil disobedience gets the goods. letters@chronicle.utah.edu Tim DeChristopher might be giving a talk at Countdown to Uprising Empowerment Summit at Westminster College, Feb. 25-27. His trial is Feb. 28. — Editor: I've been pleased to see the amount of parking on and near campus declining for the past few years. It's made it more difficult to park on campus, and induced more people to ride the train. Every winter the inversion gets worse, and Utahns spend more and more time breathing what is increasingly composed of "car feces." Anything that convinces people not to drive is a good thing. While visiting the University of Arizona in Tucson, I was appalled at the number of parking garages—appalled at both the amount of expensive land they took up and the enormous expense they represented. At $5,000 per parking space, each garage represented $10-15 million investments. And you still can't find a parking space there. Westminster just spent tens of millions building its own parking garage, and parking remains a problem. If you provide convenient parking, people will drive. If tuition is going to go up, I'd rather it not go to provide cheap parking. Ideally, the U and UTA would get together and provide some sort of transit service that actually serves the center of campus, instead of just the edge of business loop or Stadium. Matthew Miller, Graduate Student, Urban Planning Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@chronicle.utah. edu. Letters should be fewer than 350 words and must include the writer's name. Letters from students should also include the writer's major and year in school. Letters from U faculty and staff should include department and title. Letters from alumni should include the year the writer graduated. All other letters must include the sender's name and city of residence. All letters become property of The Daily Utah Chronicle and may be edited for style, length and content. Napa! Deals for food, entertainment and everything else for students, faculty and staff at the University of Utah. Go to www.UtahCampusDeals.com and sign up today to get $10 in Deal Bucks! |
