Category Archives: CSSC Blog
Emergency Petition on Fracking to Governor Brown
by: Shosanna Howard, Campaign Director, Students Against Fracking
“We, the undersigned Petitioners, hereby petition the Honorable Edmund G. Brown to use his emergency powers under the duties of the Governor’s office to protect Californians from imminent threats to public health and safety by implementing an immediate statewide moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other forms of well stimulation.”
Last week, over a hundred health, environmental, and social justice organizations submitted an emergency petition to Governor Brown demanding he put an immediate moratorium on fracking until there is substantial research on the health impacts of the extraction process. California Student Sustainability Coalition is one of the groups that has signed on.
Governor Brown has thirty days, starting from February 26th, to respond to the petition. His decision could significantly shift the fracking and oil extraction industry in the state. Imagine, if Brown responds with agreement and imposes an immediate halt to fracking operations and creates a timeline for significant health and environmental studies to take place in the regions fracked most, such as Kern County, we could activate the masses and ensure fracking stops once and for all.
The ask is simple - study the consequences of the extraction process. Question why people, children, in Kern County are being diagnosed with cancer, asthma, and other ailments that those living far from stimulation wells are fortunate enough not to be experiencing. And let’s not forget, fracking wastes our precious water resources, turning clean water into poison, never to be used again.
This petition is not a symbolic gesture, it is an opportunity for Gov. Brown to be bold and courageous — this is a chance for him to stand up for the people and for the land we thrive from.
We wait, with baited breath for his response.
Los Angeles: Anti-Fracking Champion
by:Arlo Bender-Simon
While Kern County is home to over 75% of California’s fossil fuel production and the Bay area is California’s hub for social justice activism, Los Angeles County is home to millions of people living right next to oil and gas operations.
Part 2: The Fight Against Fracking In The Los Angeles Area
In February of 2014, the LA city council voted to draft legislation that would place a temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing and acidization. While city residents still wait to see any such draft legislation, anti-fracking momentum is growing.
Hydraulic Fracturing is a technique that has gained notoriety over the last decade for its role extracting natural gas; yet here in California, we frack for oil. “Fracking” is a fossil fuel extraction technique that involves high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals to fracture/crack apart formations of petroleum-bearing shale rock deep beneath the ground in order to release the oil and gas trapped within. “Acidizing” is a similar technique that relies on a much more intense chemical mixture to dissolve, rather than fracture the rock formation. These, and other “well stimulation treatments” are the same in that they require massive amounts of water to be injected underground to effectively lubricate the oil out of the ground….and they are both being employed in Los Angeles county.
We are learning that the injection of huge amounts of water underground can increase seismicity, causing the historically stable state of Oklahoma to challenge California for reputation as state with the most earthquakes. But what occurs much closer to the surface may be more troubling.
The wells that extend down to the rock formations pass through groundwater aquifers, which are a major source of drinking water. All it takes is one crack in the cement well casing for oil and fracking chemicals to begin leaking into these aquifers. At the surface, production facilities spew air pollution and are hubs of high volumes of truck traffic.
To top it all off, the water that is injected to stimulate the formation returns to the surface with the produced oil. Not only does it still contain the chemicals it was injected with, this water has now been mixed with all the toxicity associated with oil as well as naturally occurring radiation from deep underground. This water must be disposed of somewhere, most likely via an injection well, adding to the risks of groundwater contamination with more opportunity for well casing failure.
These risks, and more, have prompted hundreds of communities across the country to enact bans on well stimulation.
City Of LA Is Not Alone!
When the city council voted back in February, they made LA the largest city in the USA to ban fracking within its jurisdiction (though this is yet to be enforced). Los Angeles is not alone in this struggle, not even within LA County.
Culver City[1]
Culver City sits just west of the largest urban oil field in America[2]. The Baldwin Hills/Inglewood Oil field takes up over 1000 acres; fracking has been ongoing at this field for at least ten years.
Though both Culver City and the Inglewood Oil field are surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, they are outside city limits and under jurisdiction of the county government. In 2008, the LA County Board Of Supervisors adopted the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District to address the “special problem” that is the largest urban oil field in the country.
Figure 4 Inglewood/Baldwin Hills Oil Field (google maps); Homes within sight nearby[3].
The Culver City government has also taken its own action. In 2009 the city council enacted a moratorium on fracking. Though very little oil production at the neighboring oil field occurs within Culver City limits, there was enough to prompt PXP (the field’s operator at the time) to file suit against the law. The moratorium was upheld in court and lasted until 2011. Culver City is now considering a fracking ban of its own.
Carson
The city of Carson is home to over 90,000 people, an Ikea and the Los Angeles Galaxy, a soccer team that plays in a stadium on the California State University, Dominguez Hills campus; it is also home to significant amounts of fossil fuel production, as well as pieces of three separate refineries operated by Tesoro, BP, and Phillips66.
In March 2014, this city decided to take a stand against the fossil fuel industry when its city council enacted a 45-day moratorium on all oil and gas activity within its jurisdiction. Not only did this make the news, it grabbed attention. This was no mere attempt to prevent the spread of a few specific techniques; this was a city making moves to oust fossil fuel production altogether.
The city council failed to extend the moratorium when it came up for a vote again in April 2014[4]. Since then, they have been looking into rewriting the city ordinances governing oil and gas activity, a significantly less radical path; one the LA city council is also considering.
(There are two other bits from Carson I would like to mention:
-In January 2015, it was announced that a former subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum was pulling out of a drilling project that would have brought over 200 new wells to Carson. The cited reason was the drop in oil prices; we know that were it not for the committed opposition of residents, the project would have been well underway by now.
-The Carson refinery operated by Tesoro is one of 15 current targets of a nationwide strike called by the United Steel Workers, a union representing workers in the oil, gas and chemical industries. On February 1, workers at nine refineries walked off the job; the strike has since expanded to six more facilities. The demands of the union highlight the inherent dangers of this industry. Here is a quote from a letter to USW Oil Workers posted on the union’s website:
“We shouldn’t be expected to work long hours for weeks on end without a break. We shouldn’t be expected to work in places where, on average, we have a fire every week of the year. We shouldn’t be expected to work in places where equipment is old and in need of maintenance, but the company considers too costly to take off line and fix properly because it might slow production.
We shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality time with our families by working shifts and schedules that never end. We end up too exhausted to do anything other than grab a few hours’ sleep before heading back to work. We have the right to insist on better conditions.[5]”
Compton
On April 22, 2014, Compton joined the struggle when its city council voted to ban all well stimulation treatments within city limits. They took a step further, into shaky legal territory, by including all well bores that passed underneath city limits, which makes some amount of sense given that most well stimulation treatments (aka fracking and acidizing) occur in wells that have been drilled horizontally to access a specific layer of rock that is essentially one pancake in a stack of many.
Unfortunately, under California state law, municipalities do not have authority to regulate sub-surface activity; this lies with the state government[6]. In July, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) sued the city of Compton over this specific issue. Rather than stand up to the most powerful fossil fuel lobby in the state, the Compton city government decided to back down. In early October the city council voted unanimously to drop the ban and in late November WSPA dropped the lawsuit.
Beverly Hills
On May 6th, the Beverly Hills city council approved an ordinance that bans well stimulation from future use in city limits. Though Compton voted first, the Beverly Hills law has not yet been challenged in court, making it the first city in the state to enact a ban on fracking, acidizing, and other well stimulation treatments. While the three other cities mentioned in this section have been thus far unable to follow through with their own ban attempts, Beverly Hills is now months into its status as a “frack-free” zone.
Figure 5 (left) Drilling Next To Beverly Hills High School[7] Figure 6 (right) Cleaning the Oil spill in Atwater Village[8]
Guess What…Oil & People Don’t Mix Well
Where were you on May 15th, 2014? February 18th, 2015?
If you were in Atwater Village, or Torrance, you were given a shocking reminder of how pervasive our dependence on fossil fuels is and how big of an impact it can have when something goes wrong.
Atwater Village is on the edge of LA city limits in between Glendale and East Hollywood. For residents, May 15th, 2014 began with the realization that their streets were flooded with oil. Overnight a pipeline running beneath the city had ruptured and spewed roughly 10,000 gallons aboveground.
Torrance is a city in LA county neighboring Carson and home to a refinery operated by ExxonMobil. On February 18, 2015, a pressure buildup inside the refinery caused an explosion that jolted the surrounding area like a small earthquake. Luckily, noone was killed but this is not a freak occurrence. Refineries are inherently dangerous given that they are constantly dealing with extreme temperatures and pressures while maintaining and containing a toxic mixture of explosive chemicals.
These are reminders for all of us that the problems with fossil fuels are not only the new techniques we use to extract them, but the aging infrastructure that transports them (trucks, pipelines, trains), the hazardous facilities that process them, and the fact that fossil fuels are toxic and do not mix with a healthy living being. We need to keep fossil fuels below ground; We’ve got plenty of sun up here! No need to bring that dirty energy up to the surface with us.
If you live in California, there is probably a local effort to ban fracking, or otherwise protect communities from fossil fuel exploitation, near you. They need help!
Stay tuned: the final segment of this will be coming in the next few weeks and will discuss recent election results of California fracking ban attempts.
References
[1] Lynee Bronstein, Council Proceeds Cautiously On Fracking Ban, Culver City Observer, http://www.culvercityobserver.com/story/2014/04/03/news/council-proceeds-cautiously-on-fracking-ban/3677.html, April 3, 2014. (accessed 12/13/14)
[2] Dina Demetrius & Jennifer London, The ‘F’ Word: Unregulated Fracking At Oil Wells Raises Concerns, KCET Los Angeles: SoCal Connected, http://www.kcet.org/shows/socal_connected/content/environment/the-f-word-unregulated-fracking-at-oil-wells-raises-concerns.html, March 23, 2012. (accessed December 10, 2014)
[3] photo taken from: Oct. 10, 2012 LA Times article, Inglewood Oil Field Fracking Study Finds No Harm From The Method, by Ruben Vives, http://articles.latimes.com/2012/oct/10/local/la-me-fracking-baldwin-hills-20121010. (accessed 12/14/14)
[4] Christine Mai-Duc, City Of Carson Changes Mind On New Oil Drilling Ban, LA Times, May 1, 2014, http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80079386/. (accessed 12/27/14)
[5] United Steel Workers, Letter To USW Oil Workers, http://www.usw.org/union/mission/industries/oil/bargaining/letter-to-usw-oil-workers (accessed 3/1/15)
[6] Jeffrey Dintzer & Natheniel P. Johnson, Calif. Anti-Fracking Ordinances On Shaky Legal Ground, Law360, http://www.gibsondunn.com/publications/Documents/DintzerJohnson-CalifAnti-FrackingOrdinancesOnShakyLegalGround.pdf, August 29, 2014. (accessed 12/14/14)
[7] photo taken from: July 16, 2013 Getty Iris article, Subterranean LA: The Urban Oil Fields, by Cheryl Preston, http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/subterranean-l-a-the-urban-oil-fields/. (accessed 12/14/14)
[8] photo taken from: May 15, 2014 Sandusky Register article, 10,000 Gallons Of Oil Spill On Los Angeles Streets, by Associated Press, http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/5638851. (accessed on 12/14/14)
New Co-op Course Seeks to Revamp Cal’s Business Curriculum
By: Hanna Morris, Student Environmental Resource Center, UC Berkeley
It’s mid-morning on Friday and the four Co-op DeCal facilitators are discussing next week’s lesson plans over freshly brewed coffee at Blue Door Café. The syllabus is impressive, with admittedly more resources, field trips and relevant readings than many of my degree’s required courses. Zen Trenholm, an energetic and passionate UC Berkeley alumnus with an incredible amount of knowledge and insight into co-operatives is the lead facilitator for next Tuesday’s class. “Co-operative Histories, Pt. 2: From Henry Lees Kingman to the New Wave Movement,” is the lesson’s title. Clearly, there is a lot more to know about co-operatives than delicious pizza in the Gourmet Ghetto and hipster-filled houses that dot the campus’s periphery.
“There are more fingers on my hand than there are undergraduate classes on co-operatives in the U.S. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that one of the world’s dominant business models isn’t taught at our universities,” Trenholm bemoans. “Our team aims to correct this by making co-operative history and practice relevant and imperative for all students regardless of discipline and previous experience.”
I’ve written about co-ops in the past. I featured the Berkeley Student Food Collective (BSFC) in a spotlight piece for Caliber Magazine a couple years ago. I talked with the outreach coordinator at that time, Matthew Kirschenbaum, and remember leaving the interview feeling genuinely impressed with the professionalism and pragmatic vision of the BSFC. Aside from the tattoos and flannels adorned by most of the student workers, there was nothing hippie-dippie about the enterprise at all. The co-operative model is simply the most profitable way to run the store. The democratic, anti-hierarchical operation of the collective isn’t an added bonus—it is what allows for greater worker and customer satisfaction, higher quality products, and an unabridged celebration of value, in every sense of the word.
Student promotes new product at Berkeley Student Food Collective. Photo courtesy of the Berkeley Student Food Collective.
“Co-ops are simply an organizational model but they can represent a fundamental culture shift in how we assume our economies and community politics should be managed,” Trenholm explains. “If the expectation is that we should live in a free, fair, and democratic society, then our economy must reflect this.”
Hierarchical organization is the overwhelming status quo for most major businesses in the United States today. A domineering CEO and board of directors dependent on shareholder investment is the naturalized norm. Many Americans do not question this structure despite its social and environmental consequences. Namely, plummeting workers’ salaries, benefits, health and overall wellbeing. The “business world” is generally accepted as one that’s rough and dirty. A “dog-eat-dog” culture, the dominant narrative runs, is necessary for raking in the Benjamins and fostering “economic growth.”
But according to the Co-op DeCal facilitators, this is an entirely misconstrued, limited and quite frankly, dangerous understanding of how businesses can and should operate. The hardball corporate model is not the only or best way to run a business. In fact, the shareholder structure has time and time again proven to be more of a bust than boon to economic stability. Remember the 2008 recession, anyone? How about the Great Depression? What about the 1990’s .com slump? Rewarding risk over resiliency clearly has its drawbacks.
“Most of us were raised to be competitive with one another, but co-ops give us a chance to take something that is normally competitive—business, obtaining housing, what have you—and asks that we work together to meet the group’s goals and the community’s needs,” DeCal co-facilitator and BSFC operations manager, Megan Svoboda says.
Both economy and community, according to “co-operators,” should not be mutually exclusive. They should be—and ultimately are—one and the same. Shareholder corporations are structured in a way that overlooks this entanglement. Disempowered communities and workers prevent corporations from making decisions that benefit more than just a few Wall Street investors.
“The truth is, it’s hard to work with groups of people. It’s hard to communicate clearly and to stick it out through the challenges and it’s normally here where co-ops run into trouble,” Svoboda admits. “But in the end, co-ops are more successful than their competitors because they’re grounded in the communities they serve. This allows them to survive economic downturns at a higher rate than ‘normal’ businesses.”
Co-ops can guarantee both short and long-term vitality precisely because they do not need to worry about immediate returns on investment for shareholders in New York. “Co-ops are dynamic and resilient because they often rely on community and member buy-in to guide their activities and people feel a stronger sense of ownership over the business,” Trenholm says. “They will work hard to ensure it remains afloat during the bad times and thrives during the good times.”
But if this co-op model is so wonderful, why aren’t there more of them around?
“I should mention that there are over 30,000 co-ops in the United States alone, generating over $625 billion in revenue, and employing close to 1 million people. Though not well recognized, they certainly are represented in our economy,” Trenholm clarifies.
It turns out, co-ops are not so much a rarity as they are overlooked.
“Over 1 billion people are already involved with co-ops worldwide. There are hundreds of thousands of co-ops all over the world that generate over $2 trillion in revenue. Co-ops have been adopted and accepted since the early 19th century, the only issue has been the lack of recognition for such extraordinary models within the academia as well as mainstream society,” DeCal co-facilitator and Student Environmental Resource Center development director, Roberta Giordano says. “Our DeCal aims to change that.”
The Co-op DeCal facilitators are determined to showcase the merits and historical legacy of co-operatives. They want to clearly articulate that this isn’t a radical or offbeat business formula concocted on the liberal avenues of the East Bay; it is a centuries-old alternative to the hierarchical shareholder model and it has proven effective and profitable time and time again.
The renowned Robert Reich teaches the consequences of shareholder-driven capitalism in his popular undergraduate course, “Wealth and Poverty.” Photo courtesy of Google Images.
“So much of economic history is defined by the search for this elusive ‘third way,’ this compromise between the freedoms that free-market capitalism provides and the equity promised by more socialist regimes,” DeCal co-facilitator and Student Environmental Resource Center education associate, Jeff Noven, states. “Historically, co-operatives have offered significant freedom and equity in both capitalist and socialist states by keeping democratic principles central in their operations.”
And yet, there is a notable dearth in conversation about co-operative businesses in American culture and curriculum. Many students leave the halls of Haas Business School, for example, without exposure to the benefits or prospects of co-ops beyond an organic food store on Bancroft Avenue and a consortium of student houses with great parties and cooking.
Trenholm hopes that the Co-op DeCal will change this. The facilitators are actively encouraging departments at Berkeley to include histories and practices of co-ops in their core curriculums, especially within the business school. “Our ultimate goal is to launch an academically-sponsored course at Cal on the history and significance of co-operatives and how they can be tools for building sustainable, resilient, and socially-just communities.”
Major universities such as the University of Wisconsin at Madison have already begun to implement co-op studies across their departments. Cal’s students, the DeCal facilitators believe, will greatly benefit from a more comprehensive survey of alternative business models.
While the Co-op DeCal facilitators finish their coffee and lesson plans at Blue Door Café, I sit in Wheeler Auditorium where “Fortunate Son” is blasting from the overhead speakers, Robert Reich is looking as jovial as ever, and my claustrophobia is kicking in as 800 or so caffeinated college students file inside for our Friday afternoon “Wealth and Poverty” lecture. I just turned in my first essay. I had to explain why economic “inequality” is (or isn’t) a concern. Stagnating wages, dwindling workers’ benefits, plummeting mental and physical health, cascading social alienation and political mistrust are all worrisome consequences. The problem is clear, if not daunting. An economy that operates without democratic decision-making and a commitment to long-term vitality spells disaster. But perhaps a workable solution isn’t so forgone.
“A popular figure to quote is one from the Mondragon Co-operative, where the CEO of this tremendously successful co-operative empire makes 9 times the salary of the lowest-paid employee of the company; this is in contrast to traditional corporations that traditionally have CEOs making 600 times the lowest employee salary,” Noven says. “To me, this is the beauty of co-operatives — they don’t actually need an ‘ideal’ society to function ideally: co-operatives have the potential to create ideal societies within the dysfunctional socio-economic systems we’ve set up on both sides of the spectrum.”
Maybe the silver lining to America’s struggle with “wealth and poverty” lies in an overlooked, age-old business model that four trailblazing Berkeley students and alumni are vying to bring to the forefront of business lexicon and discussion. A lot can be achieved, after all, with a visionary DeCal, determination and a cup of Joe from the Blue Door Café.
The Co-op DeCal facilitators discuss lesson plans at Blue Door Cafe. From left: Megan Svoboda, Zen Trenholm, Jeff Noven, Roberta Giordano. Photo by Jonathan Reader.
The Co-op DeCal meets Tuesdays at 4PM in 258 Dwinelle Hall
Post-Global Divestment Day Op-ed
Regents: Whose Side Are You On?
Fossil Free UCSB calls on Chancellor Yang to stand with students.
Californians demand real climate leadership. One week after the largest-ever anti-fracking rally — the March for Real Climate Leadership in Oakland, CA — students and community members took action on University of California campuses for climate justice on the first-ever Global Divestment Day. We took action with flair and with a renewed focus on pressuring campus administrators to come out with a public stance on divestment. We took action together, with giant Valentine’s Day cards,with mock weddings, with marches, and with guerilla art alongside indigenous allies; we were joined by communities on five continents demanding that their institutions pick a side in the struggle for our future and divest from fossil fuels. But most of all, we took action because we have a stronger conviction than ever that we must win this fight. And we’re beginning to see our efforts pay off.
Recent press coverage is proving that our efforts do not exist in a vacuum; we are beginning to make the fossil fuel industry squirm. The recent storm of misguided anti-divestment arguments,crafted by fossil fuel lobbying groups and their allies, is some of the strongest evidence yet that fossil fuel divestment is an effective tactic. They’re not dumb; they recognize that divestment is capable of making the fossil fuel industry the pariah it deserves to be, just as past divestment campaigns stigmatized Big Tobacco and South African apartheid. Our movement is gaining power, and they’re scared — because winning divestment would mean realizing that we must keep 80% of carbon in the ground, effectively undermining the industry’s wealth. As Divestment Student Network co-founder Kate Aronoff pointed out this week in Waging Nonviolence: the louder carbon corporations shout, the more we know that we’re getting that much closer to winning.
Students at the University of California have been pushing the Regents since 2013 to stand on the side of the students and align their actions with their stated climate and moral leadership. Since 2011, we’ve been building stronger campus teams and a more coordinated strategy, and we’re beginning to get traction. Our campuses are now taking the heat to their Chancellors, and we’re already getting some dialogue. On Global Divestment Day, Chancellor Blumenthal of UC Santa Cruz released a blog post speaking to the importance of dealing with climate change and Fossil Free UCSB calls on Chancellor Yang to stand with students. the promise of the fossil fuel divestment campaign. He wrote that Fossil Free UCSC “students remain determined to see the Regents approve full fossil fuel divestment,” and that meeting them leaves him with “little doubt that we are all well on our way toward understanding that fossil fuels cannot remain a part of our collective future.”
Chancellor Blumenthal seems to understand that students need real climate leadership from university administration; climate leadership doesn’t ignore the crucial role the fossil fuel industry plays in exacerbating climate chaos and environmental injustice. So this is the question we now bring to our chancellors, administrators and faculty: “Whose side are you on?” We’re asking this question alongside divestment campaigns across the world. We’re demanding that our institutions side with students over extractive industries, because we stronger, more just, and more resilient in its place. As the year progresses, we’re not just going to be asking for divestment with words. We’re going to be demanding it with our actions. Through history, nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience have been critical components of struggles for justice. When task forces, committees, and other traditional channels of decision-making fail to bring those in power to decisions that are just, we refuse to compromise our values; we put our bodies on the line until our demands are met. This is what divestment campaigns across the country are preparing for, and inviting students to do: to take a pledge to engage in nonviolent direct action this spring until their administrations choose to divest. Pledge to act on divestment with us this Spring. To change everything, we need everybody.
However, we are not just escalating for divestment; we are escalating for a broader commitment to a just and sustainable future. This includes democratization of the university by inclusion of stakeholders in decisions about our investments, including in making sure that the $1 billion reinvested is invested in the kind of solutions we want to see: in sustainable projects that are community-led and justice-oriented, rather than the greenwashing the fossil fuel industry touts as its commitment to sustainability.
We know that the university will ultimately divest. Its financial advisors must know that it just doesn’t make financial sense to keep investing in companies whose net worth is based on a mirage of promised wealth. When the university does divest, though, it won’t be the financial impact of moving its assets in the fossil fuel industry that makes the most difference. It will be the statement, loud and clear, that the Regents choose to work for the futures of their students and the betterment of society, instead of working for the industry.
Authors are Jacob Soiffer, an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley; Alden Phinney, an undergraduate student at UCSC; and Emily Williams, Campaign Director with the California Student Sustainability Coalition.
USC Oil Resistance
By: Dale Solomon
Over the course of the last year, prices of crude oil have dropped dramatically, causing an upheaval in the fossil fuel industry. Expensive projects that are not already approved and underway are being abandoned. The industry points to dropping prices of crude as the reason, but we know that the persistent resistance of the people living next fossil fuel projects deserves the credit. Were it not for their efforts, many of these projects would have been underway for some time now.
Recently, the city of Carson won a major victory when a project, that would have seen roughly 200 new wells drilled amidst urban neighborhoods, was cancelled. This is only the largest of the cancelled projects in Los Angeles County. Here is a brief look at another recent victory, told by a USC student.
West Adams Resistance
My name is Dale Solomon and I am a Junior at the University of Southern California. I joined the Environmental Affairs Organization (EAO) a little over a year ago and quickly became interested in their Anti-Acidization campaign when I learned that the highly unregulated fossil fuel industry was conducting business all over the city of Los Angeles.
The closest drill site, owned by Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas (FMOG), is 3 blocks from campus and just one block from my apartment. Because this particular drilling monstrosity is literally an arm’s length from some homes, it did not take long for community members to feel like they were being treated like guinea pigs in FMOG’s acidization experiment. Richard Parks was one of these concerned community members who, as a USC faculty member and local resident, felt something needed to be done. He reached out to us last Spring and we have been working together ever since.
The relationship that we have maintained with community members has been incredibly valuable for generating connections. Through Richard, we have gained access to an entire network of community members who are each working on their own subcommittees such as Media Relations, Logistics and Legality. I have had a tremendously rewarding experience by being part of this network and by helping to foster new connections.
Our extensive community outreach has also benefitted us with quick updates on FMOG’s operation. One of the biggest complaints that community members have is that FMOG operates in secrecy and there is no regulatory body watching over them; so it is often very difficult to find out when they are doing acid jobs and when they are applying for well expansion permits.
On November 25, 2014 FMOG went before a city zoning administrator to apply for permits to re-drill two existing wells and drill a new well. Richard Parks was able to inform us of this hearing with enough time to rally our members, organize transportation and write speeches. Over a hundred people showed up to what was expected to be a routine hearing application. Our passionate opposition and overwhelming numbers caused the decision to be delayed to January 5th and then January 24th. In that time FMOG withdrew their permit application.
We were able to successfully stop FMOG from expanding the scope of their operation, and while their daily operations continue, it is clear that we won the battle. Community outreach and persistent networking is a proven system. We will continue to implement this powerful solidarity until the day FMOG is out of our community!
USC’s Environmental Affairs Organization has partnered its Anti-Acidization campaign with the Redeemer Community Partnership, who has successfully led a struggle to prevent the approval of a project proposed by Freeport Mcmoran Oil & Gas in the West Adams Neighborhood of south Los Angeles.
UC Students Ask Chancellors to be “Theirs” this Valentine’s Day
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: PRESS RELEASE
UC Students Ask Chancellors to be “Theirs” this Valentine’s Day
And to break up with fossil fuel investments
This Friday, February 13th, University of California students will be joining hundreds of campaigns around the world in calling for an end to fossil fuel investments during the first-ever Global Divestment Day. Campuses are hosting flash-mobs, marches and sit-ins to demand that their university no longer invest in the fossil fuel companies that drive climate change and threaten the health of our world.
Fossil Free UC, a coalition of the University of California’s campus divestment campaigns, has been actively working since March 2013 to push the UC Regents to align their investment policy with their stated values. Alden Phinney, a junior at UCSC, stated, “The Regents’ continued financial support for fossil fuel corporations flies in the face of UC’s purported ‘climate leadership.’ Our carbon neutrality initiative should be implemented in investments as well as operations in order to secure a habitable world for future generations. FFUC is organizing on every campus to bolster faculty, staff and student opposition to the business designs of these rogue corporations.”
This Friday, however, the attention is on the university chancellors. Recognizing the Regents’ unwillingness to work with their students, the students are turning to their chancellors to stand on their side and advocate with them. The Fossil Free campaigns at Santa Barbara, Berkeley, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles will be holding coordinated actions, targeting their chancellors to “break up” with fossil fuels and to recommit to students by publicly endorsing fossil fuel divestment. “Our chancellors are supposed to be a voice for the needs of our campus communities,” said Jake Soiffer, a sophomore at UC Berkeley. “When students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members are united in their call for divestment, we expect our chancellors to stand with us on the right side of history.”
Global Divestment Day comes on the heels of the March for Real Climate Leadership, the largest ever anti-fracking demonstration, held in Oakland. It called for “real climate leadership” from Governor Brown, as well as from cities across California to heed the calls of public health officials, educators and citizens wracked by the terrors of oil fracking. One week later, UC students are calling for real climate leadership from their Chancellors.
“The work of the students and alumni of Fossil Free UC was instrumental in creating the UC Task Force on Sustainable Investments and the resulting $1 billion investment into ‘climate solutions’ in September 2014,” said Victoria Fernandez, a senior at UC Berkeley who served on the task force. “While this redirected investment was a major win, it fails to truly bolster the university’s integrity as a climate leader.” Although the university has committed to addressing climate change through President Napolitano’s carbon neutrality initiative, Fernandez asserts that the UC can never be carbon neutral — nor adhere to its own mission statement — as long as it invests in and backs the fossil fuel industry. “The UC students demand integrity, transparency and commitment from the Regents to address climate change, for which the first step is full divestment. Until the Regents are able to deliver, the students are asking their chancellors to be ‘theirs’ this Valentines Day, and to break up their relationship with the fossil fuel industry.”
Jonathan Lake, an electrical engineering graduate student at UCLA, emphasizes the importance of the UC standing on the side of its students, rather than of an exploitative industry. “The UC will never fulfill its educational mission if it does not also stand for a stable climate,” Lake said. “As young students and other affected communities, we must not settle for the status quo of climate chaos. We demand agency over our future and our right to self-determine.” When UC chancellors, faculty and eventually Regents choose to divest, they are recommitting to students and saying, ‘We are on your side.’ This movement for a more just and democratic education will certainly not end there. But it is a great place to start.
So, University of California - whose side are you on? #Divest.
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For more information on Global Divestment Day and to find an action near you, please viist http://globaldivestmentday.org/
For more information on Fossil Free UC, please visit fossilfreeuc.org.
Follow the actions on Facebook and Twitter (@FossilFreeUC).
Alyssa Lee, California Student Sustainability Coalition, [email protected], 209-222-8872
Jake Soiffer, California Student Sustainability Coalition and UC Berkeley Undergraduate Student, [email protected], 646-734-8580
Theo LeQuesne, UCSB Graduate Student, [email protected], 805-637-3543
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Students March in Largest Anti-Fracking Demonstration in US History
by: Ella Teevan
On Saturday, UC Berkeley students made history, marching alongside activists from across California in the largest rally against fracking the US has ever seen. Despite a spattering of rain, 8,000 people took to the streets of Oakland for the March for Real Climate Leadership, a direct call on Governor Brown to live up to his promise to make California into an international leader against climate change.
“We are here to ban fracking, to stand up to Big Oil, and to move California beyond fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy,” declared Tia Lebherz of Food and Water Watch, one of the march’s speakers and organizers, to roars and cheers from the Saturday morning crowd.
Protesters started arriving in busloads around 11:30 at Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, from communities as far away as Chico to the north and the Los Angeles/Orange County area to the south. San Diego activists made the longest trek, boarding their bus at midnight to arrive in the morning. The march wound its way north up Telegraph Ave. and across to Lake Merritt, led by a contingent of Native Americans, First Nations, Pacific Islanders, and other peoples on the front lines of the climate struggle.
Photo from marchforclimateleadership.org
The anti-fracking, pro-renewable-future message holds a broad appeal for the diverse communities that make up California. The March for Real Climate Leadership included 134 partner organizations, which showcase the depth and breadth of the climate and anti-fracking movement in California: from health groups like Breast Cancer Action, to labor unions like a local chapter of United Auto Workers, to the Sunflower Alliance, who organized art and props. The march owed much of its success, visibility, and sheer numbers to the months of planning poured into it by organizers from statewide groups Food and Water Watch, 350.org, California Student Sustainability Coalition, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment.
The march, full of joyful noise and chanting voices, stood out as sea of blue shirts and banners stretching from sidewalk to sidewalk in the Oakland streets. The choice of blue color, according to the march’s art coordinator, David Solnit, evokes one of its main messages: that fracking contaminates our water, an especially precious resource in this historic drought. When protesters reached the Lake Merritt Amphitheater, a 25-foot banner rose from the lake, bearing an Earth Mother and her child and the words, “Our Water, Our Health, Our California.”Amphitheater, a 25-foot banner rose from the lake, bearing an Earth Mother and her child and the words, “Our Water, Our Health, Our California.”
Photo from marchforclimateleadership.org
Students from Berkeley and across the state have been vital participants in the anti-fracking movement and the March for Real Climate Leadership. “There were at least 1,000 students from across the state representing 15 different campuses,” said Shoshanna Howard, an organizer of statewide Students Against Fracking groups with the California Student Sustainability Coalition.
Cal’s own Wes Adrianson, of Students Against Fracking, spoke in a fishbowl discussion at a convergence of over 40 Californians Against Fracking member groups on the day following the march. “Students involved with sustainability know that as long as governor brown allows fracking in California, he is undermining the state’s transition to renewable energy and jeopardizing our future,” Adrianson said. “We’re going to hold him accountable to that until he demonstrates real climate leadership by banning fracking.”
UC Berkeley student Kristy Drutman of Berkeley’s Students Against Fracking chapter traveled to Sacramento on Jan. 27th to speak at a press conference in front of the Capitol, where she and other activists hand-delivered a large puzzle piece to Governor Brown’s office, demanding that he be a “piece of the climate solution” for the student generation.
photo from marchforclimateleadership.org
Governor Brown, for his part, has maintained that fracking can be done safely. Senate Bill 4, which passed in late 2013, allows regulated fracking in California and mandates an Environmental Impact Report on its effects, due this July – before which, Brown has made clear that he will not act. March organizers and the Californians Against Fracking Coalition point out that Brown has the power to ban fracking in the Golden State, via an executive order. In Berkeley, Cal students continue to push for an Alameda County fracking ban, and they always welcome new people at Students Against Fracking meetings on Tuesday nights. Between now and July, activists in the SoCal communities of Hermosa Beach and La Habra Heights are working to pass ballot initiatives banning fracking, all the while pressuring Governor Brown to be a real climate leader.
“Claiming to be a climate leader while allowing fracking is like saying you’re trying to save money from inside a Louis Vuitton,” said Linda Capato of 350.org. “It’s far past time for Governor Jerry Brown to step up, truly and end fracking now.”
Featured Image from the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment
The Time is Now for a Real Climate Leader
By: Jacob Elsanadi, Kristy Drutman, and Eva Malis
Standing in front of her Inglewood home, Geneva Morgan points to the dramatic cracks in her driveway, house, and street and declares to a camera, “The truth is that when they frack, they go underneath our houses.” Standing in front of the neighboring Inglewood Oil field, she turns straight to the camera and asks, “The governor that I voted for, why is he not doing anything? We wanted you to help us, and you turned your back.”
She is not alone. Don Martin, resident of West Adams, logically connects his granddaughter’s life-threatening Hodgkin’s lymphoma to the toxic fumes his community is constantly subjected to by the fracking site next door. “They want to keep us out, but do they keep their chemicals in?”
The word ‘fracking’ has become a part of the modern American vernacular in unanticipated ways.
Some associate this method of oil and gas extraction with contaminated groundwater, increased climate-disrupting carbon emissions, and a trigger for earthquakes. Others see it as a route to energy independence from foreign sources, a stimulant for the economy, and a way to drive down gasoline prices. Yet in the face of one of the most severe droughts on record, more people are realizing that fracking does not make sense in California.
In response to the record-breaking drought, Governor Brown declared a State of Emergency and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages. Yet over 1 million gallons of water are being used on average at each of the thousands of fracking sites in our state, every day. The fracking waste water is then often dumped into pits that are dug into the ground which further expose groundwater to the chemical-laden and sometimes radioactive mixture. In October 2014, it was revealed that over 3 billion gallons of fracking wastewater had contaminated protected California aquifers in the Central Valley. If not stored in above ground pits, the volatile liquid is frequently sent to sewage treatment plants which are ill-equipped to deal with these chemicals. Hydraulic fracturing wastes precious water that remains in California and endangers groundwater resources vital during droughts, threatening the health of thousands of Californians.
Governor Jerry Brown, who promises to tackle climate change and address the drought, turned his back on the science presented to him and the local communities who have to live with the impacts of hydraulic fracturing everyday. He continues to allow this scarcely-regulated practice in our state, which has been exempt from the Clean Water Act nation-wide since 2005.
Californians are currently living with the snowballing impacts from fracking: air pollution, water pollution, spills and leakages, worker accidents, truck traffic, surges of transient workers, skyrocketing prices for affordable housing, and more. But Californians are not silent about this assault on our state. The unified efforts of almost 200 organizations comprising the Californians Against Fracking coalition have brought a white-hot spotlight on this pressing issue. Affected communities and concerned citizens are rising together to banish the irresponsible practice of hydraulic fracturing throughout California.
In the November 2014 elections, San Benito and Mendocino counties approved to place a ban on fracking, resulting from over 57% of voter support. Local coalitions, including San Benito Rising, and Coalition to Protect San Benito, worked to pass the measure through grassroots efforts and the compilation of over 4,000 signatures. Despite the success there, oil corporations swayed Santa Barbara’s vote on a similar measure, resulting in 63% of voters against the ban on fracking. It has been reported that local oil corporations “threatened lawsuits against Santa Barbara County if Measure P succeeded.”
Locally, Students Against Fracking on the UC Berkeley campus organizes petition drives, rallies, and teach-ins to address the detrimental impacts of fracking. Students across California spent the past year working with environmental NGOS such as Food and Water Watch, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club organizing around extreme oil and gas extraction. The youth of today are at greatest stake-standing to either benefit or pay for the choices made now that will shape the future. Consequently, power for change lies in the hands of students.
In March of 2014, thousands of Californians gathered in Sacramento calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, and this February, thousands more will be gathering in Oakland to demand real climate leadership from our governor. The March for Real Climate Leadership will take place in Oakland on February 7th, at 11:30 am at Oscar Grant Plaza. It will be the largest anti-fracking demonstration in the history of California and is key to pressuring the Governor to truly represent the interests of his fellow Californians.
Currently, fracking has become one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. However the fight has just begun. We have seen steps of progression with New York’s government, and now it’s time for Californians to rise up. It’s time we champion safety over profits. It’s time we create a habitable environment for the future, and it’s time we ban fracking now.
[1] Image: Cagle, Daryl. “Thirsty California Flag.” The Cagle Post. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2015.
Los Angeles: Anti-Fracking Champion?
By: Arlo Bender-Simon
While Kern County is home to over 75% of California’s fossil fuel production and the Bay area is California’s hub for social justice activism, Los Angeles County is home to millions of people living right next to oil and gas operations.
Part 1: Context
There are more than 84,000 existing oil & gas wells within California; 63,450 of those reside in Kern County, 6,065 in Los Angeles County[1]. We know that the extraction of oil pollutes the Earth; be it during site preparation, drilling, production, transportation, refining, or consumption, our addiction to fossil fuels has very real, toxic impacts at all stages.
For most Californians, pollution from fossil fuels is a distant threat. Sure it is contributing to global warming and maybe we breathe some of it in when moving around our daily lives, but we don’t think about it much and when/if we do, it is at our leisure.
In October 2014, the Natural Resources Defense Council released a report titled Drilling In California: Who’s At Risk? The numbers of oil & gas wells in California, cited earlier, are from this report. This document identifies 5.4 million California residents living within one mile of an oil or gas well. That is roughly 14% of the state’s population; for them, pollution from fossil fuel extraction is a day-to-day reality.
(This does not consider those who live within a mile of storage facilities, processing facilities or refineries.)
Where Does LA Fit In?
Ok. The vast majority of fracking, and fossil fuel extraction in general, is happening in Kern County; it seems like here is where you should focus to bring about a halt to fracking in California.
While Kern County hosts roughly ten times as many wells as Los Angeles, 3.5 million residents of LA county (roughly one in three) live within one mile of an oil or gas well[2]. Engaging even ten percent of them in a dialogue about the future of fracking the golden state would mean that hundreds of thousands of LA residents would be talking about this.
(Efforts in Kern County can only be boosted by an active Los Angeles and the solidarity that results will be beautiful.)
As with the rest of California, drilling for oil and gas got going in Los Angeles towards the end of the 19th century. Many oil fields are spread across the LA basin, and businessmen, mining engineers, and speculators moved in to exploit the booming resource. As the 20th century progressed, each of these fields became home to a forest of drilling towers.
Figure 1-Signal Hill, Long Beach, 1937 (Left) and Venice, 1952 (Right) [3]
In 1890, the population of Los Angeles County was a little over 100,000 people, about half of that being LA city. It grew fast, by 1930 the city’s population had jumped to over one million and by 1960 the county’s population had surpassed six million[4]. As more and more people added to the growth of urban Los Angeles, little care was taken to separate residents from drilling, and this is reflected today by wells literally surrounded by residential neighborhoods and parking lots.
Figure 2 – Signal Hill, 2014 (left) This building on Pico Blvd camouflages 50+ wells (right) [5]
Today, Los Angeles is home to roughly four million people. Add six million spread throughout the county and millions more in neighboring Orange County and you get one of the largest urban areas on the planet. As a child who grew up in LA, I know that people talk about the pollution that such an urban mass spews out, but the focus is all on cars and freeways. As if individuals going on with their daily lives are responsible, not the massive fossil fueled network in which they move about.
For too long, the health effects of thousands of oil wells upon the residents of Los Angeles have been neglected. For too long, the people of Los Angeles have been complacent while a few drilling companies suck oil from beneath their feet and dump toxins into their air. For too long, the city of Los Angeles has allowed the fossil fuel industry to proceed with the laxest of oversight.
This can stop.
Figure 3: The bright red signifies areas at risk from multiple sources of environmental pollution, the locations of wells are marked, fracked/acidized/gravel-packed wells are highlighted; pg. 7 Drilling In CA: Who’s At Risk
City Council Votes To Ban Fracking In City Limits
On February 28, 2014 Los Angeles made history by becoming the largest city in the United States to move to prohibit the controversial drilling process. In a 10-0 vote, the LA City Council directed city officials to draft a moratorium on fracking, to remain in effect until the process can be scientifically proven to be safe[6]. Leadership achieved! Sort of…almost a year later we have yet to see draft legislation for the proposed ordinance.
Until that happens, Los Angeles residents will continue to wait for action to be taken on a decision made last winter. At the same time, the rest of the state continues to wait for real leadership on the fracking front, which could be as simple as a moratorium imposed by the governor…Jerry Brown, are you listening?
Come out to the March For Real Climate Leadership in Oakland on February 7th to demand Jerry Brown to ban fracking and acidizing in the state of California…if New York can do it, so can we!
Part 2 Coming Soon.
Endnotes
[1] Tanja Srebotnjak & Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, Drilling In California: Who’s At Risk, NRDC, http://www.nrdc.org/health/files/california-fracking-risks-report.pdf, accessed 12/2/14, pg. 9
[2] Srebotnjak et Al., pg. 11.
[3] Alan Taylor, Urban Oil Fields Of Los Angeles, The Atlantic, August 24, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/08/the-urban-oil-fields-of-los-angeles/100799/. (accessed 12/27/14)
[4] Historical Resident Population City & County Of Los Angeles, 1850 to 2010, Los Angeles Almanac, http://www.laalmanac.com/population/po02.htm. (accessed 12/27/14)
[5] Taylor, Urban Oil Fields Of Los Angeles.
[6] City Council Passes LA “Fracking” Ban, CBS Los Angeles, February 28, 2014, http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/02/28/city-council-to-vote-on-la-fracking-moratorium/. (accessed 12/27/14)
Agents of Change—Why Youth, the Global South, Minorities, and Woman Must Take Their Rightful Seat at the Table, and How They Are Being Prevented from Doing So
by Emily Williams,
CSSC Campaign Director
The UNFCCC likes to think that it’s “politically friendly.” At the Conferences of the Parties they work tirelessly on media, informational pamphlets, swag, and dazzling side events to “celebrate” marginalized demographics and throw around rhetoric of welcoming them into a place of leadership. Nearly every day has a theme here at COP; human rights got its very own day on Wednesday. Yet the UNFCCC chose to celebrate two demographics in particular with their own days—Women’s Day Young and Future Generations Day (YoFuGe). However, as a youth and as a women, I have to ask myself—am I being tokenized?
In my work with the California Student Sustainability Coalition, I don’ often reflect on what it means to be a female youth in climate leadership. I’m surrounded by youth who respect one another, and women are strongly represented in leadership roles. However, at the COP, I have been much more self-aware. I begin to see myself as no more than a “kid” or a sweet face to take a photo of for a press conference. YoFuGe Day this year was titled “Agents of Change.” The day featured plenty of side events, panels, and press conferences arranged around youth and future generations. Negotiators and staff of the UNFCCC sang praises of the wonderful youth who took it upon themselves to try to get involved, and toted these smiling youth as role models of how to eventually get engaged in the negotiations process. Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, even had a briefing with youth. The briefing was held in a large conference rooms, with tables forming a giant rectangle so everyone could see each other. She wanted more. We all climbed over the tables and sat criss-cross-apple-sauce on the floor in the center of the room, going around the room and asking her questions: “how can youth be better represented in the negotiations process?”; “how can the UNFCCC provide financial support for disadvantaged youth to attend?”; “why will you not allow focal points for major NGO groups to attend who are under 18?” She delivered a long and eloquent speech, cameras around the room snapping photos, and pens scribbled on notepads to keep up with what she was saying. At the end of the briefing, scrambling back over the tables, I had to pause and ask myself if any of our questions were answered. I could only account for 2 of them.
Why aren’t youth represented in the COP? The UNFCCC keeps pushing for us to be “agents of change”, and yet doesn’t provide the space for youth to be represented in this process. Youth, who represent 1/3 of all people around the world, are only granted 1 minute per large plenary session to address the negotiators. Youth also have incredible ideas. They have proven themselves time and again by creating draft texts for the sessions, engaging in high-level negotiations with ministers, and organizing campaigns that sometimes do their country’s job for them. And yet, youth (even though youth includes people up to 30) are given the kind of respect they deserve. We are not statistics, we are not case studies, and we are not props. We are negotiators for the future and for the planet. After all, whose futures will climate change impact the most?Continue reading
CSSC Launches Zero Waste Mini-Grant Program
by Sydney Johnson
Starting in Spring 2015, the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) will be providing mini-grant funding for student-led projects aimed at eliminating waste.
Grants of up to $1,000 will be awarded for projects expected to last from January 1 to June 30, 2015. According to the CSSC website, short term projects will also be accepted “as long as they have measurable goals that track progress.” Students are encouraged to merge with existing community and campus projects already targeting the zero-waste goal, or fund an entirely new project. CSSC has listed example projects which include grey water systems, recycled art installations and sustainable dining ware sourcing.
Under the management of both students and recent alumni, CSSC is a network of student sustainability organizations throughout California whose goals include increasing ecological, economic and equitable sustainability. The organization stated online that the goal of the mini-grant program is to “invest in students creating zero waste campaigns and programs that innovatively address and solve for waste management challenges on their campuses.”
The mini-grant program comes as a result of student and alumni efforts to receive funding for solutions aimed at zero waste. “For over a year, I had been thinking of launching a CSSC mini-grant program to support innovative student-led campus sustainability solutions,” said CSSC development director, Zen Trenholm. “After floating the idea at our winter leadership retreat this past January, students requested that we build out a pilot program for this year.”
In partnership with the CSSC mini-grant program is World Centric, a California-based company that according to their website, “focuses on providing zero waste solutions to reduce environmental impact.”
As a part of the partnership, World Centric will be providing the funding for the grants.
“We normally do not collaborate with companies but World Centric’s business practices and authentic recognition of our student-driven autonomy makes them a great partner,” said Trenholm. “I’m excited to continue building out this relationship.”
In addition to helping fund the grant program, Trenholm said World Centric is also partnering to support campus zero waste projects alongside CSSC through workshops, team consultations, and application reviews.
CSSC is not alone in the quest for zero waste, which according to the Zero Waste International Alliance is defined as “designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them.” For example, UC Berkeley and Cal Dining have both made it a goal to reach zero waste by 2020. In addition, many cities in California have implemented programs to work towards eliminating waste, inducing San Jose, Santa Cruz and Berkeley.
Before working at CSSC, Trenholm helped co-found SERC at UC Berkeley. “We founded SERC to be an institutionalized hub for students to develop high-impact, far-reaching, and radical campaigns, programs, and projects that combat the social status quo and deliver sustainable solutions to our biggest issues,” said Trenholm. “This is the philosophy and mission of CSSC and why I joined the organization in 2009.”
“This zero-waste mini grant program is another example in a long-line of campaigns and projects where students lead front and center,” he continued. “Fossil Free UC, Students Against Fracking, TGIF, and SERC are all expressions of this type of passionate, strategic, and impactful student efforts.”
Noting the connection between his work as an environmental student at UC Berkeley and mission of CSSC, Trenholm said he invites the Berkeley community to join in further developing the zero-waste mini-grant program.
“We want our applicants to be open to learning how to better design and implement a solution; we’re looking to support creative organizers and entrepreneurs who want to use this program as a launchpad for bigger impact,” Trenholm said.
And it appears that applicants will not be alone in their zero-waste efforts. “We will be helping our candidates put together strong applications as we want to train students on how to design for success and secure funding for their vision,” Trenholm continued. “I want students to have the tools and willingness to create their own solutions and to think strategically about how we can have the strongest impact with the effort we put in.”
Applications are due to Zen Trenholm at [email protected] by January 16, 2015 and recipients will be notified of the Grant Advisory Committee’s decision by early February. Check here for more details on how to apply.
CSSC is welcoming feedback on their pilot mini-grant program. To discuss how to design and develop even stronger student incubation services and resources, email to Zen at [email protected].
Setting the context for global climate catastrophe.
by Emily Williams
Trudging along through the muggy heat of Lima at the UN Climate Conference, nothing would indicate that we were standing at a conference that is slated to respond to a planetary emergency. Delegates lounge at tables on the grass, under the shade of trees, conducting interviews and swapping notes about the latest plenary. Delegates and civil society alike sweat in the temporary structures that house the COP, which are no more than huge tents with glass roofs, the same design as a greenhouse. Muttered jokes reference the UNFCCC’s desire for the delegates to feel the heat; others reference the cartoon featuring a frog in a boiling pot of water.
I arrived in Lima three days ago as an observer delegate with SustainUS for the 20th
Conference of the Parties (COP), under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCCC was created over 20 years ago to deal with the rising issue of climate change, providing a forum for global governments and the UN alike to negotiate strategies to mitigate and adapt to the worst impacts. Every year, the UNFCCC hosts a COP, where teams of negotiators from each country converge for two weeks to negotiate each country’s commitments—the level of emissions each country should cut, the amount of finance each country should pledge, and the policies each country should adopt to deal with adaptation. While it is well intentioned, the COP has failed to produce any type of binding treaty; COP20 is the 20th of these conferences, and governments have only managed to agree that they want to limit global mean temperature to 2 degrees Celsius of warming.
On my flight coming over, I had to ask myself why I’d decided to return to COP. I attended COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, which had quickly earned the name “The Corporate COP.” COP19 was heavily funded by multiple industries, and made no effort to hide it. There were bean-bag chairs strewn throughout the halls branded with “Emirates”; large signs proudly touting their sponsors, BMW and PGE among them; and the Executive Secretary, Christina Figueres, became the keynote speaker to the global coal conference that ran alongside. At the end of the two weeks, after incredible frustration, disillusionment, and days of running in circles[1], I joined 400 other civil society members and walked out of the COP in protest.
So why did we return? During that walkout, we wore shirts with “Polluters Talk, We Walk” on the front and “volveremos” on the back—we will return. And so we did. We returned to see if we could make some change in Lima.
COP 20 is possibly the most important climate conference we’ve had. It is the last COP before COP21 in Paris, where countries are slated to sign onto a treaty that will outline mitigation, adaptation, and finance from 2015 to 2020, and another set of agreements for post-2020. Paris will reportedly be then next Copenhagen—hopes are high, but it is unlikely we’ll see the results we want to see. As Lima sets the discussions and early commitments that will inform the decisions made in Paris, it becomes increasingly obvious that they will not satisfy the needs of global societies.
But before we can understand what is being discussed and decided in Lima, we first need to set the context.
There is a huge rift between the developed nations and the developing and least developed nations (LDCs). To begin with, developed countries are focusing on mitigation. The Umbrella Group, which includes the US and Australia, is the most powerful group in the negotiations. It is leading the effort to push for all countries (including developing countries) to make pledges on individual emissions cuts. However, it is that very group that has been historically responsible for the bulk of emissions, and is not yet experiencing the worst impacts of climate change. Developing countries and LDC are pushing for adaptation and loss and damage (finance) to be considered by the negotiations process. Rightly so, they are hesitant to pledge any amount of emissions cuts if they are not guaranteed to have the financial support to do so, and have the support to implement adaptation and fight current impacts of climate change. By ignoring this demand, the Umbrella Group and associates are condemning hundreds of millions of people to unconscionable suffering.
In November 2014, the United States and China announced a historical, and unexpected, agreement—they had met separately and before COP20 announced their own pledges for emissions reductions. It was a fantastic moment. For one, Obama made it quite clear that his legacy is to be a leader in climate action. It also set the tone for COP20, indirectly urging other countries to do the same. This announcement has given civil society something to hold onto to push Obama for even greater commitments that we desperately need to stay under 1.5 degrees[2]. However, if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll realize this is no cause for celebration. The US-China deal announced pledges that place us on track for a 4-6 degree warmer world. The US’s commitment in particular would only cut 14% of emissions by 2025 of 1990 levels. Many NGOs are latching onto this agreement as a tiny glimmer of hope; but science and math shows that this will not deliver anywhere near the level of ambition needed.
Unfortunately, more and more developed countries are latching onto the idea of reaching an agreement no matter the costs. The orchestrator of this trend is the Obama Administration; Obama has made it disturbingly clear that he wants an agreement in Paris no matter the content. As a part of his legacy, he wants to be seen as the president who was able to orchestrate and reach such an agreement. Yet the proposals he’s putting forward, and the pressure he’s putting on developing countries, would mean game over for the planet and the most vulnerable communities. In addition to the lack of adaptation and finance, under this push for an agreement, developed countries are finding loopholes to avoid ambitious emissions cuts. In March 2015, countries will submit Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for their intended pledges in Paris. This push for an agreement no matter the cost is allowing countries to draft pledges that determine their own targets for emissions cuts. Allowing countries to determine their own cuts will fail to put us on track to stay within 1.5 degrees of warming.
Meanwhile…
During each of the last four COPs, the Philippines have been struck by typhoons. Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines last year during COP19, was the most devastating typhoon to ever hit land; the typhoon left an enormous swath of damage, and killed a total of 6340 people. Yeb Sano, negotiator for the Philippines, delivered the Philippine’s opening speech on the first day of COP19; at that time, he did not know where his brother was. This year, Yeb has not returned. Typhoon Ruby is on track to hit the Philippines this weekend and has reached the status of “superstorm”; many fear that it will have the same impact as Haiyan, if not worse. But the Philippines is not the only place already experiencing the destructive impacts of climate change.
The Maldives are experiencing an increasing rate of storm surges and damaging sea level rise. Large areas in Africa are undergoing extensive drought, killing livestock and crops. More and more people are becoming classified as climate refugees. Adaptation and finance is necessary for these countries, but as long as the Umbrella Group dictates the negotiations, they will never see the assistance they need from the UNFCCC.
When you walk around the COP, listen in on the plenaries and negotiations, and read the materials that countries are providing, you don’t get the sense that this conference was scheduled to respond to a planetary emergency. Human deaths, the discounting of youth and future generations, and the real impacts on oceans, forests, and wildlife are treated as simple statistics and trading cards. It is institutionalized insanity, and one has to wonder how the connection between reality and the bubble that is COP has become white noise. In Yeb Sano’s words, “it is time to stop this madness.”
Endnotes
[1] Quite literally in circles. The conference venue was in a football stadium (soccer), and the halls were around the circumference. People averaged ten laps per day.
[2] It’s the new 2 degrees Celsius. Much better target.
UC Berkeley Solidarity Letter on Tuition Hikes
by The UC Berkeley Environmental Coalition
On Thursday, November 20, 2014, the Regents of the University of California passed a tuition plan that will increase student fees up to five percent for each of the next five years, amounting to a nearly twenty-eight percent increase. This decision was made despite strong opposition from student groups across the state. Students formed The Open UC, a growing statewide movement demanding no tuition hikes and more transparency of the UC budget for students. The Open UC is asking for the state to reinvest in schools and is ultimately standing for an accessible system of public education in the U.S. and worldwide.
ECO, UC Berkeley’s student environmental coalition, stands in solidarity with the Open UC to stop tuition hikes and demand increased transparency. Our work makes us all too familiar with issues of privatization and misplaced investment. Student groups within our coalition are resisting commercial development on the university-owned Gill tract, fighting extreme oil and natural gas extraction, and demanding the university to divest from fossil fuel companies and reinvest in renewable energies. These are just a few of the ways students in our coalition are working to ensure a more just and sustainable future. However, we are frustrated to find that we have less and less influence in the future of our own university whose public character has been jeopardized. The Regents’ proposed hikes have come in the face of reasonable student suggestions to cut costs, many of which would save financial and natural resources. Amid a historic drought, each year the campus uses 49.2 million gallons of potable water to irrigate campus landscapes and wastes a lot of water in order to keep campus lawns green (Berkeley Water Action Plan, 2013). Students have asked the university to design and implement lawn conversion free of charge. Student-faculty lawn conversion would promote hands-on learning and be more cost-effective. However, the university is still reluctant to give students responsibility over our campus landscape, choosing instead to contract out to the campus architect’s own landscaping company. Money and water is wasted.
For us, working in coalition with organizations fighting for affordable education is not only just, it is strategic. Our struggles share common enemies: as students fighting for control of our university we see potential in reclaiming democracy by delegitimizing the Regents and fighting the influence of corporate power in our public institutions.Unless we unite in challenging the systems in place that perpetuate inequality and oppression, a transition to a just, sustainable future will not be successful. Unless we delegitimize the Regents’ source of power and call them out for their lack of integrity, democracy, and transparency, GHG emissions will go up along with tuition.
Many of us within the environmental community at Berkeley have been working to ground our organizing in a framework of climate and environmental justice, reconceptualizing our work as an intersectional struggle for social justice. The students and families most impacted by the rising cost of education are often those most impacted by environmental degradation and silenced within the mainstream environmental movement. Struggles against debt, police violence, and racism are struggles for sustainability, because we cannot build an effective movement for climate justice without also seeking to address the systemic violence affecting the communities who must lead the global struggle against the fossil fuel industry and climate change. Because we see our work as part of a larger project of collective liberation, we want to connect work across movements for justice, and we see the struggles for climate and environmental justice and affordable education as intimately linked.
The word economy means the management of home, whether that is a household, our university, or even our planet as a whole. At Wheeler Commons, Open UC is creating and managing a home, within an increasingly corporate university, for the amplification of student voices and the building of an intersectional movement. The first step is ensuring that our public university remains accessible and affordable to all, and with that ECO stands in solidarity.
Signed,
ECO, Environmental Coalition at UC Berkeley.
ECO serves as the official coalition of UC Berkeley environmental and sustainability student organizations dedicated to advancing sustainability on campus in the short- and long-term.
Recap: Fall 2014 UC Davis Convergence a Success
by: Eva Malis
This past weekend (Nov. 14th-16th) over 550 students gathered at UC Davis to learn, grow, and build. The theme Act Collectively, Transition Together - Systems for Justice pushed the boundaries of a sustainability movement towards confronting the intersections of social justice with those of the sustainability community.
On Saturday morning, keynote speakers Gopal Dayaneni, Stephanie Hervey, Alyssa Bradford, and Julia Ho touched on strategies for building movements through social justice examples such as Ferguson and human trafficking. Their speeches were met with loud cheering from a crowd of mostly students devoted to sustainability and environmental problem-solving.
Convergence coordinator and UC Davis alumna Emili Abdel-Ghany expressed that she was “so grateful everyone had received the keynotes so well, and for how radical and meaningful the conversation was”.
“Some main things that our speakers advocated for was throwing down for other forms of justice! Keeping within environmental lens is not always the right thing for the times [and it is] sometimes important to put the work you’re doing in perspective!” proclaimed Emili.
Following the morning speakers, students were able to choose from around 40 different one-hour workshops with a large variety of topics including zero waste, sustainable food systems, fossil freedom, oil by rail, clean energy, the convict lease system, peace corps, nonviolent communication, and much more! Over the duration of the weekend, attendees were able to select three workshops from five tracks: Transition: Fossil Freedom and the New Economy, Transform: Changing Our Models, Systems for Justice: Intersecting Movements, Closing the Loop: Systemic Solutions to Global and Local Issues, and Together: Creating Change and Community.
“My favorite workshop was the Sustainability in Science one which focused on two researchers that were able to make their lab ‘green.’” asserted Patrick Stetz, CSSC Newsletter Editor. “This workshop was a great example of the activism I like. It not only addressed the problem of resource/energy waste in labs but showed how someone can change that.”
CSSC’s Students Against Fracking and Fossil Fuel Divestment campaigns hosted a handful of workshops throughout the weekend where students from across the state were able to learn how to start chapters on their own campuses. Both campaigns were able to hold visioning conversations to strategize within the battle for fossil freedom.
Youth Climate Justice Panel on Sunday morning. Left to Right: Facilitator: Shoshanna Howard
Speakers: Ethan Buckner, Kristy Drutman, Jake Soiffer, Julia Ho, and Jason Schwartz -Photo Credit: SERC
Throughout the weekend, organizers held caucuses and break out groups that addressed topics such as identity (race, gender, class), anti-capitalism, intro to CSSC, and climate justice. Closed and open spaces were held for people to engage in productive conversations surrounding some topics that are not often easy to talk about or historically not included in sustainability conversations.
“I thought the API caucus was a great space for conveying and working through important struggles specific to that identity that are difficult to reflect on with others I know or on my own,” stated Lucy Tate, student of Society and the Environment at UC Berkeley
There were also three panels on Saturday evening: the Intergenerational Lessons Panel, the Research for Social Change Panel, and the Levels of Action Panel.
On Sunday afternoon, 400+ attendees gathered in a circle on West Quad, clasping hands to participate in an art demonstration led by Ryan Camero of the Beehive Design Collective. A scroll of art was passed along the enormous circle which told a story of environmental justice scenes from around the world while the circle hummed a united tune and Camero sung a song titled It’s All the Same. As the scroll moved around the circle, students broke out into spontaneous dance which eventually escalated into a massive group hug towards the end of the activity.
“At the end of convergence when we were passing around the scroll, I was standing with Kevin Gong and he just started dancing and smiling a lot… Just that moment I was feeling like we had just accomplished something really great, and I had felt it several times throughout weekend—just realizing the magnitude of what we’ve done.” commented Emili Abdel-Ghany.
On the same moment, planning team member Madeline Oliver described, “It was amazing how the visual artwork and music united everyone to the point where the whole group organically moved towards the center to end the weekend in dance and song.”
Students enjoy lunch on West Quad -Photo Credit: SERC at UCB
Other students felt similar sentiments regarding the success of the weekend.
“My favorite part of the convergence, besides the amazing speakers, workshops, and events, had to be the opportunities to connect with people from across the state,” says Jacob Elsanadi, a second year UC Berkeley student. “I met so many wonderful people and created new connections with students from schools across California… It was a truly unique experience. I highly recommend anyone even remotely interested in sustainability attend this wonderful event.”
Kevin Gong of the planning team states, “Given the fact that this was the first time the planning team had any experience organizing something of this scale, I feel like the event reflected how much work (a ton!!) we put into organizing, and hearing such positive face to face feedback from attendees definitely made Convergence worth planning.”
Abdel-Ghany summarizes, “Everyone’s doing something important, but sometimes we need to rally around things together and make sacrifices. What I hope people got out of this [is that they] are at least ready to have conversations about how to be better allies.”
For those inspired by this event, there are many ways to get involved with CSSC. Students can apply to be a council member representative of their campuses or apply to work on the Operating Team. For those looking to become a part of CSSC leadership, the Winter Leadership Retreat will be held on January 16th-20th in Dancing Deer Farm in San Luis Obispo. The location for next semester’s convergence has not yet been determined, so feel free to contact Kevin Killion if interested in organizing the Spring 2015 convergence at your campus.
Students can transform what they learned this past weekend into action by pursuing more involvement with CSSC, forming Students Against Fracking or divestment chapters in their schools, and strategically building the movement from within their home institutions. They can also apply for a Zero Waste Mini-grant to promote the sustainability of their school and local community.
Convergence Group Photo - Photo Cred: CSSC
Stop Accecpting Climate Change, Get Active
by: Emily Williams
We’ve probably all heard of the Five Stages of Climate Grief.[1] It has its roots in the Five Stages of Grief, and refers to the emotional processing our society uses to cope with climate change.
First you are in denial. You deny that the earth is warming, you deny the severity of climate change, and you deny that current human activities could cause it.
Next, you become angry that corporations and government have allowed for and financed such reckless exploitation, creating climate chaos; or you are angry that environmentalists are demanding that people change their habits and give up their comforts for the polar bears.
Next, you bargain. We trade scientific fact for political gain, trade carbon credits for a few more years of uncontrolled burning, and trade our logical minds for a monopolized media that will tell us that the science isn’t that serious and we will all be ok.
When one of our cities is devastated by a superstorm or plagued by drought, we enter into depression.
And so, grudgingly, we enter into acceptance. Acceptance is when we acknowledge the science and explore solutions…. But will we really ever accept?
Acceptance assumes that if we understand climate science and are given enough time to move through the five stages, our institutions will ultimately collaborate to implement solutions that will mitigate, and help adapt to, this crisis. However, if acceptance is enough to enact change, a climate denier would not be poised to be head of the Senate Environment and Public works committee, our government would not continue to subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, and fossil fuel industry would invest its money and infrastructure in renewable technology development, accepting that we must leave 80% of reserves in the ground[2]. In the five stages, there is no mention activism. However, the climate crisis need more than acceptance. If we are to see meaningful action on climate change, we cannot wait for these stages to play out; civil society needs to pave the way[3].
Where are we trying to get to?
Let’s talk about 2 degrees Celsius. The Copenhagen Accord glommed onto the target, stating that governments recognize “…that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius…” But what does 2 degrees entail? Was it in fact science that arrived at the 2 degree target as a safe limit? Ultimately, 2 degrees is a political concept; most climate research shows little confidence in 2 degrees as a safe limit[4]. Already, at 0.8 degrees of warming, we are seeing changes in our climate and adverse impacts on our society occurring at an alarming rate. A 2 degree limit leaves island underwater, or at least inhabitable. Representatives from African nations and Pacific Island nations stated that by signing onto the accord, they would be signing a “suicide pact.[5]” By agreeing to this political limit, our governments have already sold out the Global South, committing one of the worst and largest in scale injustices.
However, to illustrate just how hard it will be to stay within even 2 degrees, we need to understand the carbon gap. The carbon gap is the difference between the rates of emissions we need to stay under to achieve climate stability versus our actual rate of emissions. Closing this gap would mean achieving climate stability. However, our current rate of emissions is not slowing, and the gap widens[6].
Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the Tyndall center, outlined the global emissions cuts we need to make if we are to stay below 2 degrees[7]. Anderson’s plan not only closes the gap, but factors in climate justice. Granting non-Annex 1 countries (or developing countries) a carbon budget so that they may continue to develop and phase away from fossil fuels, Anderson details that annex 1 countries need to cut 70% of their emissions in 10 years. To put that figure in perspective, the U.S. would have to cut by 2023 the equivalent of all the emission from the electricity, transportation, and agriculture sectors[8]. Early last week, the United States and China reached a “historic agreement”, committing the nations to certain emissions cuts and peaks in emissions-the United States would decrease its emissions by 26-28% of 2005 levels by 2025; China would peak its emissions in 2030 with 20% of its electricity pledged to come from non-fossil fuel sources[9]. This agreement is historic in that it was not mandatory, and it was made by two of the most powerful countries in the climate negotiations. However, this agreement is non-binding, and translates to a 10% emissions cut from the base year scientists use. So can we succeed in reducing our emissions stay below 2 degrees? It’s not impossible, but ambitious and extremely difficult, especially if there isn’t financial support and regulatory pressure that supports the transition.
Climate activism as a tool to reach our goal
If we are to ensure that our five stages of climate grief result in progress, we have to rethink how we as civil society engage to catalyze ambitious action. Civil society is responsible for the agreement that the US and China reached last week; civil society pushed, and in the wake of the GOP sweeping the elections, the Obama administration chose climate to make his stance. We now know that the administration listens to us; this past week, Obama addressed the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative and said “the issue of climate change is a perfect example of why young people have to lead.”[10] But if we are to see a more ambitious agreement and achieve significant action on climate change that adheres to the severity of the crisis, and if we are to acheive climate justice, we need to push harder. That means that over the next few years, we need to mobilize even more. So let’s take a look at how one campaign—divestment—manages to do that.
Fossil Fuel Divestment and the Road to 2015
We’ve heard a lot about divestment over the past few years; Bill McKibben became an unlikely rockstar overnight with the Do The Math tour, the campaign spread to new continents making it an international effort, and the Rockefellers—the family that made its fortune from oil—chose to divest. Divestment and gives a face to the crisis, allowing people to rally around a target and feel empowered to take their futures into their own hands, therefore democratizing the issue of climate change. Divestment has the power to change the public perception of the fossil fuel industry. It points to the culprit and organizes the masses to demand that their institutions—their campuses, businesses, churches, or cities—refuse to profit off of that industry. When enough institutions divest, it creates a tipping point where people become passionate about the issue and put enough pressure on their elected officials to start representing their needs instead of the desires of oil barons.
Divestment also frees up finance, forcing institutions and our government to shift finances away from the industry that’s launching us over the edge and toward the low-carbon, just economy we need. This is the reinvestment side of the campaign, and it goes far beyond moving that money into renewable technology development. When we divest, we can reinvest in communities—in their resilience and in community-owned energy generation—and in radical and innovate solutions. The campaign is yin-yang: it identifies that which is harmful, denounces it, and calls upon society to denounce it as well; but it also identifies the real solutions, and financially and ideologically supports those solutions by investing in them.
There are a fair number of critiques of divestment—that it’s too symbolic and draws attention from what really works (on-the-ground resistance); that it is an elitist campaign and excludes those who are the most marginalized by the climate movement and those who are most affected by the industry; and that isn’t radical if folks like Tom Steyer can hop on board and perpetuates the same old capitalist, exploitative, immoral system[11]. A lot of those critiques are founded, and like most campaigns, the divestment campaign has made many mistakes and still has a lot to learn before reaching its effective potential. But it learns from its mistakes, and therefore creates a platform on which many related campaigns can converge into a global movement.
So what is the role of divestment in national and international politics? Divestment is local—it’s implemented at the local level, and has direct local repercussions. Yet its ability to influence the public’s opinion of climate change gives it a global scope. It is a solidarity campaign that allows institutions to make a stand and commit to the transition to a low-carbon and just future, standing on the side of future generations and those most disproportionately impacted by both climate change and the extractive economy. It commits to invest in the solutions that the Global South so desperately need. This shift impacts negotiations. When enough institutions in a country divest, it begins to change the climate and discourse around climate change and the fossil fuel economy. It ultimately shifts the political atmosphere of the country and puts pressure on governments to go into the negotiations with a few more bargaining chips. When 500 campuses, 5 states, and all the foundations divest in the United States, it gives Obama the go-ahead and the political backing to offer more at the UN.
It’s up to us.
Divestment, and every other campaign that focuses on local and grassroots action, shifts systems and create tipping points. Civil rights, women’s rights, and democracy were all won by local, grassroots actions and narratives. They have the power to create a peoples’ movement that creates the political backing (or pressure) that allows for (or forces) governments to enact changes that work for the people over profit. But no one else is going to create this change. If we want to see change, it’s up to us.
Our generation has moved through all five stages of grief, and we’ve been told far too many times that we just need to accept it and let those in power make the changes necessary. But it’s time to start accepting and start acting. If we want to see global change, we need a global movement—and that movement needs to come from the grassroots, be led by those most disproportionately impacted, and create the solutions that our generation needs.
[1] http://www.climatetoday.org/?p=2173
[2] Carbon Tracker Initiative.
[3] http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/04/791221/the-six-stages-of-climate-grief/
[4] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/141001-two-degrees-global-warming-climate-science/
[5] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/sep/09/new-york-climate-summit-two-degrees-warming-policy-disaster
[6] http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/mind-the-carbon-gap
[7] http://climatenorthernireland.org.uk/cmsfiles/resources/Presentations/What-Next.pdf
[8] http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html
[9] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-henn/fossil-fuel-divestment_b_6147234.html
[10] http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/14/obama-to-youth-on-climate-change-old-people-theyve-created-a-mess/
[11] http://www.energyjustice.net/content/fossil-fuel-divestment-how-evolve-campaign-beyond-its-shortcomings
Spotlight Series-Fall Convergence 2014
by: Eva Malis
Perspectives from organizers across CSSC regarding Fall 2014 Convergence at UC Davis!
RUBY FISHER-SMITH
What do you do on the planning team and why do you do it?
I am the treasurer of the UC Davis CSSC chapter, and I lead the finance team for the Fall 2014 convergence! I wanted to be treasurer last year to get more comfortable and experienced with finance. I volunteered to be on the financial team for convergence because I have a bit of experience writing grants and fundraising and I felt it was my job as treasurer to work on the financial component to convergence. Although fundraising is challenging and definitely not the most glamorous job, I have found it empowering to be able to tap into all of the resources available to us on campus and to have been met with such support and enthusiasm from so many. This position has given me so much perspective on how much time, energy and money goes into projects like this, and I feel grateful to be working with such an awesome team!
What will be special about this Fall 2014 convergence?
Every convergence is unique and awesome, but what I love about this convergence is how inclusive it will be. The theme is Think Collectively, Transition Together: Systems for Justice, incorporating environmental, social and economic justice issues into the dialogues and programming. I think it is so important to recognize the interconnectedness of all of these issues and to encourage solidarity and collaboration between interest groups, campaigns and people. Related to that, the amount of support from the students and communities in Davis makes this convergence really special. I look forward to this convergence bringing together groups and people locally, fostering connections between visitors from other places and showing everyone who attends a really good time with the awesome speakers, workshops, food, music, poetry and conversations that we have planned!
ALYSSA LEE
UCLA, Class of 2014
CSSC, Statewide Divestment Field Organizer; Fossil Free UC, Member
What do you want to see this semester’s convergence accomplish?
I am excited to see this Convergence have an explicitly justice-based theme. It has been really exciting seeing the theme and character of the CSSC Convergences shift and adapt over the years since I first started attending them in 2011 (My first Convergence was actually at UC Davis in Spring 2011!). We have seen amazing workshops about alternative and eco-friendly practices like aquaponics and No ‘Poo, but more and more, CSSC is trying to cultivate a systems perspective that not only addresses our personal mental and physical needs but also those of our entire community. I have every confidence that the organizers at UC Davis will be able to create a unique and much-needed space to address issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, as both lenses and foundations when it comes to environmental advocacy work and to inspire truly transformative actions and movements.
What’s your favorite part about convergence?
Obviously, my favorite part is meeting new friends. When I first began attending as a college freshman, I really dove deep into learning - I loved attending workshops about completely new topics and learning new things from such impressive presenters who were students just like me. That really inspired me to become more involved on campus and to be as informed as I possibly could, which brought me to where I am today. Now, after attending five Convergences, I’m definitely more interested in what happens between the workshops, talking with people I haven’t gotten to meet yet at mealtimes and mingling with speakers after panel sessions. Basically, creating connections across cities and even states that I might never have made otherwise. That’s the real beauty of Convergences and any event that brings people together in beautiful spaces like Davis.
What are some topics that this convergence will cover?
While I am not one of the Convergence planners, I know a bit of what’s going on based on some of the events I am helping with. There are a few different tracks that are available with workshops and panels that go along with them, including “TOGETHER: Creating Change and Community,” “Systems for Justice: Labor, Education, Prison Industrial Complex, Privatization, Environmental Justice and History, Capitalism. Colonialism,” and “Fossil Freedom.” There will be some amazing panels with a variety of speakers, such as “Inter-generational Lessons,” “Research for Social Change,” and “Fossil Freedom Youth Leaders.” One of the workshops I’ll be doing is “Occupational Health and Labor Justice in Environmental Issues” which will be part of the Systems for Justice track! It’s an issue I’ve been becoming increasingly passionate about over the last year and the timing couldn’t have been better. I am excited to see it among a surely incredible repertoire of workshops in this track at the Davis Convergence.
KEVIN GONG
What do you do on the planning team and why do you do it?
My role on the planning team is Convergence Coordinator. Along with Emili, I am primarily in charge of managing speakers, Convergence outreach, and programming in addition to guiding and assisting the rest of the planning team with their work. It’s a lot of work, but knowing I have the entire team to support and work with me gives keeps me going. I do it because it’s the least I can do to give back to the Earth. Being on the planning team helps me express my care and compassion for the well-being of this Earth.
What inspired you to get more involved?
What inspired me to take on such a big role in Convergence planning was that I wanted to contribute and show my appreciation to the CSSC/Convergence community that brought me up intellectually and shared with me so much knowledge. This Davis Convergence will be my sixth Convergence, and I wanted to show what I love about Davis and Convergence to the rest of the CSSC community.
ROBERTA GIORDANO
What is the importance of convergence?
Cssc convergences provide a unique space for students to grow as leaders, get inspired and learn from other youth. Convergences welcome individuals from all backgrounds and different levels of knowledge and experience. Whether you are a freshman who has just learned about climate change, or a long time organizer, the Cssc convergence will be worth your time! This will be my fourth convergence, and undoubtedly will be another incredible opportunity to shape my journey in having a positive impact on society.
A Chat with Keynote Speaker Alyssa Bradford
By Eva Malis
Tell me more about your work:
I’m a community organizer and a solution-based activist, currently organizing solution-based action against human trafficking. It’s so misconstrued, people think that it’s just sex slavery, so I’m working on that. I’m involved with the San Diego chapter of Affirm Gabnet, which is a women of color organization. We raise awareness on the war on women—hypersexualization and the lots of cruelties being done to women in different countries. I’m on a leadership group for STARS—Surviving Together And Reaching Success—which educates the public on human trafficking. I also work with Take Back the Night, where we organize rallies and marches locally. I’m connected with the Artisan Hub but not really working for them, met them through a friend. I mostly have ideas, talk to people, and do it myself.
How do your goals align with CSSC?
Environmental justice is a really big thing and involves social justice as well. It involves water, air, and food, and goes to the frontline communities that are getting impacted. Activism is activism no matter what you do! No matter if its fighting the war on women, police brutality, or environmental justice. People are coming together to raise voices on issues that need to be talked about, need to be brought up! I’m a solution-based activist. We’ve got to start talking about solutions in our community. When people see the problem, they think they can’t do it by themselves, so they might as well be a bystander. I think we need to have people start thinking about solutions, because you can have a good solution and others may disagree with you but you need to take action yourself regardless.
What are you most excited for at convergence? Do you have any expectations?
I’m kinda excited, kinda nervous, since I’m doing a lot of things—a keynote speaker, speaking on a panel, and the open mic! This is one of my really first big speaking engagements! I’m really excited and nervous to get out there and do it. I’m really excited to get out there and meet new people. This is the third time I’ll be leaving San Diego, and I’m pretty happy to be leaving again. I don’t like to have a lot of expectations, I just go up there and I live it up because all we can live is today! I’m hoping for people to hear my speech on human trafficking and talking about sex slavery, and understand what I’m doing here. I have been doing activism for some time now and it’s really my passion, what makes me breathe. I have that pressure on myself to speak well, but I’m going to speak from my heart.
What do you hope to get out of convergence?
Just growth, which is ever inevitable. Every new situation and place brings inevitable growth. I hope to be educated about more things so I can take that back to my community and educate and bring that back to somebody else! Ever since going to New York for PCM (that was a huge trip!) I opened up to the power of myself and my true purpose, came back and got my priorities straight. It was powerful and it was healing—the power of the people, the power of myself, the individual, within the community and what you can do with that, how healing it is! I can’t wait to be open again and go out there and have a good time! Basically: I’m new to speaking in a big crowd, and I’m really jumping full on into this. I’m excited, honored, and blessed to have the opportunity to come and do this for myself! CSSC is giving me an opportunity to grow. I’m just really happy for that. All I have to say is nothing but thanks!
Your Invitation to Convergence
by:Emili Abdel-Ghany
Where do I begin?
I feel like I am planning my graduation party, what better celebration than with old friends and new from across the state in my second home of UC Davis? This convergence is going to be different. It may be uncomfortable, fun, smelly, exhausting, inspiring, difficult, rejuvenating, enlightening, and certainly worth it. I believe that with any meaningful change there will be growing pains. There will also be a series of moments of realization, that we are at the forefront of revolution. I’ve asked the question of myself and others, what is the point? I’ve asked myself and my comrades, are we doing the right thing? Can a convergence really affect meaningful change? Is it worth it? I admit that at times I still hold these questions with me. We are our own worst critics right? Then I am reminded by a simple thing like a smile from a coworker on a hard day to the big things like the collective roar of energy from 400,000 climate justice believers all together on the streets of New York, finding out a local community is willing to host 50 students from across the state for the weekend, learning that organizing this convergence is changing how people connect, communicate, think about the world and teaching young activists how to do it better. I am reminded that it is in fact worth it and everyone deserves to be part of the process and enjoy the outcomes.
One of my main goals as Convergence Coordinator is to make the process and the programming as welcoming and accepting of all peoples as possible. I feel strongly about this aspect of convergence mostly because I have felt what it is like to be timid, feel unaware, unconnected, and a newcomer in a different environment. It wasn’t that long ago that I stepped my into my first CSSC meeting, heck my first Resource Fair the week before classes began. It was at that fair, which I attended alone because I had no friends, that I found the Campus Center for the Environment table. They all seemed welcoming and friendly. I liked that they had homemade signs and were smiling and laughing with each other. I identified as an environmentalist being from Santa Monica, and felt like it might be a good idea to try out their table. One of the students told me about a class they were offering, a student run seminar called the Field Guide to Sustainable Living in Davis. It seemed perfect, an introduction to sustainability on campus where i got to meet people and learn things. My mother gave me the best advice before leaving college, “Ask people about themselves and what they do, you are there to learn,” with that in my mind I stepped outside my comfort zone and took this class. From then on it was a whirlwind of stepping just outside my comfort zone and walking through the doors people opened for me. My hallmate told me about a retreat called “REACH” through the Cross Cultural Center which was January of my first year. I decided to apply, got on the waitlist. I got a call the day before from a woman named, Andrea Gaytan, asking if I would like to attend I said yes but that I couldn’t pay the $45, she welcomed me anyways and again I stepped out of my comfort zone onto the bus and OFF CAMPUS. Terrifying.
These, among many other memories along the way, like participating in this collective stomp/dance thing lead by my future friend and Intern Supervisor at the Campus Center for the Environment, Genna Lipari a the RFC Strengthening The Roots Convergence at UCSC in 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wwDuKRyzis are what keeps me believing in community spaces like these. CSSC convergences are part of a much larger picture of collective action, education and community building. I am so incredibly grateful to be able to share as much of what I have been so fortunate to glean from the organizing world over that past few years in undergrad (and honestly since high school maybe middle school… ) and put it into this convergence.
About the programming. THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING. This convergence will not only be different fundamentally from all others before it, it will shift the sustainability and environmental community. We are returning to some of our core values and changing the narrative of the sustainability community towards one that is centered on social justice at it’s core. Shifting narratives is key but we also hope to put in some work over the weekend (with some help from you all) to really challenge the way that we organize and think about ourselves, each other, and the world around us. I realize that having a speaker from Ferguson or someone working to care for the survivors of Human Trafficking or a panelist whose research challenges why the environmental (and EJ) community does not often recognize and address issues of disability or having multiple workshops on the Prison Industrial Complex or even to center a sustainability convergence around Climate Justice or just to have Identity based caucues given a full hour of dedicated time may confuse, or throw people off. This is not only true for the more traditionally environmental community but it is also true of many social justice groups because let’s face it, many issues and communities are seperated to this day in our minds and in our lives. At this convergence we are taking ownership of the history of the sustainability community as one that too often has been a white, male, upper middle class face in an incredibly diverse place. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of this convergence and I ask each person present for any portion to challenge yourself to recognize that each of us are at a different place of understanding, appreciation and acknowledgement of one another and of these very complex and intersecting issues. I ask for compassion, energy, and forward thinking.
I look forward to learning how we can all Act Collectively to Transition Together towards creating Systems for Justice with you November 14th-16th at my alma mater, UC Davis.
PS: don’t forget to register before November 7th at 11:59pm 🙂 http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/fall-2014-convergence/
Convergences and Crowdsurfing,
<3 Emili Abdel-Ghany
CSSC, Convergence Coordinator
CSSC Fossil Freedom Solidarity Organizing Program, Field Organizer
UC Davis Class of 2014, Community and Regional Development
Divestment Student Network, Regional Organizer CA
John Adams Middle School (Santa Monica), AVID Tutor
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Election Results Statement for CSSC
by CSSC
The 2014 mid-term election season proved to be an eye-opening and important one. In reflection of the important county measures to ban fracking, California Student Sustainability Coalition would like to address the results and highlight how the organization will move forward with these legislative outcomes.
Measure J - San Benito
The community of San Benito has won a huge victory, setting the precedence for the rest of California. Measure J has passed and the county will now prohibit hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, and all other related gas and oil extraction activities in area. With only 24,000 registered voters, this community has successfully confronted the big oil companies attempting to degrade their water, land, and community. Last Spring, San Benito Rising needed to collect 1,642 valid signatures to get its initiative on the ballot, they successfully received over 4,000 signatures. Their dedication to bringing attention to fracking and to passing Measure J is impressive and inspiring. This community has successfully banned extreme fossil fuel extraction before a boom was able to get going, let us all take note. San Benito’s success empowers the rest of California to stop oil companies from dominating our state, and to continue the journey toward a just and thriving future.
Ballot Results:
| Results | Votes | Percentages |
| YES | 5,021 | 57.36% |
| NO | 3,733 | 42.64% |
Measure S - Mendocino
Mendocino County successfully passed Measure S, a ban on fracking and all related activities in the region. The language in Measure S is centered on empowering the community and their rights to natural and chemical free ecosystems, a clean environment, and self-government by the people void of manipulation from corporations. This measure is inspiring as it upholds the rights for communities to have safe, clean, and liveable environments above corporate influence and political special interest.
Ballot Results:
| Results | Votes | Percentages |
| YES | 7,302 | 67.18% |
| NO | 3,567 | 32.82% |
Measure P - Santa Barbara
After a challenging race, Measure P, the initiative to ban fracking, cyclic steam injections, and acidization in Santa Barbara County, failed to pass. The loss speaks volumes to the amount of money spent by oil companies to maintain control by manipulating the democratic system — spending $7.6 million into campaigning against Measure P — clearly, our political system holds money in higher regard than the health of its people. These corporations, represented by the group named Californians For Energy Independence, are determined to continue making profits, regardless of how extraction negatively impacts communities, water, and land. Though the measure did not pass, it was not easily lost. Community members and groups, such as Santa Barbara County Water Guardians, worked tirelessly to spread the word and get support for this important measure. More now than ever before, we are inspired to stop the injustices associated with extreme energy extraction and to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels. To continue the fight in Santa Barbara County stay involved with the Santa Barbara Water Guardians. Along with this, Students Against Fracking will be working to build support for and develop strategy with this community by learning from the campaign leaders that were successful in passing a ban.
Ballot Results:
| Results | Votes | Percentage |
| NO | 51,547 | 62.65% |
| YES | 30,732 | 37.35% |
CSSC Next Steps
In lieu of the above election results, CSSC is excited to continue working on ending extreme energy extraction in California. By empowering youth, the future generation of leaders, CSSC will continue to work for a just transition — one that includes viable renewable energy solutions, stable economic justice, and an end to destructive extraction operations. We are determined and steadfast to achieve solutions now. Moving forward, we will continue to be focused on the following
- Working to further establish California as an international leader focused on shifting our energy sources and economic structure from fossil fuels to local, renewable energy opportunities.
- Providing and building programs for youth and students to expand sustainability programming on their campuses and in their communities by unifying efforts with frontline communities most impacted by the dangers of fossil fuel infrastructure.
- Continuing to pressure our government officials and leaders to make legislative, investment, and social decisions that will take into account the impending consequences of climate change.
- Develop a statewide student network focused on developing real solutions for our energy needs and economic stability.
- Improving partnerships with Move to Amend/ Wolf PAC to get money out of politics so that real decisions, not paid ones, can be made in local, state, and national elections.
The work starts now. Join CSSC efforts today!
- Register for the CSSC Fall Convergence, November 14-16th at UC Davis!
- CSSC is always looking for volunteers and financial support to keep the organization running. Join the team today!
A Town Hall Meeting for the Proposed Food Systems Minor
by Sydney Johnson · November 1, 2014
UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff met Wednesday night in an open dialogue about the proposed Food Systems Minor. The Town Hall meeting, as it was called, centered primarily around audience input and invited those interested in the minor to come and share opinions, concerns and thoughts regarding what they hope to see included in the proposal.
The event was hosted by SERC education associate Jeff Noven and Student Organic Gardening Association (SOGA) leader Kate Kaplan, two undergraduate representatives on the proposal committee. The students started the event by providing a history of the minor, which has been in progress for nearly six years.
Originally proposed in 2008 by Albie Miles and Nathan McClintock, two PhD students studying at UC Berkeley, the minor was first submitted to the Bears Breaking Boundaries Contest as a Curricular Innovation Proposal under the title of “Food Systems & Sustainability.” Despite a favorable response by students and faculty however, the initial idea was never formally implemented.
Since then, “the minor has been in progress in many forms for several years,” said Noven, “and what did not initially go through has provided us a strong ideological basis for what we are doing here today.”
What Noven is referring to is the current revisioning of Miles and McClintock’s original minor proposal, which has resurfaced and is now in the drafting stage once again.
The writers of this proposal draw from all areas on campus. “The proposal committee has included several faculty members as well as students and staff, and in the future, the proposal will engage additional faculty who will be teaching the courses too,” said executive director of the Berkeley Food Institute (BFI), Ann Thrupp.
One of the key players in realizing the minor, “the BFI has taken an active role in facilitating the Food Systems Minor committee and proposal process over the last several months, which includes the community engagement aspects and curriculum,” said Thrupp.
“In the future, BFI would probably continue to be engaged with the community outreach component, and the faculty and college would be mainly responsible for the other aspects of the curriculum.”
Kaplan and Noven presented the Town Hall attendees with the most recent draft of the proposal, which they emphasized is subject to change. The goals of the current proposal are described as the following:
The purpose of the proposed minor is to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary education about food and agriculture systems, and to foster integrated learning to address major challenges and opportunities in this field. The proposed minor aims to integrate theoretical and experimental modes to educate students about the social, political, economic, environmental, cultural, and public health issues of contemporary food and agriculture systems both domestically and internationally.
The minor encompases three main components: two core courses, three elective courses and one community engagement project. Within these subsets are what Noven referred to as “the three big education outcomes,” which divide up the minor into specific subject areas of natural sciences, social sciences, and food and community health.
The courses within these elective forms draw from several different departments on campus, including Environmental Science Policy and Management, Geography, Nutritional Science, Sociology, Public Health and Plant Biology. There is also an option for students to petition a course if they find it to be appropriate but not officially written into the minor.
Unlike most major and minor programs on campus, the proposed Food Systems Minor would allow students to use two-unit, upper division DeCal courses for fulfilling the minor requirements.
By incorporating the student-led courses into the curriculum, Kaplan explained, “we are hoping to facilitate more democratic learning on campus.”
“Many DeCals offered here fall directly inline with the mission of the proposed minor, such as the SOGA DeCals, classes offered through the Berkeley Student Food Collective and even some chemistry DeCals could work,” she said.
The floor was then opened up to those attending the meeting, and many students shared what they liked, as well as what they felt could be added to the proposal. Critiques included requests for more critical sociology courses, as well as adding several integrative biology classes to course list.
“I think having another component more focusing on the community engagement portion would be good, maybe a preliminary seminar to prepare students for their outreach,” said graduating senior Asia Tallino.
It was later clarified that the community engagement component does currently include a supplemental seminar, however, students nevertheless expressed interest in expanding this portion of the minor.
In response to the comments, Thrupp shared her insight on what is already being done to address students’ concerns. “We have compiled a list of community engagement opportunities and have surveyed many organizations in the area, to identify needs and opportunities for students to be involved,” she said. “We hope that [the community engagement project] will be mutually beneficial for the student and the organizations involved.”
“The community engagement project will establish relationships and partnerships between the community and the university,” said Kaplan. “We want students to graduate with a hands-on education and these community connections already in place.”
When asked about the delays in its approval, those present who have been involved with its development said that because this is a new process, passing the minor has been a learning experience in itself, and satisfying each corner of the minor, including faculty, students and community organizations, has not been an easy task.
Noven pointed out that although navigating the bureaucracy has proven difficult, “many students are already taking the courses outlined here.”
“This minor will serve to provide students with a structured package they can get academic credit for,” he said. “Right now, there are options if you want to study food and agriculture, but there is nothing formal for us. We want to provide students with that structured disciple.”
Aside from student interest, “there is a greater demand for a Food Systems Minor because there are less and less farmers today,” said Kaplan. “We should give anyone with an interest in agriculture the opportunity to study it.”
It seemed as though many of the students in attendance wanted exactly that: a formal agricultural curriculum at UC Berkeley. Many in the group also identified as interdisciplinary majors who had formulated their studies to focus on the issues that the proposed Food Systems Minor aims to address.
“I wish I had this [class] list when I was choosing my major!” said Tallino, and after the back and forth discussions regarding what changes could or might made to the draft, it seemed many of the Town Hall attendees were pleased with the overall progress and trajectory of the minor proposal thus far.
Members of the proposal committee hope the minor proposal will be submitted for approval within the next two months, and available for students by 2015. More thoughts and opinions on the current draft are still being welcomed.
Original Post from http://serc.berkeley.edu/a-town-hall-meeting-for-the-proposed-food-systems-minor/
Keynote Speaker Confirmed for Convergence
by Eva Malis
Already stoked for Fall 2014 Convergence? Here’s another reason to be: Gopal Dayaneni will be one of our keynote speakers!
November 14-16th at UC Davis, we will be gathering under the theme of Act Collectively, Transition Together: Systems for Justice, and Gopal’s experience fits perfectly within this domain.
Dayaneni has a history of involvement with a variety of issues concerning justice within social, environmental, economic, and racial fields. He is currently part of the staff collective of Movement Generation’s Justice and Ecology Project, which focuses on transforming and restoring land, labor, and culture into resilient local communities through empowerment of low-income communities.
Movement Generation utilizes progressive approaches to campaign and movement building to actualize change. One strategy that they embody is Resilience Based Organizing, which encourages people to work together in ways that stray from the existing structures of power. Instead, RBO confronts unjust policies at the level of the people whom it directly affects. Movement Generation’s Justice and Ecology Project works with over 150 other organizations and hosts Justice and Ecology Retreats, Workshops and Strategy Sessions, and Earth Skills Training program to engage movement leaders advocating for change.
Gopal is also involved with The Ruckus Society, which provides tools and support for environmental or social justice organizers to achieve their goals. He is on the board for the Center for Story-Based Strategy, which uses the power of storytelling to strategically implement change. He is working with or has worked in the past with the International Accountability Project, The Working World and Catalyst Project, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Project Underground, Progressive Communicators Network, and Tenderloin Childcare Center.
Come out to CSSC’s Fall 2014 Convergence to learn what Gopal has to say. From such a diverse background in progressive and strategic organizing, we can look forward to the ideas he has to share.
Want to learn more? http://movementgeneration.org/
RSVP for Fall 2014 Convergence! https://www.facebook.com/events/278832705639659/
Featured Image Credit: http://redefineschool.com/gopal-dayaneni/
Food and Climate Change: What Are Students Saying?
by: Eva Malis
As the urgency of the climate dilemma looms over us like a swiftly approaching storm cloud, more people are desperately searching for easy solutions. And there are many of them—a whole world of creative solutions, all with debatable impacts. Food especially has become a hot topic.
According to a 2006 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, farmed animals globally contribute more to climate change than all of the transportation sector, but then the FAO retracted that comparison. Yet in 2009, environmental specialists employed by two other UN specialized agencies, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, estimated that at least 51% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to livestock. As more information on our nation’s food system is revealed to the public, it appears that changing our diets could be a huge solution.
Yet is it necessary to become entirely vegan to have the largest possible impact? To many, the word “vegan” can be an immediate turn-off, with an extremist connotation that gives off the impression that it is too difficult of a lifestyle. Yet as food has become more integrated into environmentalism, we’re seeing a steady increase in numbers of vegans over the years, and ways to make veganism easier. A Vegetarian Resource Group study reported that 2.5% of the US Population followed a vegan diet, increasing from 1% in 2009. Personally, I have found that those who learn enough about where food truly comes from commonly find it too difficult to eat conventionally.
“I see more people becoming aware of how their food choice impacts the communities and world around them,” asserts Grace Lihn, Communications Director of the Berkeley Student Food Collective. “The food movement is indeed growing, and branching off in many new directions.”
Some, however, are looking at the problem in a different perspective.
“I think that the most impactful change a person can make to his/her lifestyle is to begin to question it,” Says Ben Galindo, a Community Engaged Learning Teaching Assistant at Southwestern University Garden. “Veganism is a great example of this, however my preferred change in consumption is ‘freeganism’ due to the fact that it is anti-consumerist in nature.”
Both Galindo and Lihn were hesitant to put all their faith into one solution such as change of diet.
“There’s no silver bullet or quick fix to an unsustainable lifestyle,” says Galindo. “These behavioral changes often instill a sense of complacency towards other important individual acts and this can negatively affect one’s goal of personal sustainability. So in short, I fully support these changes in diet as long as they accompany other long-lasting changes in mindset and thinking.”
“A change in diet as a personal response to environmental and/or food-related issues sends a powerful message to yourself and those around you. But I think it’s also important that you keep in mind what your body’s needs are and that you know exactly why you made the decision to change your diet,” says Lihn.
Other than flat out veganism, there are many options for instigating change in this precarious system. We can divert our support for unsustainable food systems by buying local, reducing meat consumption, and ensuring our food comes from responsible producers. Other than changing our diets, and focusing on shrinking our negative impacts, we can think forward and aim to increase our positive impacts. We can plant gardens, spread ideas, engage in conversation, and take active roles in advocating change for our problematic system.
“Food issues are inherently political and social issues. We need better leaders (and I see many up and coming), better policies, more community-based decision-making, and ultimately more local awareness and education programs,” says Lihn.
In a world full of problems and solutions, it is clear that we need to continue to question our goals and impacts. We must analyze every decision in order to maximize progress, and keep the creative ideas flowing.
UC Regents: Listen to Your Community. Be True Climate Leaders.
by: Emili Abdel-Ghany, UC Davis Class of 2014 Community and Regional Development
California Student Sustainability Coalition Field Organizer for the Fossil Freedom Solidarity Organizing Program and former Senior Field Organizer for the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign.
Over the past three years I have seen communities rise up together across UC Davis, the entire UC, and reaching out into California and beyond, even reaching the front page of the Wall Street Journal’s Money and Investing segment. The campaign to divest our communities from the fossil fuel industry is one that resonates with folks from every part of society. I have had the opportunity to help shape the campaign on the local (Davis) level and statewide, coordinating multiple actions at the Sacramento UC Regents meetings and others. I have personally dedicated a majority of my undergraduate career to this campaign and to the education of the broader campus and California community (UC Davis and beyond). Faith communities, those fighting for racial or gender equity, scientific communities, campus departments, educators and countless students have thanked the campaign leaders for enlightening them about what UC investments are doing. I have seen how galvanizing the issue of unsustainable investments can be for students, faculty, staff, and community. Almost every time I’ve told someone about this campaign their reaction is the same: They did not know that the UC invests donations in fossil fuel industries which constitutes a lack of transparency from the UC, and they do not want the UC to be investing in or even using fossil fuels. Further, they want to have a say in the process given that UC is a public institution of research and higher education, and are strongly opposed to the direction the UC is going in its relationship to the industry fueling climate change. Although the UC has just made significant strides to advance solar, it is a moral contradiction to invest in the companies driving the climate crisis while investing in those attempting to halt it.
Image 2. Photo Credit Becca Rast, May 2014 UC Regent’s Meeting @Sacramento
Our movement for climate justice is reaching a tipping point this September, and here in California we must act to hold our flagship public institution accountable for financing climate chaos. UC Regents on the Committee on Investments will be voting on fossil fuel divestment at their meeting September 17th meeting at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. We need as many voices from community, students, faculty, administration present. The Chief Investment Officer (CIO) recently altered his original recommendation to the Committee on Investments (COI), which would have advocated for a loose ESG (Environmental and Social Governance) framework for investing and explicitly stated recommending a “No” vote on divestment. In my opinion, this recommendation would completely disregard and even misconstrue the meaning of the work of students and the community, since it does not take immediate action to halt all new investments in the top 200 fossil fuel companies, drop the current holdings, and begin to reinvest in our communities. However, because of student and community pressure (by countless phone calls to the CIO) the Task Force recommended that the decision on Fossil Fuel Divestment be assigned to the COI, ending the Task Force. This minor concession is thanks to the people power generated by Fossil Free UC.
Any recommendation that the CIO makes to the Task Force will be taken very seriously by the Committee on Investments and voted on at their Friday September 12th meeting happening via teleconference in Oakland, LA, and Santa Barbara. If you would like to be involved in the momentum around this please email CSSC Field Organizer Jake Soiffer or Madeline Oliver. Most Regents will likely defend his position. We need to keep up the public pressure on decision makers. The Regents will likely still vote yes on whatever the CIO recommends to the COI. It will be incredibly important to have as many people at this meeting supporting our campaign as possible. If you are faculty we have a template letter that we would love for you sign onto/adapt and send you may contact CSSC Campaign Director, Emily Williams for this letter. Otherwise (for non-faculty), you can send your input to the UC Regents via email [email protected], mail: Office of the Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Regents 1111 Franklin St.,12th floor Oakland, CA 94607 with attention to the Committee on Investments. The regent who chairs this committee is Paul Wachter, it would be good to address concerns to him since the decision is in the hands of the COI as of now. If you will be sending a letter after Friday please email it to CSSC Field Organizer Alyssa Lee and she will circulate it appropriately.
Image 3. Photo Credit Sam Gross, Spring 2013 CSSC Convergence @ UC Berkeley
Divestment from these companies will apply the appropriate amount of public pressure on them to either change their business model or make room for sustainable and just solutions to the problems they helped create and continue to profit off of. The CEOs of the dirty companies the UC is investing in know exactly what they are doing. Exxon Mobile’s CEO, Rex Tillerson, claims that humans will adapt to climate change blowback. As I have learned in my Community and Regional Development class at UC Davis this summer, this is what is known as an ecological fallacy, to apply theory from one level of understanding (adaptation of species) onto another completely different level (the political economy). However, if we run with his theory and say that humans can just change their structures to weather climate change, it would actually be much more expensive for citizens and cities, but maybe not the CEO of Exxon Mobil. Yet again from what I have learned from leading scholars at the UC, we must examine who receives the burdens and benefits of our systems, namely our economic system, and why. It is a farce to say that each person has an equitable say, but rather we should recognize each entity deserves this and are systematically disadvantaged or privileged based on social identity/affiliation. CEOs of the top 200 most polluting fossil fuel companies did not earn their status, they did not rightfully gain the ear of politicians and UC Regents based on their character, to put it bluntly, they purchased that time with money “earned” from extraction and exploitation. What the youth of today are working towards is an appropriate seat at the table, a say in how our institutions are run. Changing our structures to appropriately reflect the population is difficult but it is one of the most worthwhile challenges of our time. This will help us move towards a future that is empowering for the wrongfully disempowered, healthy for all, and appropriately representative of the world we can to thrive within.
Image 4. Photo Credit Fossil Free UC, May 2013 UC Regent’s Meeting @Sacramento
The Regents of the UC have taken bold action on divestment throughout history, namely with divestment from South African Apartheid. Solidarity shown from the US, namely the University of California, proved to be such an influential move that Nelson Mandela came to the US, to UC Berkeley, after he was released to thank the students for their dedication. I had the opportunity to visit South Africa this summer with UC Davis Study Abroad, partially inspiration by my work on the Fossil Fuel Divestment campaign through the California Student Sustainability Coalition. It was there that I learned how very important it is that we show international solidarity, and that those who have the ability to influence large-scale change do just that. I was able to go on a Toxic Tour of the Rustenburg mining communities in South Africa through the Community Monitors Action Network. This place is one of many where free trade, exploitation of land and labor can be felt and witnessed in a way that shakes a person to their core. It is impossible for me to forget the impact of our extractive economy on the lives of some of the most vulnerable. Most of the companies, like Anglo-American, are from western nations like the U.S. or the UK; this means any profit gained from exploiting places like these go to CEOs and shareholders in the US. It is often called the Resource Curse when a valuable resource is found since it results in the exacerbation of current oppressive systems and dramatised wealth disparity.
Image Credit: Emili Abdel-Ghany July 2014
On August 16th, 2012 34 miners were killed for fighting for their right to exist and thrive (78 miners wounded) at the Lonmin Platinum mine in Marikana, Rustenberg, South Africa. This is a photo from the mountaintop where many were slain, the memorial that remains, and the mine in the background. The extractive and exploitative economy steals money, earth, and most importantly, innocent lives. #remembertheslain Marikana Solidarity campaign.
Watch this film to learn more: http://fleurmach.com/2014/08/15/miners-shot-down/
Rustenburg is a microcosm of the larger issue of our time. The Fossil Fuel Divestment campaign targets the top 200 companies who own the most carbon reserves because we recognize that the extraction, distribution, refining and finally burning of carbon has an especially devastating impact on the lives of every person on this planet. Climate change has effects that are happening now, it is not just a looming threat in the future. If a person is not feeling it, that does not negate the fact that counties have run out of water in the U.S., that people have died from fossil fuel explosions, that indigenous land is being stolen and stripped, that the youth of today are afraid of bringing new people into this world because of how much worse they fear it will get. We are fighting for our future, yes, but we are also fighting for today.
The UC has to lead. We have to act now. The Regents have the opportunity of a lifetime to listen to the outcry of the people and divest NOW!
For more information follow:
www.fossilfreeuc.org
www.facebook.com/FossilFreeUC
www.sustainabilitycoalition.org
www.twitter.com/FossilFreeUC
To be added to listservs email Alyssa Lee.
You can find an excerpt of this essay on the UC Davis Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Department’s website.
Drought, Earthquakes, and Corporations- Oh My!
Drought, Earthquakes, and Corporations- Oh My!
by Jessica Olson
Climate Change is Strictly Business
In the wake of the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck California’s wine country on August 24th, 2014 (the largest since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake with a magnitude of 6.9) it’s time for this drought-ridden state to wake up.
[Image 1: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/07/31/californias-drought-just-got-absolutely-terrifying]
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some of my fondest memories are of exploring the river near my house and visiting my Aunt who lives up near Lake Tahoe and playing in the refreshingly cold water. With the current drought, the rivers and lakes of my childhood are nothing more than glorified puddles. I find myself wondering how this could happen.
As climate change has pushed the golden state to the brink of a full on water crisis, private corporations operating within the state have not been subject to lessening their water consumption. Just the other day, news broke that residents in the San Joaquin Valley have no tap water running from their faucets due to their wells coming up dry.
According to local news (http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/08/23/california-drought-leaves-hundreds-of-central-valley-homes-with-no-tap-water-drinking-bottled-rations-porterville-tulare-county/), “The situation has become so dire that the Tulare County Office of Emergency Services had 12-gallon-per person rations of bottled water delivered on Friday in the community of East Porterville, where at least 182 of the 1,400 households reported having no or not enough water… the supplies cost the county $30,000 and were designed to last about three weeks, but are only a temporary fix.” So- let me get this straight. Bottled water companies in California(http://www.cnbc.com/id/101892496#.) are aiding in emptying the aquifers at an undisclosed rate(http://www.salon.com/2014/07/14/nestle_is_bottling_water_straight_from_the_heart_of_californias_drought/), contributing to the drought, AND making a profit off of it?
[Image 2: “CA drought worsening from 2010 to 2014; over 80% of the state is now in “Exceptional Drought” http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/MapsAndData/WeeklyComparison.aspx]
What could be worse than that?
Unfortunately, I have an answer to that rhetorical question: the drought is is putting pressure on our already active fault lines. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS) (http://www.capradio.org/articles/2013/11/22/usgs-study-1200-square-miles-of-central-valley-land-is-sinking/) and recent research published in the journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v509/n7501/full/nature13275.html), the aquifers have become so empty that the surface has begun to cave in. As a result, the subsidence problem of buckling land is putting pressure on our fault lines which could result in some stronger quakes (http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/08/04/california-drought-may-cause-earthquakes) in our future.
If this wasn’t enough, the state is using what little water is leftover from daily use by California residents and sold for profit by corporations such as Nestle for a rapidly expanding natural gas industry. As such, the risks of more earthquakes and furthering the drought in California have entered a positive feedback loop. The more companies use the process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the less water there is. It requires over 4.4 million gallons of water to frack a drilling pad (http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/03/12/how-much-water-it-takes-to-frack-a-well/).
[Image 3: http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/03/12/how-much-water-it-takes-to-frack-a-well/]
Not only does fracking take more than its fair share of water, but the process contaminates the groundwater adjacent to the pads and the water sent down in the process becomes non-reusable. In a state where there isn’t even enough water for thirsty people, we should be seeking alternatives to water-intensive extraction projects. And let’s not forget about the positive feedback loop going on here. Hydraulic fracturing has been found to be possibly more detrimental to climate health than coal(http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2011/04/fracking-leaks-may-make-gas-dirtier-coal)! And let’s not forget that fracking has also been found to cause earthquakes(http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/earthquake/) even in places that historically don’t feel them(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/fracking-earthquake_n_5585892.html).
[Image 4: “All active fracking pads in the state” http://maps.fractracker.org/latest/?appid=57ecf5feeba8428f80a749ec50921ad6]
I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time that companies are held as accountable as private citizens. If corporations are people, shouldn’t they be fined for violating drought restrictions like everyone else?
What You Can Do:
- Get informed
- Actively conserve water
- Join the fight!
To get more involved with activists against fracking in your area, look no further than this post from March. http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/cssc-students-recap-dont-frack-california/
For more information about removing bottled water from your campus, you can read more here. http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/battling-the-bottle-students-and-industry-face-off-over-water/
To learn more about the drought and its impact on California you can read more here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/wests-historic-drought-stokes-fears-of-water-crisis/2014/08/17/d5c84934-240c-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html
Think I forgot about California’s Agribusinesses role in all of this? I didn’t! Read more here (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-11/california-drought-transforms-global-food-market.html?utm_content=buffereacf9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer)
Still don’t think the drought is an issue? Check out these bad boys(http://imgur.com/a/IgoUq).
A Thank You Letter to CSSC
I moved to California in the fall of 2010 to attend UC Berkeley. By spring, I had found CSSC.
It’s actually a funny story.In the spring of 2011, Energy Action Coalition held its third ever Power Shift conference in Washington DC. I had gone to Power Shift in 2009 when I was in high school since I grew up in the area. But out in California, I decided I couldn’t justify the carbon footprint of a cross-country flight to go to an environmental event (since then my views on purposeful airplane travel have fluctuated). I didn’t go, and all through the weekend of the conference, I was so bummed out that I wasn’t there, as I tuned in to the exciting updates on social media. But that very weekend, I received an email from the Berkeley Sustainability Team list serve. It advertised something called a “convergence” hosted by the California Student Sustainability Coalition, happening in about a month at UC Davis. A chance to meet activists, get inspired, see a different part of the state, learn? Knowing close to nothing, I registered that night.
As the event neared, I began to wonder how to get to Davis. I had never been before and I only kind of knew where it was. Not long after I began wondering, I received an email from a woman named Tia. “Do you need a ride to the Convergence?” she asked. Yes! My first CSSC carpool. Convergence weekend came around, and I took the BART to El Cerrito to meet Tia. Another Berkeley student, Chris, met me there. We got in the car with Tia, Kayla, and Dominic to drive to Davis.
That weekend was a whirlwind. I heard amazing keynote speakers (Tim DeChristopher, for one) and attended thoughtful workshops. I had never heard of permaculture or aquaponics before! There was an epic Saturday night bonfire and jam sessions sprouted up through the cracks of the agenda all weekend. I met people from all corners of California, corners that my east-coast self had never heard of. Faraway places like “Butte” and “San Luis Obispo.” The people I met were different, special. They dreamed big, acted real, and were so open to new ideas and people that every conversation opened up a new world. I had participated in sustainability events before, but none that felt like this, none that were so community-oriented. I left feeling dazed, overwhelmed, and determined to find my way to the center of this clearly wondrous organization.
It took me a little while, but I found my way in. I am proud to say I served as the Online Content Manager on the Operating Team for over two years, but my connection to CSSC runs so much deeper than that. It’s my family.
Managing the website and blog may have kept me behind the scenes, but looking back, my position gave me an unforgettable opportunity to connect people from all over the state of California and beyond. I stepped into the shoes of storyteller, and the stories I witnessed and broadcasted constantly kept me inspired and grounded in what truly is the grassroots movement. From “big” things like Power Shift and UC-wide divestment, to smaller things like grilled-cheese funkraisers and water-saving technologies, I found myself in tune and in touch with a spider web of greatness and power.
When I started, I didn’t know anything about WordPress or websites. As writer Annie Dillard put it, “You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” And that’s something very special about being part of a grassroots and student-run organization: anyone with passion and interest is given great power and stake. The only thing that limits what one student can do in CSSC is their own prerogative. No one tells you no.
By being a part of CSSC, I feel that I feel lucky to have grown into a progressive belief-system and culture. Not all organizations are keen to discuss and incorporate the intersections of social and ecological justice, how institutions like classism, racism, and feminism fold themselves into environmental issues. It is a privilege to spend time with organizers who are deeply committed to justice of all kinds, who earnestly hunger for solutions that are deep, honest, and beneficial to all people. The people I’ve met in CSSC are on the cutting edge of the sustainability movement, and I think they’re on to something.
Four years later, I feel Californian. Thanks to CSSC I have traveled all across the state: to Davis, Chico, Humboldt, Santa Barbara, Fremont Peak, the San Jacinto Mountains, Sacramento, and more. As Development Director Zen Trenholm likes to put it, “CSSC is the best couch-surfing network in California.” I feel incredibly lucky, because I don’t just know the places I’ve traveled to in California for their landscapes and cities, but for their best and brightest student sustainability activists. I know Los Angeles for its DIY dumpster divers, I know Butte for its epic jam sessions and radical thinkers, I know Humboldt for its farmers and alternative techies, I know Shasta for its urban lettuce growers. The California that I know and love is the best of the best, thanks to CSSC. In creating an intentional community, this network organization is the change it wishes to see in the world.
For giving me power, wings, and so many incredible friends and partners-in-crime, I am forever grateful to the California Student Sustainability Coalition. I’m passing along the website and the blog, now, to some fantastic new folks. But don’t worry: once a sustainabilibuddy, always a sustainabilibuddy!
2 Weeks In! The Fossil Free UC Letter-A-Day Campaign wants your support!
Image borrowed from Occupy Oakland Media <http://hellaoccupyoakland.org/kin/>
Wow! We are already 2 weeks into July and our Fossil Free UC Letter-A-Day Campaign! For all of this month and August, we are asking anyone who is affiliated with the UC, whether they are students, alumni, faculty, or even California taxpayers, to write in to the Regents and President Napolitano with a strong message:
DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS!
We are asking ALL OF YOU to write a short 3-4-paragraph letter to the Regents urging them to vote YES on DIVESTMENT in anticipation of the September meeting. Every single day in July and August, at least 1 handwritten or typed letter will be mailed to the Regents so that the message does not stop.
If you want to support, please sign up HERE for the date that you will commit to send your letter!
You can also join our Facebook Event here!
This week, we are featuring a letter from Jane Vosburg from Sonoma County who has written to President Napolitano requesting the same leadership from the UC as they showed in the 1980s when they divested from the apartheid government in South Africa. Vosburg’s letter makes a powerful case for the ethical argument for divestment but also gives a strong presentation for why it is economically beneficial. Please check it out below!
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Dear President Napolitano,
The images of Nelson Mandela returning to Berkeley to thank the student body for its help in bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa demonstrates the power of a campaign run by students with conviction. The injustices of apartheid were reprehensible and the good fight was fought and won.
Today, students find themselves in an even more reprehensible situation. They are faced with a fossil fuel industry which is determined to burn all the fuel it has in its reserves thereby causing climate catastrophe and heating the planet to a level unconducive to life. To prevent this scenario, the fossil fuel industry must keep 80% of its reserves in the ground. At the current rate of emissions, the carbon budget will be depleted by 2040. Humanity has never faced such a dilemma.
The moral argument alone should convince the UC Regents to divest the UC’s endowment from the fossil fuel industry; but, equally compelling are the financial reasons to divest. Beavis Longstreth, former commissioner of the Securities Exchange Commission cautions in his article “The Financial Case for Divestment of Fossil Fuel Companies by Endowment Fiduciaries,” that “For fiduciaries, the planet’s present condition and trajectory pose major, and growing, portfolio risks.” Republican Henry Paulson, who was secretary of the Treasury when the credit bubble burst warns, “We’re making the same mistake today with climate change. We’re staring down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to both our environment and economy. The warning signs are clear and growing as the risks go unchecked….This is a crisis we can’t afford to ignore…. We can see the crash coming, and yet we’re sitting on our hands rather than altering course. We need to act now….” I would argue that inaction by the UC Regents would in fact be a breach of their fiduciary duty.
It is only a matter of time before prestigious colleges begin their commitment to divest their endowments from fossil fuel-Stanford has already committed to divest from coal. Therefore, I urge you to embrace the leadership of the students who are fighting to prevent climate catastrophe. Make the University of California the beacon of justice once more by divesting its endowment from fossil fuel companies.
Respectfully,
Jane Vosburg
Shakshuka
Shakshuka, also known as Eggs in Purgatory, is heaven on earth. By far my favorite savory breakfast dish, it consists of a dreamy tomato and bell pepper based sauce with eggs poached directly in the sauce. It draws on international roots spanning North Africa and the Middle East; shakshuka is thought to be from Tunisia or the Ottoman Empire. Regardless of its pedigree, it is welcome addition to any table.
Although I usually make shakshuka on the weekends when time is no object, I like to keep a batch of sauce in the freezer for quick fixes. For the vegans out there, don’t discount this recipe yet. Despite eggs taking center stage for the vegetarian version, it is the sauce that is the diva. It would be divine as a dip for fresh baked pita or seedy bagel. The recipe below serves two generously, but could easily be multiplied for larger crowds or stockpiling.
For this recipe, you will need
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
1 medium onion, sliced in thin crescents
1 cup stewed tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes
½ cup chopped barbecued red, yellow, or orange bell peppers (my favorite for addition of smoky flavor) or fresh peppers
1 tablespoons honey, sugar, or maple syrup
½ teaspoon smoked or regular paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
½ teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
4 eggs
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro, stems are fine
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley, stems are fine
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or to taste
Tools:
Medium cast iron frying pan
Wooden spoon
Knife and cutting board
Lid that fits the frying pan or a cookie sheet
Process:
1. Heat the oil in the pan until it thins and coats the pan evenly.
2. Add the seeds and toast until a few pop.
3. Add the onions to stop the toasting. Stir to keep seeds from burning.
4. When the onions are translucent, but not soft, add the tomatoes, bell peppers, honey, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Cook, uncovered with stirring to prevent sticking, until the ingredients become saucy.
5. Taste for salt and add salt if necessary.
6. Gently crack the eggs into the sauce for poaching. Top with cilantro, parsley, and pepper. Cover with the lid or cookie sheet.
7. When the eggs are cooked to your liking, remove from the heat and serve. For extra authenticity (and fewer dishes) I like to bring the frying pan directly to the table.
8. Enjoy with fellow activists.
The Fossil Free UC Letter-A-Day Campaign has kicked off!
It has been two days already since the start of the Fossil Free UC Letter-A-Day Campaign! As we come upon the last Regents meeting before the September vote on divestment, it is critical to get hundreds more voices in the conversation and not just at these meetings! We need to begin making a presence on the phone, in their inboxes, and in their mailboxes!
This July and August, we are calling on students, faculty, alumni, and supporters of the UC to tell the Regents nonstop to divest from fossil fuels! We are asking ALL OF YOU to write a short 3-4-paragraph letter to the Regents urging them to vote YES on DIVESTMENT in anticipation of the September meeting. Every single day in July and August, at least 1 handwritten or typed letter will be mailed to the Regents so that the message does not stop.
If you want to support, please sign up HERE for the date that you will commit to send your letter!
You can also join our Facebook Event here!
Furthermore, every week, we will be featuring a letter from that week by a student, alumnus, faculty, or UC supporter! Since our project has just started, this week’s featured letter is from myself!
As a recent graduate from UCLA, it was easy for me to channel my experience as a student and the expectations of integrity and accountability that I felt were made clear to me. However, as an alumnus, I am also deciding how, if any, I want to continue to support the UCs. I do not want my donations and the credibility of my education to be sullied by continued financial investment in companies whose purpose is to make money at the expense of this planet, its people, and our potential. I also spoke about joining the Donors for Divestment campaign. Until the UC agrees to divest from all fossil fuels, any donation of mine is staying put in my bank account! Find out more and watch our video here!
Your letter is your first step in making your voice heard - we are gearing up for a huge win or a huge opportunity to escalate and point our fingers at the Regents. It only took me 15 minutes to handwrite my letter - please sign up for your own letter today!
July 2, 2014
Dear UC Regents / President Napolitano,
My name is Alyssa Lee and I am a (very) recent graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. As a new alumnus, I am deeply troubled by the state of our endowment and its implicit support in funding companies whose for-profit mission is unequivocally driving climate change. With strong urgency, I ask that you consider the well-being of MY future and vote YES on divesting the UC General Endowment Pool from fossil fuel investments this September. Take this step and show that you are fully committed to your demonstrated leadership in a sustainable future.
I graduated from UCLA with a degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics.
As a student of, I know how valuable my education is and how critical it is for me to take away the knowledge, skills, and values taught to me at UCLA by UC professors, staff, and students and to utilize them to improve the world, whether it be through disease prevention, developing feedstock plants for biofuels, discovering new antibiotics, or through community health sciences. I have spent four years investing time and money into this education so that I can proudly say that I am helping to found a better and more livable future. And countless others have invested in me as well - my family, friends, and colleagues. I am appalled by the hypocrisy of an institution that pushes and inspires me to ‘be the future’ and contribute my education back to the world, and yet does not use its social power and wealth to uphold the stewardship of the very Earth I am to supposedly lead.
Divesting the UC from fossil fuels aligns with your - with our - mission. It allows you to have credibility in your commitment to sustainability. You have said, “We will need to change to meet the demands of the century ahead. And that change must be imagined, sketched, questioned and agreed to publicly and accountably.”(1) By divesting, you are affirming that you will put into practice the accountability and integrity that are embedded in and considered core to our education. By divesting, you allow me to feel proud of my education and to know that the benefits I have reaped (and the future gifts I will give) do not come at the expense of this world and its creatures whom I hope to serve. You allow me to honestly defend my education and identity as a UC alumnus.
Because of this, I am joining the Fossil Free UC DONORS FOR DIVESTMENT campaign. I am pledging a gift of $50 to the UC that I plan to give and increase yearly, but if and only if my donation will be fossil free. Please consider the futures of students like myself and the millions more to come. I urge you to vote yes for the UC to divest its endowment from fossil fuels and put funds toward community-based climate solutions.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Lee
UCLA, Class of 2014
B.S. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics
(1) http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/uc-system/stewardship
CSU Board of Trustees Approves State-wide Sustainable Food Policy
Contact:
Michael Clemson, CSU Chancellor’s Office, 562-951-4291
David Schwartz, Real Food for CSUs Campaign, 401-601-5545
$20+ million to be devoted annually to local, sustainable farms and food businesses
Long Beach, CA – As the state of California struggles with record droughts and wildfires, today the California State University Board of Trustees, including Governor Jerry Brown, approved a long-awaited sustainable food policy will govern the more than $100 million spent on food across the 23-campus system. Under the new policy, each campus will have until 2020 to ensure that at least 20% of all food spending goes to farms and food businesses that meet Real Food Challenge—a national student group advocating for just food systems—guidelines: local and community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and/or humane.
“The sustainable food service goal in the university policy demonstrates the power of student participation,” said Michael Clemson, Associate Energy Analyst at the California State University Chancellor’s office. “Trustees supported student leadership on this issue and we at the CSU Chancellor’s Office are excited to continue working with the Real Food Challenge.”
The sustainable food policy has been in the works for more than a year, and was adopted as part of a wider sustainability policy, which also includes sections on energy, water, buildings and transportation.
The food section of the policy responds directly to the advocacy of a student campaign, “Real Food for CSUs.” In advance of the May 21 vote, the group gathered petition signatures from more than 1,000 supporters across the state, coordinated actions on 8 CSU campuses and won endorsements from the Cal State Student Association and the California Student Sustainability Coalition. The group has given testimony at all five Board meetings this year.
“This is more than just a passing of a policy. Today the CSU Board is answering a call to change from students, faculty, and community members alike, all across the state of California,” comments Kristin Ouimette, student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and a leader of the Real Food for CSU Campaign. “This vote is huge because students have a right to have access to quality food that not only nourishes our bodies, but also our communities.”
Already, many CSU campuses have developed models that will aid state-wide adoption of the policy. CSU Chico, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO and CSU Monterey Bay are now using the Real Food Calculator, a student-designed assessment tool to research what percent of their school’s current purchases meet the ‘real food’ or sustainable food criteria. Cal Poly Pomona has also developed a for-credit course for students to research and make recommendations about how their campus food service can improve.
# # #
The California State University Systemis a leader in high-quality, accessible, student-focused higher education. With 23 campuses, almost 447,000 students, and 45,000 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest, the most diverse, and one of the most affordable university systems in the country.
The Real Food Challenge(RFC) is the largest national student organization working for a more just and sustainable food system. RFC’s primary goal is to shift $1 billion of higher education food spending away from industrial agriculture and junk food and toward healthy, local, fair, and sustainable farms and food businesses. Every year, Real Food Challenge student leaders take action on more than 300 campuses. To date, 25 colleges and universities plus the University of California system have adopted RFC’s 20% by 2020 ‘real food’ policy. 150 campuses nationally use the Real Food Calculator to track progress towards their goals.
Fossil Free Moves Forward: May Regents Meeting Account
by Alden Phinney, UC Santa Cruz
We piled, enthused but bleary-eyed, into a gas guzzling old Volvo on the morning of May 14th. I contemplated, as I feel obligated to do, the net emissions of traveling from Santa Cruz to attend the UC Regents meeting in Sacramento: 150 miles, each way, 15 mpg… The only way to get more depressing metrics is to calculate your mileage in polar bears. But I came to the same conclusion I always do: this is a necessity.
We’ve been sold a fallacy, a DIY or the highway option, that living green takes nothing more than constant conscious effort to minimize consumption; bike, don’t drive; turn off the lights; maybe you should drop out and start a kale-farming commune. Save yourself to save the world. I’d argue the merits of all those things. I love my bike and I love kale. It’s an appealing vision when you look at the systematic suppression of sustainability perpetrated by our consumptive economy. But it falls far short of dealing with a climate teetering on the brink of chaos, and we can no longer live in our backyards.
We arrived at Cesar Chavez Park to organize ourselves. Forty, fifty, sixty, students, faculty, alumni, and other allies kept thronging in; the energy was palpable. A mass of energetic orange bent on liberation from fossil fuels, ourselves fueled by caffeine and tofu scramble, we will change the world. Roles were divvied, speakers prepped, signs scrawled. As we started marching the few blocks to the convention center, the streets stared. We have their attention.
We stationed ourselves outside the Sacramento Convention Center before the meeting, chanting, singing, genuinely hoping to engage with the Regents entering the building; we had a timeline, we had photo ops, yet the UC administration decided to take the back door. But our 5 foot clock was not wasted.
The incessant honking told us power lies with the people. Regents hold the decision to divest, but we have accomplished the most important facet. Our society is aware. We have woken up to the dangers posed by untrammeled emissions, to the toxins pouring up from the depths into company coffers; we have realized that is not a sustainable business model just as it is not a sustainable way of life. Divestment is inevitable as investors realize they cannot afford to hold onto plummeting stock values and bonds rendered junk stranded assets, but we don’t have time.
They didn’t give us time. As we were subjected to two searches, pat downs, and bag checks to speak during public comments, we were informed we’d been allotted 8 out of the 17 minutes we signed up for. We’ve given this university 2, 3, 4 years of our lives, and they refused to give most of us even 1 minute to address them. Further, there was no room in the chamber for those not speaking. We were told that we weren’t allowed in the public comment hall because we presented a fire hazard, and that the empty chairs inside of the room did not exist.
The indignation and shame of not being able to speak during a public meeting of a public university on a public issue is astounding; we are your students, don’t make us say we are your customers. Will you listen either way?
We spoke after community members, labor leaders, concerned and irate graduate students. I could not believe the solidarity. They were with us, and I wish we had stood more firmly with them. Our comments were hectic and necessarily rushed. We had phenomenal speakers, slow and forceful; they inspired though I quavered. We tried to hit with a double edged sword, shows of strength tempered by respectful willingness to play their game. But we have played their game for too long.
They tried to close comments after a showstopping account of sexual assault on our campuses presented by a FFUCer. We were not to be silenced. A mic check hullabaloo broke out in the cordoned-off public comments section, demanding divestment (as usual) and an extension of our time to speak. We expected to be cleared from the room when the disruption started, but we actually ran out of things to chant because they were listening. There were over thirty unassociated individuals who were not given time to have their voices heard because we had passed the allocated twenty minutes of condoned free speech. “Extend public comments! Extend public comments!” became the cry everyone could agree upon.
The vox populi got ten more minutes to speak on issues that matter, not just to us but to stakeholder communities across the UC and across the state. It was an unequivocal reminder of people power in a system that encourages you to believe you have none. The telling response will not be an off the cuff buckling, however, but a coordinated and tactical effort to sever our financial ties with an industry that has proven time and time again they value profit at the expense of people and planet. The Regents have the power, some have the willingness, but we need the posthaste formation of a task force, metrics tailored for the UC endowment, and a vote in September to show our leadership in steering the climatic and economic systems to a sustainable future.
The climate crisis will not be appeased by bureaucracy, meetings, foot dragging and future actions. I looked over the blog post from last year’s Regents’ meeting, and it contained many of the same stale promises of support. “We will look at it.” “We are convening a task force.” I want to believe in the goodwill of the UC Regents, in their desire to foster student engagement and tackle an existential threat to communities around the globe. But theoretical goodwill is nowhere near enough.
We came back this year to say this lackadaisical stumble towards progress is not fast enough. As students with our future on the line, we will not stand idly by while fossil fuel companies leverage enormous money and influence (Chevron-UCD partnership anyone?) to arrest our efforts in building the clean energy future necessary to sustain human life. In a panel the next day at UCSF, the chairman of the board of Regents Bruce Varner stated “We’ll have some definitive recommendations or comebacks for our meeting in September,” adding, “I want the students to know we’re following up on that.”
So we have been heard. They’ve given us our reasonable demands, but like last time these words rings hollow without action. The UC system prides itself on climate leadership, and we are offering the chance to prove itself a leader to youth across the world. Don’t follow Stanford, exceed their safe bet. Remove this scourge from our investment portfolio, stigmatize the industry, save money, safeguard the planet. Know this: we are unstoppable, another world is possible.
Action Alert: Real Food Policy for Every CSU Campus
This past academic year, student leaders within the California State University system have engaged in a statewide campaign effort, Real Food for CSUs, to promote the inclusion of a sustainable food policy within the greater CSU sustainability policy, as it resurfaces for an update. A team of student leaders from 8 CSU campuses have been in collaboration with CSU policy system-wide analysts to discuss the exact language and implementation of this proposed policy section.
Currently, 7 CSU campuses involved in this campaign are applying the Real Food Calculator purchase tracking software and establishing student leadership to implement our policy asks. Our proposed method for tracking sustainable food purchases and making product shifts on college campuses is currently being implemented on130+ university campuses across the nation, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, andCalifornia’s very own CSU Monterey Bay, CSU Chico, Cal Poly Pomona, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo!
As the final vote to pass an updated CSU sustainability policy comes up for a vote this May 20th-21st, 2014, we need you to attend in support and see this amazing policy proposal become reality!
In Defense of Earth Day
On Earth Day, my friend Jashvina and I sang Sam Cooke’s “Change Gonna Come” on the Mario Savio Steps at UC Berkeley. It was a part of Berkeley’s yearly Earth Week festivities, a week that changes shape each year according to the values of students and how they’d like to celebrate what has become a staple national holiday. We chose “Change Gonna Come” as a song of hope amidst deep-rooted injustice in the 1960s. We wanted to honor the Civil Rights Movement, a movement that paved the way for all justice movements that have followed. Singing felt so good and joyous, both of us dressed colorfully, smiling big.
Is the environmental movement allowed to celebrate? I hear discourse these days of Earth Day being a joke, a scam, a detriment and a disgrace to the real crises at hand and the types of movements and actions we need to address them. I hear these concerns. But I still love Earth Day, and I think I always will. Can’t we take one day out of the year, to step back from our daily struggles, our serious fights for divestment and environmental justice and new economies and political power, to breathe, celebrate, and feel gratitude? For me it’s a day to remember that amidst the environmental disasters that humans are causing and will cause, environmental miracles are also happening all the time. The poppies are blooming, new seedlings are sprouting, art and music are bursting from the cracks, and people are coming together in all sorts of new ways. And don’t forget - the sun rose this morning!
Amidst an environmental movement that is increasingly focused on addressing the system of environmental and climate injustice (which is definitely a move in the right direction), it’s important to remember and pay homage to the actual earth under our feet. Each of us lives in a specific place, a unique niche, that supports life like you and me. So what’s the harm in taking a day to gather and smile together?
Personally, I don’t want an environmental movement that is solely about tackling systemic issues. I also want an environmental movement that has its roots in the earth, in its living, breathing form. I want and need both types of movements. Maybe we all do. And so I want a day to join my fellow humans in expressing gratitude to the earth and its communities: human and non-human. Connecting intimately and genuinely with the non-human world is part of what it means to fully realize our existence as humans and live resiliently. The soil and trees and wildlife and watersheds deserve podiums on our human stage, and Earth Day provides that podium.
I don’t think that Earth Day needs to represent the entire environmental movement, as it is too often challenged to do by the media and popular culture. In fact, in 2014, there is no single environmental movement, and the mosaic of ideals and strategies that are out there could never be captured in just one day. But there is one earth, and it deserves our intentional gratitude. I know that we all should live like every day is Earth Day, and it is my idealistic, optimistic belief that we are moving in that direction. But until everyone’s hands are in the dirt, everyone knows the names of the plants around them, and we’ve all cleaned up our act, let’s keep using this special day to draw more attention and intention to a world worth fighting for. To a world worth knowing, loving, and celebrating. Change gonna come, oh yes it will!
Documentary concerning climate change activist Tim DeChristopher
Story of student who committed civil disobedience to safeguard pristine Utah land
Interview by Gary Nelson, CSU Chico
On March 27, approximately 60 people came to watch a community screening of the documentary “Bidder 70” presented by its directors, George and Beth Gage, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship church in Chico.
According to its website and directors, Bidder 70 centers on an extraordinary, ingenious, peaceful and effective act of civil disobedience demanding government and industry accountability. In 2008, University of Utah economics student Tim DeChristopher committed an act which derailed an illegal oil and gas lease auction, and he was jailed through an arguably unfair trial. His act would redefine patriotism in our time, igniting a spirit of civil disobedience in the name of climate justice, and he would come to be recognized as a prominent climate change activist and leader.
Chico State student Patrick Harrington, a senior criminal justice major, attended the screening because of an extra credit opportunity for his criminal justice ethics class, as well as out of personal interest.
“This film was a great demonstration of determination, sacrifice, and courage,” said Harrington. “I really enjoyed witnessing someone stand up to the big oil companies and corporations. Tim DeChristopher displayed how important it is to stand up for what you believe in and fight for it.”
After the film the directors stepped aside to answer some questions, mentioning that the response from the Chico audience was worth the five hour drive.
What first drew you in to Tim DeChristophers case?
Beth Gage: I read about it in a local Colorado paper, and thought it was ingenious and an intelligent way to go about things. Without hurting anyone or without destroying any property, he was able to stop this illegal oil and gas lease auction through an act of peaceful civil disobedience.
Why the name Bidder 70?
BG: It was Tim’s number in the auction. By making bogus bids of 1.8 million dollars, Tim was able to win 22,000 acres and managed to stop the auction so it never resumed, and those parcels and many others totaling 150,00 acres were never really auctioned off.
Did he actually pay for the lands?
George Gage: He raised the money to pay off the auction by calling activists with connections, and they worked the social network pretty hard. They raised the $80,000 for the down-payment, but the government didn’t accept the money because he wasn’t deemed a legitimate bidder.
Could you define civil disobedience?
BG: You’re doing something that is not allowed by our government, but is not violent. It’s civil, as opposed to criminal.
Do you feel civil disobedience is ever justified?
BG: Yes, especially non-violent civil disobedience. I don’t feel like violent disobedience has very much credibility, because fighting violence with violence furthers the problem. As Gandhi and Thoreau gave us examples, it’s a very good way to counter something you feel is not the way the way it should be and is not changing because of the normal way people go about changing things, through courts, law, and petitions.
So do you feel like he was offered a fair trial?
GG: I don’t think the trial was fair at all. First of all, a few pieces of information were held from the jury about the proximity of the parcels to national parks, the intentions to exploit the land, and that the auction was illegal..
Disrupting this auction, should have been seen as the lesser of two evils, less than having the lands destroyed. Also, he wasn’t able to get a speedy trial, and had nine postponements spanning 2.5 years, which basically put his life on hold, on trial, for that time.
There’s so much that went down during this time that wasn’t fair. I’m from a different generation. Our generation grew up thinking that everything that the America government did was just. Everything in this particular case with Tim said otherwise.
How have you seen Tim grow?
BG: When Tim first took his action, he and the people around him didn’t really see him as a leader, they just saw him as a smart young man who had seized an opportunity to take an action that worked. For years he’d been waiting for a environmental or climate activist, a leader that he could follow. Nobody appeared, so he took action. He’s learned that he really has a sort of gift to speak out, lead and bring people together.
Why is this an important issue for people to be aware of?
BG: It’s so important to make people of all ages understand that they have the power to make changes if they feel passionately about those issues. To see what Tim did didn’t actually ruin his life, like some people thought. It’s important that people take seriously the problems that we have in the world, and that they feel empowered to address them.
GG: His life is so much better today that it would have been had he not taken the action. It’s much better for his soul, having saved the land, and moving on with his education to become a minister.
What have you learned through making this film? What do you hope people take away from it?
GG: I learned that if people get up and take a stand, they can make a difference. If they learn to push themselves a little beyond their comfort zone and do a little more– which doesn’t necessarily mean getting arrested – they will feel better internally and get more accomplished.
There’s an organization that was just formed called Global Climate Convergence. It’s all about what activism we can do that’s a little beyond just writing our congressman and sending emails and so forth.
Anything else you’d like to add?
GG: Earth Day is coming up, and it’ll be the first anniversary of Tim coming out of incarceration. We’re encouraging people to go to the website, buy and share the DVD, talk about activism after seeing the film, plug into what global climate convergence is doing and just make an evening out of it.
Just about every audience we have seen, bit cities, small, east to west, people have been motivated after seeing this film. He’s an encouragement to us all.
CSSC Students Featured on Spring of Sustainability Earth Day Panel
SPREAD THE WORD
The Emerging Storytellers: Voices of the Future: Students from campuses around the country discuss their concerns about our world, their vision for the future, and what they are doing to bring that vision into reality.
For more details about the Spring of Sustainability program and how CSSC students can become more involved, contact [email protected]
Links not working? Please visit this URL: http://www.springofsustainabil
CSSC Alumni: Where Are They Now?
This is the first installment of the “CSSC Alumni: Where Are They Now?” blog series! Each month, we’ll feature a different CSSC alum to hear about their experiences and advice for current students. This month, we are excited to present Brian Croshal, who you may know as the aquaponics guru from the convergence, the guy with the solar trailer, or a member of the Tree Amigos band.
Interview by Meredith Jacobson, CSSC Online Content Manager
M: So Brian, when did you graduate and what did you study in school?
B: I graduated in 2012 from Cal Poly SLO. I studied mechanical engineering with a concentration in HVAC. HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning, mainly looking at those systems inside buildings to pump water, ventilate, and control temperature.
M: What sustainability projects were you involved in, and how were you involved in CSSC when you were at Cal Poly?
B: At Cal Poly, I was a member of the Renewable Energy Club, and ended up going to Empower Poly Coalition (EPC) meetings. EPC is Cal Poly’s CSSC chapter. They’d send one member from all the different green clubs, which was a treat because that one member was usually an outstanding member from each group. We’d try to plan things and share resources of the clubs, and CSSC convergences were part of that.
M: What did you work on with the Renewable Energy Club?
B: We were promoting renewable energy in all forms. We’d do it by getting out and talking to people, and we’d lure them with our solar cooker. Patrick Bernard, another club member, built a solar sandwich board for club announcements that would charge during the day and light up at night. We also had a solar generator on a trailer that I would tow around with my truck. The spring that I graduated, we had a solar jam at the arboretum for the big hoorah. There were 60 people there, two Porta-Pottys, three solar-powered bands playing, the sun was setting, the batteries kept working. It was quite the shake down…promotion of all things awesome.
M: How many CSSC convergences have you been to?
B: Santa Barbara will be my 7th! I always have to write them down on my drive down to the next one.
M: What keeps you coming back to convergences?
B: Besides the social aspect of hanging out with people that I only know from convergences, there are always relatively renowned speakers who are aware of what they’re talking about. It’s also cool to see what schools are doing in terms of systems and policies they’re pushing on campus. It’s cool to stay aware. I also think going to convergences is a volunteer thing for me…. I know enough about it, so I just walk around the crowd and make sure young people know what’s going on. The goal is make sure people know how cool of a thing this is.
M: I remember you at my first convergence at UC Davis. You were very friendly and I really appreciated your enthusiasm! So what are you up to now?
B: I graduated with mechanical engineering, and I’m still doing it. I got a job within HVAC pretty easily getting out of college. Then after a year and some I decided I wanted to shift gears, because I had gotten into aquaponics. So I started doing plumbing in buildings, which is moving freshwater and waste around buildings - potable uses, rather than heating and cooling. I figured this was a way I could professionally develop in a direction that would let me eventually take over the world with aquaponics in one form or another. So that’s what I’m doing now… plumbing engineering in commercial buildings. I work for Integral Group; it’s a pretty well known Canadian company with a main office in Oakland, and we’re doing some cool buildings – like the SF Exploratorium. For that project, we came in as engineering consultants to help design some efficiency systems. The Exploratorium collects rainwater and flushes toilets with it, so that’s pretty cool. We look at grey water and black water… especially with the drought, it’s all the rage now, figuring out how we can plan for the future. We’re balancing the cost of water with the cost of collecting reclaimed water, and reusing to displace potable uses. That’s a big push now within design systems.
M: For the people who have not taken your aquaponics workshop at a convergence, could you explain what aquaponics is in a nutshell?
B: I’ll start with hydroponics; people are usually more familiar with that. With hydroponics you’re growing plants outside of the soil, so instead of the soil you have some other porous substrate like rocks or gravel to support the plants. Then you have water flowing through the rocks, with nutrients added to the water. With aquaponics, the source of those nutrients is a fish tank, where you’re housing and feeding fish, and the waste of those fish is powering the cycle. Their waste turns into plant food, which turns into our food!
M: Do you think it’s something anyone could figure out with enough time or resources, to do aquaponics in their own home? What does it take to be an aquaponics master?
It’s a hobby – a technical hobby. To be less than technically stoked, it can be overwhelming. If you take it one piece at a time, it’s like legos. But you have to be in to legos to devote yourself to building the millennium falcon. So for the fish, you have to be aware of the different parts of the system and you can’t just focus on one. It’s a complex clock to get tickin. But otherwise, there are all sorts of scales of it, so anyone who’s stoked enough about it, dedicated to building and maintaining it, can pull it off.
M: Good to know! So how do you think CSSC has helped you get on the path you’re on today?
B: For me, CSSC has been about the convergences; otherwise I haven’t really been too much a part of things. So when I look back, a lot of things happened at convergences… they are opportunities for me to learn about all themes – energy, the environment, water. I learned things there that I directly bring into my job now, and also used them to get the job. Certain kinds of companies are more into developing better systems that cut down waste, like LEED certified buildings. So to design that kind of a building takes a broader view of the different elements that come into it. I think from going to convergences and workshops, I have a better understanding of what a building means for different people. It helps me keep my designs more well-rounded.
M: That’s great that you’ve been able to incorporate all that. I’ve heard that you have some connection to LEED certification….
B: I recently became a LEED-accredited professional. It means I had to show a basic understanding of the credits and the ways that they’re achieved in the design of a building. LEED certification is becoming more and more common, because it’s more commonplace to demand higher performance standards.
M: Do you have any advice for current CSSC students pursuing sustainability in their lives?
B: Try to really decide on what you want to be doing, and then just do that. They call it the law of attraction. I think about aquaponics and how it got me into plumbing, coupled with California’s recent tendency toward water efficiency, and I feel like it’s all beautiful poetry that I’ve slowly worked into in my life. So the advice would be to aware of how you feel, what you want to do, and then make small deliberate steps to get to that. That’s pretty textbook advice though.
M: It’s very sound advice that people often forget when they try to do a lot of things at once. I’m glad to hear that you’re making it work. One last question: if you could be a vegetable, what would you be? Your spirit vegetable, per se.
B: Oh golly! I think broccoli. Cause it’s pretty dense, they say it’s really good for you, cleans your colon out, and an often overlooked fact: if you peel the stalk, you can eat that like a carrot. Then you just have a peeled stalk left: that’s the soul of the broccoli right there.
M: Awesome. Thank you so much, Brian!
If you’d like to contact Brian and ask him any questions, email him at bcroshal [at] gmail [dot] com
Over 100 universities adopt student-designed tool to measure sustainable food
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
David Schwartz, Real Food Generation: 401-601-5545,
Stephanie Yee, CSU Monterey Bay: 415-306-2163
Over 100 universities adopt student-designed tool to measure sustainable food
CSU campuses among those leading rigorous investigations into the origins of campus food
March 19, 2014 - Monterey, California – On March 26th, the California State University Board of Trustees will gather to discuss a proposed CSU-system-wide sustainability policy guaranteeing 20% ‘real food’ purchasing. Students from 10 CSU campuses have endorsed the policy and have already gathered 1,200 petition signatures in support. They plan to travel to Long Beach, CA to give testimony at the upcoming Board of Trustees meetings.
The average student has little idea where the food in their cafeteria comes from – and little ability to find out. School dining managers looking to satisfy a growing student interest in local, sustainable food might not know where to start: it can be overwhelming trying to navigate the sea of confusing labels, claims and certifications, identifying which will resonate with customers, not to mention make a real impact for family farmers or the environment. The Real Food Calculator, a new online tool developed by a national team of student social entrepreneurs and food industry experts, is closing the gap—using the power of big data.
Four years of research and pilot testing have produced the online tool, which allows students to collect and analyze thousands of purchasing records to assess their institution’s ‘real food’ score. The app’s analysis is based on a comprehensive and rigorous set of 3rd party-verified standards for what counts as local, fair, ecologically sound and humane food. The Real Food Calculator offers a clear benchmark of how campuses are performing in supporting the community through food choices—and how to improve.
“Increasingly we’re finding businesses that understand millennials’ desire for transparency, authenticity and honesty in marketing—especially when it comes to food. What’s missing are concrete tools and hard numbers to help institutions keep up with an evolving customer base. The Real Food Calculator fills that gap.” - Anim Steel, Executive Director of Real Food Generation
Students across the country are realizing the power of the Calculator. In its first year since launching,
- 128 universities nationwide have begun using the application—including CSU Monterey Bay, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and UC Santa Cruz;
- Over 600 undergraduate students have participated in campus assessments;
- Student researchers have researched over 76,000 unique products, and reviewed over $69,000,000 in campus food purchases.
Many institutions have incorporated the Real Food Calculator into university-accredited courses. Others have sponsored paid student internships to complete assessments. The result: an unprecedented depth of actionable data for food service operators, a unique educational experience for student leaders, and new potential markets for sustainable farmers and innovative food businesses. The University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the second-largest dining operation in the country, recently completed their 2013-2014 Assessment:
“This has been an incredible learning experience for students and dining, alike. Using the Calculator, I can now tell you that 81% of my school’s seafood is ecologically sound. And we now know that, compared to other universities, we could source more fairly trade items, such as rice—the item we buy the most of. Such a switch could have an exciting economic impact and serve as a campus wide educational tool!” - Anna Hankins, Class of 2017, UMASS-Amherst.
The metrics data analysis provided by the Real Food Calculator’s has already led many schools to make purchasing shifts. Carleton College in Northfield, MN has transitioned from conventional bananas to fair trade, organic bananas, an investment in the health and well-being of farming communities abroad. The University of New Hampshire is piloting a purchasing relationship with a consortium of local fisherfolk to increase both local and ecologically sound seafood and boost the University’s real food score.
The Real Food Calculator has been buoyed by the public endorsement of major food service companies Bon Appetit Management Co. and Sodexo USA, which together manage cafeterias at over 700 colleges and universities and hundreds of other sites, nation-wide. In the coming year, student developers of the Real Food Calculator expect to see the program expand beyond the higher education sector, to hospitals, resorts and corporate cafeterias, where demand for these services is high.
The CSU student coalition is excited to see this kind of transparency on a larger, state-wide scale. Many of them already use the Real Food Calculator to understand their campuses’ current food purchasing, and potential to support more real food; The students are eager to see the Board of Trustees vote on a policy to guarantee 20% real food purchasing for the CSU system.
CSSC Students Recap: “Don’t Frack California”
Photo by Mikaela Raphael.
Here are four CSSC students’ perspectives on the Don’t Frack California Rally and March.
From Annie Montes, Co-President of UC Davis CSSC
On March 15th 2014, thousands gathered for the largest anti-fracking protest in the history of California. The energy and enthusiasm of this group was both inspiring and exhilarating. Protesters came from all walks of life, providing an accurate representation of our citizens and proving that the movement to ban fracking is not limited to the millennial generation.
Representatives from Students Against Fracking, Green Peace, Fishermen Against Fracking, Californians Against Fracking, Gathering Tribes, and so many more stood side by side proudly and boldly displaying anti-fracking signs. Signs included clever slogans such as “Don’t Frack with our Water,” and “Get the Frack out of California!”. The rally began with moving speeches from speakers including David Braun, the cofounder of Americans Against Fracking, and Huey Johnson, a former Secretary of Resources in the Brown Administration. The presence of these speakers showed protesters the magnitude and diversity of support in the anti-fracking movement. Participants were then organized to surround the capital in an embrace to show our love for California and our desire to protect our state. In our embrace we cheered for Governor Brown to ban fracking. Regrouping on the lawn we linked arms and sang for not only ourselves, but for the futures of generations to come.
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is the fracturing of rock deep underground with pressurized liquid as means to extract natural gas and oil from our Earth. Not only have the effects of this practice contaminated ground water and surrounding ecosystems, but the use of fracking requires 3 to 7 million gallons of water per well.* Knowing that the average family of four consumes about 109,000 gallons of water per year, simple math shows that a single well could support sixty-four families of four for a year. In our current drought, Californians cannot afford to waste this water. It is for these reasons that so many individuals gathered on the State Capital this weekend. Together we made our voices heard to Governor Brown. We sang from our hearts, cheered from our souls and even left Brown a voicemail: “Clean energy today Jerry Brown.”
* Ramudo, Andrea, and Sean Murphy. “Hydraulic Fracturing-Effects on Water Quality.” Cornell University, 12 Dec. 2010. Print.
From Angie Shen, UC Berkeley Students Against Fracking:
Excerpt from her blog for the Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC)
At the end of the rally, there was a collective feeling of heightened invigoration and determination to stop the dangerous practice of fracking. On the ride back to Berkeley, I spent some time staring out the window at the rolling yellow hills and bright blue sky found only here in California—our state, our home. I imagined the land riddled with thousands of frack wells, like a rotten wound oozing toxic fluid and reeking of nauseating smells. A feeling of disgust and devastation momentarily swept through me, and I thought: Not this state. It became clear to me that any argument about the economical benefits fracking would bring California was grossly outweighed by the tremendous, unequal burden Californians would have to shoulder with regards to their health, environment, and livelihoods.
We must stop fracking in California. We must divest from fossil fuel technology and reinvest in renewable energy. We can, and we will. Join Students Against Fracking in our mission to unite California’s colleges, universities, and local communities to ban fracking in California and promote the shift to renewable energy, for a sustainable future! Students Against Fracking at UC Berkeley has weekly meetings on Mondays at 6pm in Mulford Hall. For more information, please contact Angie Shen at [email protected].
See more photos of the event here.
From Meredith Jacobson, CSSC Online Content Manager
A classmate and activist I met while studying abroad in Santiago, Chile last spring taught me an important lesson about demonstrations. While I was there, I was lucky enough to march with the Chilean student movement, which at times brought 100,000 people to the streets. One day, I asked my classmate Alberto if he thought the Chilean government was taking notice. He shrugged and said he didn’t think so. He said that wasn’t the point - the point was to be together. To fill space and build power through physical togetherness. It didn’t matter who was watching, as long as people were forming connections and joining together. It was about the people - not the government.
At the Don’t Frack California Rally we chanted to Governor Brown. He wasn’t in the building, but directing our voices at him was symbolically important. In my opinion, it wasn’t about him, it was about us. It was about the intermingling on the charter buses, the dancing in the sunshine, the hugs and handshakes with new friends, the inspiration and laughs from each other’s sign slogans, the clipboards and fliers being passed around, the honks from cars passing by, the glee of running beneath the parachute and playing drums with children - our future leaders. Society tends to make us feel more isolated than we really are, and tells us feelings aren’t important. We’re pushed to be pragmatic 100% of the time. But we know better, that’s why we gathered. Feeling like we’re not alone, feeling like we’re right, and feeling like we can win… these are feelings as important as skills and actions. We came to feel good, we left feeling good: I know I did. With good feelings in our tanks, our brimming bodies can go further than we ever believed. So get involved at home - with your help, we can win this.
Steve Verhoeven, Shasta College CSSC Council Representative
Even as I drove two hours from the northern valley, realizing the hypocrisy of my actions the whole time, it still made me feel like my time, money, and abilities were long term investments toward a sustainable future for our populations. I came to represent the students of Redding, we care, and this rally was full of just that, people uniting in solidarity for the sake of ourselves and our children. UBUNTU!
Victory for UC Service Workers and Allies
Photo from the Daily Bruin, Brandon Choe
from UCLA’s SCALE (Student Collective Against Labor Exploitation)
After 20 months of bitter disagreement and 2 strikes, the UC and the AFSCME 3299 union signed a historic 4-year contract and called off a third system wide strike that was scheduled for March 3- March 7.
AFSCME 3299 represents 8,300 UC service workers that include food service workers, gardeners, bus drivers and custodians. Before this contract 99% of UC service workers were eligible for some form of public assistance. In fact, some full time workers still live in their cars. In addition to their economic difficulties, before the contract, workers were also forced to contend with severe job insecurity as the UC increasingly replaced these career employees with inexperienced outside contractors. Despite the difficult months of bargaining, the majority of the workers’ core demands have been met.
The four-year agreement includes a 4.5% signing bonus, a 3% wage increases for all employees, and an additional 2% increase for most employees each year for the next three years. Our UC workers also won more job security, as the new language in the contract prohibits several forms of contracting out. In addition the UC agreed to freeze Kaiser and Healthnet premiums for the life of the contract.
Student-worker solidarity and diligent organizing played a crucial role in obtaining the terms of the new contract. SCALE (Student Collective Against Labor Exploitation) has been working with AFSCME since 2013 by helping organize student demonstrations in order to provide awareness of the issues our workers face. SCALE helped organize marches for the strikes, encouraged student boycotts of dining halls in support for our workers, and informed the student body of the labor issues at the UC. Forging this student-worker relationship not only increases the bargaining power of the workers’ union here on campus but also the power of the student body. It was with workers’ support of prop 30 that Students won a tuition freeze in 2013. In the coming years it will be important to remember our struggles and our student-worker solidarity as the issues of increased tuition and unfair labor practices will undoubtedly continue. But rest assured, when the UC workers and students support each other we can help create a sustainable and equitable UC campus that we can all be proud of.
For more information, see
Daily Bruin | AFSCME union calls for strike vote after tentative agreement discussed with UC http://dailybruin.com/2014/03/
Contact:
SCALE-Student Collective Against Labor Exploitation
Join UCLA students in the fight for a fair, free, and democratic university, for us and workers together!
Meet: Tuesdays, 8 PM, Kerkhoff 414(A), UC Los Angeles
Questions regarding this article Contact: [email protected]
It’s Time to Take ACTION for Real Food
Hi Real Food Advocates,
We are at a huge turning point in our campaign for real food in the CSU Sustainability Policy. We went from not having food even mentioned in the policy to having a section dedicated to food. We grew from a small group of dedicated CSU students and Real Food Challenge organizers to a huge network of allies and supporters. Our network now includes the California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC), the Real Food Challenge family and the California State Student Association (CSSA). We have resolutions in support of the campaign passed in CSSA Humboldt State, and many other CSU campuses in the process of passing their own. We have told our stories at the last two Board of Trustee meetings. Yet, the vote on the policy has been postponed for months.
It is time to intensify our efforts and take action to show the CSU Board of Trustees we want real food in the CSU Sustainability Policy and we want it passed NOW (more specifically, at their March 26th meeting). We have to let them know that real food is a real priority!
WHAT YOU CAN DO on 3.11.2014 to join the fight to get Real Food for CSUs!
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Get your group together and organize a photo-petition. Upload the photos to the Real Food for CSUs Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/
realfoodcsu -
Email and Facebook your friends to sign the petition: http://www.credomobilize.com/
petitions/real-food-for-csus. -
Tweet about about your petition drive or share about exciting real food efforts on your campus (#realfood4csu).
Interested in participating in the Day of Action and hosting your own event RSVP here. Need help preparing to host your own event? No worries we have Prep Call on this Saturday afternoon, March 8th, at 1:00 PM. The phone number for the Prep Call is 267-507-0370, access code 8236631#
Let’s make this happen!
Real Food for CSUs Core Team
How to Raise the Funk
by Kevin Killion, Butte/Chico CSSC and CSSC Op Team Chair
Funky Frackin Fundraiser, and so can you.
A funkraiser is an opportunity to combine celebration, education and amazing people together. There are lots of variables to consider, yet funkraising is a practical way to outreach to our community, raise funds for your organization, and get your dance on! It takes a team to make this happen: we had 2 cooks, a sound tech, 3 food and drink vendors, 3 bands, 3 amazing house hosts, 4 security guards, 4 weeks to planning, a half dozen fire dancers, set up and clean up crew, 200+ guests attending, 900 invited on facebook, and so much more. After all of our hard work, when we counted the income, we found we were able to bring in an astounding $1,300 in one night.
Following the Winter Leadership Retreat, the Butte/Chico CSSC team got planning. One of the first steps was to make sustainability education central to the planning. Get creative, and think of how you can tie local environmental issues to concepts that motivate people. For Butte County we choose “Funk to Fight Fracking Butte County”. We look forward to doing more of these events, perhaps a ‘Divestment Dance-Off’, ‘Ozone-Pollution Open-Mic’ ‘Chromium 6 Karaoke’? The next step was to find some really fun local bands that were able to draw in their friends who were not necessarily part of any sustainability groups. A key to getting big crowds to attend is to invite people that invite people that can help to invite people in their networks. FYI, Funk is being used as a Verb rather than an Adjective. Dont feel limited to any genre, any music that draws a crowd and gets folks dancing is a great band!
Though in the future we may be in need of renting out establish facilities, the Chico Funkraiser was held as a house party. At the entrance to the event we had a table filled with fracking information and sign ups to get involved. Folks that did not have admission were encouraged to read the information and let the door keeper know what they were most excited to learn about. It is essential to have your team and any other funkraiser supporters encourage open and down to earth conversations about your theme. That means that even though you are partying, you are able to communicate the importance of your chosen sustainability issue. We had Local Fractivist and recent Environmentalist of the Year Dave Garcia speak in between bands about fracking. He stayed in the crowd and hung out with party guests explaining fracking any chance he got.
While half of our income at the door the remainder came from donations and food and drink. We made sure to provide a modest admission fee, and asked $3-10. We let anyone in the door that expressed an interest in the event, after we had them read the fracking education board. A huge success was our selling of grilled cheese sandwiches. At $1 each they sold quick! Think about foods you can get donated, cook and clean up easy, can be made in mass, and are handheld and don’t need plates or dishes. We also served two kegs of Sierra Nevada Pale Ales at $2 a cup. When planning, always be on the look for donations, whether that is cheese, homebrew, or musical talent, as any money not spent is money that goes towards your fundraiser. Be sure to get creative and have everything reflect the spirit you wish to cultivate.
This event could not have happened if it was not for the support of all the planners and attendees, who each helped in their own way. But the good news is that with a strong team and a few weeks to plan the event any team can put on a successful event. It took a tremendous amount of outreach, in person, on facebook, and to groups to get over 200 people to come. The end result was very fulfilling. Not only did we have an amazing time, but folks walked away saying that it was awesome to ‘party with a purpose’. Though we are exhausted, we look forward to putting on another one very soon.
Youth have an obligation to reject the Keystone XL pipeline
by Ophir Bruck, UC Berkeley Fossil Free
Cross-posted from The Daily Californian.
The U.S. State Department recently released its Final Environmental Impact Statement, or FEIS, for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a project by Canadian energy company TransCanada, that would carry close to 1 million barrels per day of the world’s dirtiest oil from the Canadian tar sands in Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico for foreign export. Feb. 5 marked the beginning of a 30-day public comment period followed by a 60-day review period, after which President Barack Obama will make what could be the most important environmental decision of his presidency: whether or not to approve the Keystone pipeline.
On March 3, I will be risking arrest at the State Department building in San Francisco alongside over a thousand other young people across the nation. We are participating in XL Dissent — the largest act of youth civil disobedience regarding the environment in decades — to deliver the following public comment to Obama: Reject Keystone XL!
The science is clear: Sixty percent to 80 percent of current fossil fuel reserves must remain underground and unburned to avert runaway climate change. Canadian tar sands — the world’s third-largest crude oil reserves — are among the dirtiest energy sources on Earth, with a well-to-wheel carbon footprint at least 14 percent to 40 percent higher than conventional crude. Leading scientists have sounded the alarm on developing the mega-polluting tar sands, including top climate expert James Hansen, who warns that it could spell “game over for the climate.” Keystone XL would be a fuse to one of the world’s largest carbon bombs. At a time when we must radically shift toward clean and just energy solutions, this pipeline represents the antithesis of sustainable development.
The State Department’s flawed and highly problematic FEIS doesn’t deny Keystone’s climate impact; it downplays it. Written by Environmental Resources Management Inc. — a dues-paying member of the American Petroleum Institute with ties to TransCanada — the report concludes that Keystone XL could add the annual carbon equivalent of nearly 6 million new cars on the road — hardly negligible. Other studies, however, reveal a much greater impact, closer to the annual tailpipe emissions of 37 million new cars or 51 coal-fired power plants.
In a speech last June, Obama promised he would reject the Keystone pipeline should it “significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.” While Keystone clearly fails the president’s climate test, its proponents continue pushing with asinine arguments. They contend that if the pipeline isn’t built, Canadian tar sands oil will find its way to market at the same capacity some other way — a fallacious and logically absurd claim. This twisted logic suggests we ought to give alcoholics the keys to a brewery because they’ll probably drink anyway. Moreover, we know that Keystone is key to accelerating Canadian tar sands production — even industry officials admit as much. If Obama is to stick to his climate action plan, a critical piece to maintaining a livable planet, he has got to keep tar sands in the ground by giving Keystone the boot.
Proponents also told us this pipeline will create 20,000 new jobs and increase American energy security. Wrong again. The State Department confirmed in its FEIS that constructing Keystone XL would create 3,900 temporary jobs and a whopping 35 permanent jobs — not a whole lot when compared to the nearly 24,000 new permanent solar jobs created in the United States in 2013. As for enhancing American energy security, this pipeline would do no such thing. Canadian tar sands pumped through Keystone would be destined for more lucrative foreign markets such as China, hence its terminus at the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada refuses to promise that the oil would be used in the United States.
As the mainstream debate rages during this final review period, all too absent from it are the impacts of our decisions on communities living on the frontlines of tar sands extraction, refining and transportation — disproportionately low-income communities of color. Rejecting Keystone XL is about standing in solidarity with the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation living at ground zero of tar sands development, whose land and water have been poisoned by tar sands mining and whose treaty rights have been trampled on in the name of resource extraction — all to meet the bottom line of the world’s richest industry. It’s about standing with farmers and ranchers along Keystone’s proposed route who have been bullied by TransCanada into one-sided contracts and whose water and farmland would be at grave risk from inevitable spills. And it’s about standing with the Bay Area residents of Richmond, Benicia, Martinez and Rodeo, who live in the shadow of pollutive refineries processing tar sands — among other dirty fuels — and who already bear disproportionately high rates of asthma and cancer. These communities are boldly defending their health and children’s futures daily, utilizing everything from lawsuits to direct action. Because the stakes are so high, it’s imperative that we, as people with privilege — people who still have clean water and breathable air — engage alongside them.
As the base that elected Obama, it’s on us to hold him to his promise of being an environmental and climate leader, not a pipeline champion. This is our call to action. Let’s make some noise.
Submit your public comment to the State Department by March 7, and join UC Berkeley students alongside over a thousand youth around the nation from March 1 to 3 for XL Dissent to say no to Keystone XL!
Ophir Bruck is a fourth-year at UC Berkeley studying society and environment as well as an organizer with the California Student Sustainability Coalition.
Don’t Frack LA!
UCLA CALPIRG Students Against Fracking Campaign
Contributors:
Jacqueline Mak - Campaign Director
Angela Kim - Intern
Angela Yip - Intern
Natalie Un - Intern
WHAT THE FRACK?
Do you know what that means? Hydraulic fracturing, fracking for short, is a dangerous method of drilling for oil, and it’s right here in LA. For each well, oil companies pump 4.6 million gallons of precious water, sand, and toxic chemicals deep into the ground to break open the shale and release the trapped oil and methane. Culver City, UCLA’s backyard, is one major site for this dirty practice. Fracking intensifies the drought, contaminates our air and drinking water, causes neurological and respiratory problems, and threatens our natural habitats.
In the LA city council, there is currently a proposed moratorium that will stop all fracking activities and future development in LA until the practice is deemed safe for public health and the environment. This Tuesday, the PLUM committee approved the bill to move forward for a full vote at the council meeting on Friday. This vote is just the next step for halting fracking activities in Los Angeles!
CSSC supports UCLA’s CALPIRG in urging the city council members to vote yes on the moratorium. We should move away from fossil fuel dependence and invest in clean energy. We concerned students will not stand to have our land, water, air and health compromised by fracking.
Contact City Councilmember Tom Labonge to ask him to pass the moratorium: Phone: (213) 485-3337
Email: councilmember.Labonge@
Conserving Our Most Vital Resource: Confronting the California Water Crisis
by Annie Montes, Co-President of UC Davis CSSC
I sit through my classes everyday waiting for time to creep by before I can get back to what I personally like to call “the stuff that really matters.” And my friends, I am sure we all value our grand education system… but how can I concentrate on my homework when every fiber of my body craves to be devoted to the nurturing of our Earth? In asking this question I feel anxiety flood my stomach as I once again become all too aware of the ebbing resources available to humanity.
I remember in high school listening to adults talking about running out of oil, natural gas, and coal in my lifetime. Never did I hear anyone mention the depletion of water resources even though existence would not be possible without them. Water, our most valuable and essential resource, has been exploited, polluted, relocated, and wasted with no visible repercussions. Only now, in the midst of crisis, do I hear the words “water” and “conservation” in the same sentence, and rightly so.
As I am sure most are aware, California is indeed experiencing a water crisis. Conditions are so severe that this is the driest drought in 500 years. Radio and news stations have all reached the same disturbing conclusion: California will have no water in approximately three months*. We will be completely dry before the first day of summer. This is why it is of utmost importance that immediate action is taken.
Action, of course, begins at the individual level. Citizens can eliminate unnecessary toilet flushes, decrease shower time, turn the sink off when brushing teeth, and neglect to water lawns. These activities can extend the availability of precious water and are among the easiest to implement. They only require public awareness. The UCD chapter has designed and printed over 200 copies of a flier to spread awareness throughout our campus and community. An official flier is awaiting approval by the UCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC). This should happen in the next week.
We have also began to focus on the bigger issue at hand, Agriculture. Agriculture uses the majority of California’s water resources, and being a part of an Ag University, the UCD CSSC has taken the reins on leading our campus and community to conserve water. Working closely in hand with EPPC and David Phillips, Director of Utilities on campus, we are aiming to reduce water use by 20%. A resolution for full campus support is pending with our academic senate. Most importantly we are making efforts to reach out to our state government, asking officials to confront the water crisis more vigorously. Members of our chapter are writing letters directly to Governor Brown.
Even with all of these efforts I find myself asking: Will they be enough? And sadly I must face the brutal truth; this crisis is here to stay. Fortunately from every great calamity wisdom can be amassed. Efforts made now will extend the accessibility of water and will hopefully create habits of conservation that will benefit us in the future. Let this crisis be a lesson that opens the eyes of Americans to the fragile system we so heavily rely on.
*Nagourney, Adam, and Ian Lovett. “Severe Drought Has U.S. West Fearing Worst.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly votes YES on Divestment!
by Ophir Bruck
On Thursday, February 6th, saturated in coffee and cardboard pizza, the Graduate Assembly of the University of California Berkeley (GA, basically the graduate students’ Senate) voted two-thirds majority in favor of UC Berkeley and UC system-wide fossil fuel divestment. The adopted resolution, 1311B, also calls on the GA to divest its own funds, around $475,000, a fraction of the $3.3 Billion UC Berkeley fund, from fossil fuels. The GA will begin immediately working with the Berkeley Endowment Management Company (BEMCO) to complete the process within 5-years, more than enough time.
Passing the resolution through the GA, my first experience navigating student government, proved nothing short of an entertaining ride and a rich learning experience. What I, and the GA Environmental Sustainability Committee who sponsored the bill, thought would be a smooth and painless show of support, turned out to be lengthy process that revealed the more conservative nature of some of Berkeley’s graduate student community. The resolution went up for a vote back in December, and was tabled after a number of students passionately asserted their concerns around potential impacts to the university’s endowment returns, and, more close to home for some in the room, to research funding from fossil fuel companies.
Over the next two months, to my surprise, I was fielding emails and phone calls and meeting for coffee with concerned graduate student delegates who wanted to voice their thoughts and feelings and discuss what this resolution could mean for their department’s fossil fuel industry-funded research. One Chemical Engineering PhD student said she supports divestment and the need to take a political and symbolic stand against the fossil fuel industry, but as long as it doesn’t affect her or the department’s research funding. Another Chem E student, who is employed by BP to research biofuels, was adamantly opposed; he felt as though this resolution equated him and his colleagues with the South African apartheid government, and that in addition to putting his research funding at risk, fossil fuel divestment would be ineffective in pushing for a carbon tax.
Instead of getting up and leaving these conversations frustrated and jaded with Berkeley’s grad students, I stayed and dug deeper to hear where they are coming from, which turned out to be a really valuable learning opportunity. After some digging, I learned that the first student felt stuck between a rock and a hard place given her department’s close ties and reliance on the industry, and wanted to know that we are carrying out divestment responsibly. The other student acknowledged that, while some fossil fuel companies might be slightly better than others, as a whole, the industry is blocking the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy. Turns out, as an international students, he’s also just really cynical of the U.S. government and feels that a carbon tax will not happen in time, or at all, and therefore divestment to him is a waste of time: “When I see a carbon tax,” he said, “then I’ll know that divestment was a good idea.”
With eyes glazed over after hours of debating how much funding to allocate to lunch-time meals for events, among other exciting topics, the roughly 80 delegates in the room perked up for what turned out to be a lively debate about the utility of fossil fuel divestment. It was democracy at its finest and it all ended with an electronic straw poll.
And so, the UC Berkeley graduate students have spoken: DIVEST!
Congrats to the GA for becoming the first graduate senate of the 10-campus UC system to step up and stand on the right side of history, joining 8 undergraduate student senates and the UC Santa Barbara faculty senate.
With the recent formation of a Regents’ Task Force on Socially Responsible Investing, tasked with immediately looking into the feasibility of divesting the UC system’s $11 billion endowment from fossil fuels, we will continue building power on and off campus so that Berkeley and the UC also come around to stand with students, faculty, and alumni on the right side of history.
The Fossil Free UC Retreat at SLO Ranch
by Emili Abdel-Ghany, Fossil Free Intern at UC Davis
Inspired. Connected. Informed. Supported. Reinvigorated. I can feel the revolution in the room. This weekend is a landmark for the fossil fuel divestment campaign in the UC.
Representatives from Davis, Berkeley, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles including representatives from student governments and UCSA, gathered in San Luis Obispo for the first ever Fossil Free UC Organizer Retreat in solidarity with one another for a weekend of peer education, visioning, and strategy. What made this weekend different from any other aspect of the campaign was the shared energy and cohesion of so many campuses in one focused space for so long. Having worked on this campaign in so many venues for over a year and a half, I have never spent this much time with so many people working on the same cause. There was strength in our dedication to the space, the campaign, and to each other.
Facilitators used a diverse set of styles to discuss and explain a range of topics for the campaign, including the history of the Fossil Free UC campaign, the structure of the UC administration, intersectionality and coalition-building with frontline solidarity, endowment and investment basics, the ask/reinvestment and the political imperative for divestment. This allowed people at any stage of the campaign to plug in and gain something from the space. Madi Oliver is a first year at UC Davis and part of the on-campus CSSC chapter. When asked how she felt about this weekend, she explained:
“As a freshman and someone who is new to this kind of professional activism, I feel like I have been empowered with more than just the excitement of change but the knowledge of what my campaign is working against.”
Excitement of change and knowledge are exactly what each member of this campaign will bring back to their campus and to the UC work as a whole. After learning the basic and more advanced tools for understanding this campaign, campuses were able to envision ways in which they could strengthen their campaigns and, thereby, invigorate the climate justice movement. Campuses strategized tangible applications of knowledge and excitement to bring back, and bonds were strengthened between organizers.
This retreat was a dream and a necessity for a very long time. Being one of the only schools in the world to have multiple campuses spread across hundreds of miles, working together has been inherently difficult. When each person first voiced his or her reasons for being there and part of this campaign, the commonalities were overwhelming. People were snapping and smiling in agreement, resonating with new and old friends alike. We are constantly moving forward with every question, goal, share, laugh, diagram, and post-it map.
This campaign is creating avenues for students to have more power in administrative decisions of our UC. The recent agreement to create a task force on fossil fuel divestment within the UC Office of the President comes as exciting news at a crucial time. We need to act now if we are to stop any more egregious human rights offenses by the fossil fuel industry. The UC can win this campaign - many more know and believe this after this weekend. However, our campaign is just one part of a larger climate justice movement, a movement towards fossil freedom.
Check out CSSC’s Fossil Free page to get more info on this incredible campaign.
Perspectives on the 2014 Winter Leadership Retreat
*All photos included in this post were taken by and are property of Emily Teague.
This year, CSSC held its Winter Leadership Retreat at UC Santa Cruz, January 16th-20th. CSSC hosts leadership retreats twice a year, in winter and in summer, to train new leadership, develop plans and strategies, get to know one another, and build the inner core of the organization. New and old members of the Council, Operating Team, Board of Directors, and Staff gather in one physical space, a rare occurrence for CSSC, which proudly spans the 800+ miles from San Diego to Humboldt.
Board Member David Shaw graciously made it possible for the retreat to take place at Kresge College, home of UC Santa Cruz’s Common Ground Center and a beautiful permaculture garden. While the retreat held to a tight schedule of trainings, discussions, meetings, and one-on-ones, participants took advantage of the beautiful setting by wandering through the redwoods, chatting in the garden, taking group trips to the beach, and stargazing in the meadow.
Retreats are essential for CSSC, a non-hierarquical organization that depends on co-collaboration to envision and enact change. Here are some of the sessions that went on at the WLR 2014:
- Group get-to-know-each-other and icebreaker
- CSSC 101 Presentation and Taboo Game
- Collective liberation training
- Convergence Planning with Santa Barbara Convergence Team
- One-on-one check-ins with new Operating Team and Council members
- Campaigns and Programs Discussion
- Budget and Finance Discussion
- Council Training
- Media Standard Operating Procedure Presentation
- Talent Show
- Organizational development and strategic planning
- Fundraising Campaign Presentation
- CSSC Contra Dance-Off
- Web of Appreciation in the garden
How did we get all of this done? By fueling ourselves with amazing food, of course! Here’s a shout-out to Matt Deuser, who planned the menu and ingredients for the entire retreat, and spent hours at work in the kitchen. Thanks Matt, and all the amazing CSSC cooks who prepared our meals - from curries and chilis to tofu scrambles and beet salads!
Q&A with retreat participants
Emili Abdel-Ghany, UC Davis, Fossil Free Intern and Former Operating Team Co-Chair (she was one of the main organizers of this retreat!)
In your own words, what was the purpose of the Winter Leadership Retreat?
The purpose of this Winter Leadership Retreat was primarily to provide a physical space and time for the current, former, and future leaders of our organization to gather for collective and specific training. Through the structured and unstructured times together bonds are formed between leaders from across our vast state, becoming more of a family than a traditional non profit or organization. There is something unique about being able to spend time together sharing skills, knowledge, and awareness in a condensed setting.
What was your favorite serious moment of the retreat?
When we were each sharing in our big circle all the silly moments, all the little quirks and synchronizations that we have all experienced together, when I hear how much CSSC means to each and every person that was in that room or in our hearts that day. I did know that I was connected, that these people have changed my life, shown me ways of living I could have never dreamed of, made me believe in myself when I felt I had no reason to, gave me a reason to believe in myself, trusted me with something and someone(s) whom many have had a part or all of their lives for so long.
When they speak of life-long friendships and relationships, they mean it. They mean their entire lives together, getting things done and really getting to know each other and what each person is about.
What was your favorite silly moment of the retreat?
I realized after I was able to look at the sign-up list for our talent show that Kevin Killion signed me up for “Sound Advice”. At the summer retreat in 2013 I did a Bill Cosby impression and gave advice to the crowd. I didn’t know i’d be performing but it turned out to be really fun. We had many duplicate names over the weekend (Kevin and Kevin, David and David, Emily Emili and Emily, Patrick and Partick, Kyle and Kyle, Beth and Bethany, Maddy and Madeleine, I think that’s it!) so I decided to recruit the two Emily’s to come to the stage and provide improvised advice in character. It was a combination of my improv talents and my ability to give advice. Very fun.
The purpose was for California Student Sustainability leaders to come together, build community, plan actionable items, familiarize ourselves with CSSC and its’ operations, learn, share, make connections, and organize action.
I am transitioning out of CSSC leadership, but I wanted to be available to train the new leaders coming into the organization as well as offer any advice I could.
Sitting down at lunch with a new friend and finding that we both shared a deep connection on life perspectives as we enjoyed delicious burritos cooked up by our amazing chefs.
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Pretty awesome, right?! If being part of this dynamic and collaborative process sounds exciting to you, we’d love to have you join our leadership and attend our next retreat. Sign up for our newsletter, like our Facebook, and stay tuned on our website throughout the semester to learn how you can get more involved with CSSC.
Decarbonization as Decolonization: The Case of the Northern Bay Area
by Arjun Pandava, UC Berkeley student
The following piece reflects the view of the author only, and not CSSC as an organization.
The environmental justice movement has brought important dimensions of race and class to mainstream environmentalism. But what is often overlooked is how closely related the environmental justice movement is to struggles of decolonization-especially in the context of decarbonization and the global movement toward a zero-carbon economy. The dynamics of the carbon economy have strong similarities and parallels with the dynamics of colonialism; thus, it is crucial to analyze the ways in which the innovations and theories of anti-colonial revolutionaries can be applied to modern decarbonization and environmental justice struggles.
A meeting took place a few months ago at a prominent university in the Bay Area, California, between activists from Richmond and Pittsburg, and local students. The community activists explained the serious problems associated with the imminent expansion of infrastructure supporting the carbon economy-specifically, the rapidly growing oil industry of North America. As I’ve written in this recent piece, this infrastructure already has a history of severely degrading the health of locals; thus, its expansion can only mean the simultaneous expansion of externalities that local communities must bear.
At the meeting, remarks were made as to how it felt like they are “being invaded by these oil companies”-companies that include multinationals like Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell. Another key observation was the domination of these companies in local politics; for example, Chevron spent around $1.2M on the Richmond City Council election in 2012. An activist from Pittsburg commented on how these companies always find the most corrupt and malleable cities in which to build their dirty businesses, which makes perfect sense-these are the areas where bearing the costs of environmental externalities can be most easily avoided, due to more lax regulations and a decreased likelihood of litigation.
These characteristics that define the struggle of Northern Bay Area communities-invasion and domination by foreign actors, the extraction of value, and the localization of externalities-are strongly reminiscent of colonialism, and the historical practices that Europe (and in general, the abstract entity of global capitalism) took toward controlling the resources and populations of the Third World. Time and time again, especially in the 20th century, powerful capitalists and the militarized states that backed them took control of resource-rich regions across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, exploited and repressed local populations, and extracted huge amounts of value, all while leaving locals to deal with the externalities of the value-production and resource-extraction processes.
The Persistence of Colonial Domination
Colonization is strongly tied with the repression and exploitation of people of color. This should be obvious to even the most historically illiterate person, given that colonialism as a historic tendency was almost always seen as the domination of the Americas, Africa, and Asia by European powers. Or put in terms of race: colonialism was the domination of Black and Brown peoples by White elites.
(It should be noted that I use the terms “Black” and “Brown” to be inclusive of East and South-East Asian peoples. Historically, the term “Yellow” has been used to specify these geographies; however, I believe that this term is far too intertwined with its historically racist uses to be used in a progressive manner today. In addition, Asian radicals have also argued for “Brown” to be encompassing of traditionally “yellow” populations given the historic “negroization” of Asians in the West, as well as the undeniable “brownness” of South and South-East Asians).
Thus far, we have framed colonialism as if it was an historic relic of a bygone era. However, this is an incorrect way to frame things; analyzing the situation of Black and Brown peoples today, we can see that the same patterns of domination persist-albeit in more hidden, more systemic, and less overt ways. More often than not, the decolonization efforts of the mid-20th century has simply evolved colonialism into “neocolonialism”. The term was first coined by the anti-colonial revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, in his 1965 book Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. From the introduction:
The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.
An exemplar of neocolonial control is the case of Nigeria. The Nigerian government receives around 80% of its revenue from oil rents-essentially kickbacks from multinationals like Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell, in exchange for lax environmental regulations and providing security when locals start to get upset that their land, water, and air are being utterly destroyed by irresponsible extraction practices.
“Show me what development looks like!”
The parallels between Nkrumah’s description of economic and political policy being “directed from outside”, the neocolonial economy of Nigeria, and the reproduction of colonial control in Western communities of color is startlingly evident in the case of Richmond. As pointed out by the leftist magazine In These Times:
The city of 100,000 has grown up around the Chevron refinery, which is older than Richmond itself. Until 2005, the corporation was allowed to appoint its own inspectors, and last year’s fire was the third major accident to occur at the refinery since 1999. Seventy percent of Richmond’s residents are black, Latino or Asian American, and residents of North Richmond, where several public housing projects are located, bear the brunt of the health burden resulting from ongoing toxic exposure. Though it’s difficult to prove that high rates of asthma, cancer and heart disease among Richmond residents are linked to industrial pollutants—something community groups have long argued—people of color in Richmond have a life expectancy 10 years shorter than whites in other parts of the country, according to the city’s Health Equity Partnership.
Both Richmond and Pittsburg are populated by low-income people of color; postcolonial subjects battling continually expanding systems of colonialism (making the “post” of postcolonialism a highly questionable prefix). And this modern exploitation is on top of the bloody history of the East Bay, given the genocidal policies of Spain against the Ohlone during the 18th and 19th centuries.
But the truly important thing to note here is not that both Richmond and Nigeria are colonized spaces, but that they are both colonized by the same entity. Both the Niger Delta and Richmond, California are subordinate to the interests of Chevron Corporation and the global oil markets. And these aren’t the only locations where Chevron has flexed its political and economic muscle. The oil giant is currently locked in a battle with the government of Ecuador over alleged environmental pollution. Chevron has also recently made moves in Romania, where paramilitary forces occupied a rebellious village so that the company could carry on shale gas exploration activity.
“Whose streets?” “Chevron’s streets!”
And even aside from Chevron, the infrastructure that the people of the Northern Bay Area are confronting is part of a single supply chain. There is a good chance that the oil that will be funneled into proposed expansion projects will be coming from the oil fields of Canada, where First Nations are already dealing with pollution from oil extraction.
These observations should reveal the insidious and interconnected nature of the global oil economy: it is one that sets up tendrils of colonial domination along its entire supply chain. The oil economy is one of repression, pollution, corruption, and poverty-a system that forms a unique nexus of environmental, political, and economic violence, and a key foundation of modern global capitalism.
Collaborators and Compradors
We have argued that colonialism remains a prominent force in modern society, but it is also important to explore the factors that sustain it-especially the factors that can be directly challenged by those who wish to end their domination.
The process of colonization is typically depicted as a purely military affair, but it is crucial to acknowledge the massive role that local collaboration plays. Historically, colonialism was possible largely due to local political and economic elites, who used their positions of power, privilege, and authority to sell out the autonomy of their constituents in exchange for material wealth and military support against threats to their power-whether this threat was from rival elites, or from the masses. In other words, local elites were often bribed to undermine local autonomy so that they could consolidate their own wealth and power. An excellent example of this is the process by which the East India Company steadily took over South Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries, pitting local rulers against one another and buying up more and more economic assets-and resorting to military force when locals decided not to play along with the company tune. Today, however, colonial collaborators (or compradors, as this class of people have often been called) seem less concerned about taking down rivals, so much as increasing their own wealth-as seen in the aforementioned cases of Nigeria and Romania.
This tendency can be seen today in the Bay Area, as well. One example is Nathaniel Bates, a career politician in Richmond, who has been more than content to play fiddle for Chevron in exchange for massive amounts of campaign financing (as mentioned above). Another good example is the Seeno family, a political and economic dynasty that runs a corrupt, mafia-esque real estate empire from their base of operations in the East Bay. This multi-billion dollar family has unsurprisingly backed political campaigns across California and Nevada, including Pittsburg, and will likely play an important role in the struggle between Pittsburg residents and Wes Pac Energy Group over the proposed expansion of oil infrastructure.
Current Strategies of Resistance
The fact that there are specific actors who mediate the colonial-corporate domination of the Bay Area presents one obvious route of struggle-removing these compradors from office, and replacing them with people who are part of the community, and who have the community’s interests in mind rather than the interests of international capital. This strategy of electoralism was also favored by many anti-colonial activists back in the early days of the decolonization struggle; one notable example is the movement by South Asian bourgeoisie to create the Indian National Congress, to serve as a democratic organ of self-determination.
From this perspective, the situation of the Bay does not seem so drastic-systems of democratic governance have existed for a long time, and the abstract idea of democracy has overwhelming support among the masses. And indeed, the fact that local organs of political power-namely, the City Councils-can play a key role in resisting encroachment by carbon corporations has long been recognized by community activists, especially in Richmond. In 2003, locals who had had enough of Chevron and the generally reactionary nature of the city (one of these locals’ family had recently been assaulted by the police) formed the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), which rapidly escalated into a serious challenge to politicians backed by Chevron’s deep pockets. Residents of Pittsburg, inspired by this apparent success, are also beginning to organize an electoral campaign against the current incumbent city councilors (all of whom ran unopposed during the last election cycle). And what is especially invigorating about these recent electoral mobilizations is that they are specifically oriented against the Democratic Party-a political machine that has long since siphoned away radical currents into supporting the very capitalist institutions that generated the need for such currents in the first place. A recent protest march in Pittsburg saw speeches condemning the Democrats as corrupt and expressing the need for a party that espouses actual democratic values, rather than the values of the elite capitalist class.
The electoral strategy has proven to be somewhat fruitful; the RPA currently has control of the mayor’s seat, as well as one city council seat (something that would have been impossible just a decade ago). Due to this increasing organization by the people of Richmond, Chevron has been forced to deal with increased litigation for the rampant pollution, and make unprecedented amounts of concessions in terms of local development-both signs of the company’s eroded grip on the once “loyal” company town.
Future Horizons of Rebellion-Beyond Electoral Politics
But despite the apparent success of the electoral path, its important to exercise caution against becoming uncritical or complacent. While Richmond is definitely in a better position than it was a decade ago, there are indications that without expanding and deepening the struggle, the electoral strategy has already peaked. The 2010 and 2012 election cycles saw Chevron truly begin to flex its economic prowess, pouring $1M and $1.2M into each respective race, as well as announcing a $15.5M community development scheme. The 2012 elections saw two anti-Chevron candidates losing their positions, eroding the gains made in the 2010 cycle.
The lesson to be had, then, is that we must return to the analysis made by Nkrumah: that even if our political institutions have the “outward trappings” of self-determination and democracy, it is very often the case that they are still controlled by powerful external actors. The initial success of the RPA might very well have simply been a “surprise factor”; clearly, given the recent electoral bounce-back, Chevron is able and willing to leverage its economic assets in order to protect and consolidate its political power.
The electoral strategy might still be viable, given that adjacent communities like Pittsburg are beginning to organize along similar anti-carbon lines, and will thus provide a grassroots network that can increase the visibility and popularity of groups like the RPA. Genuine grassroots organizing could still prove to be a match against raw monetary power. However, we must also recognize that the system is fundamentally tilted in favor of powerful colonizing and capitalist entities like Chevron: as long as certain actors have enormous amounts of capital at their disposal, these actors will inevitable colonize democracy itself, and bend public institutions to their will. Their “will” being, of course, to accumulate more capital-and thus, gain even more power over democratic structures.
This materialist understanding of politics-that economic power is the fundamental driving force of political power, and the feedback cycles associated with this dynamic-is critical if the decarbonization/decolonization struggle is to achieve its desired goals. While the jury may still be out on whether the electoral strategy will continue to yield progressive results, discussions must be had with respect to what strategies would actually deal with the economic basis of political power.
If economic power can indeed typically overwhelm grassroots organizing and “people-power”, then the clear alternative to targeting political structures would be to target the very economic base on which the corporate domination of politics lies-that is, to engage in actions and strategies that undermine the concentration of capital and, and redistribute economic power.
This type of analysis was precisely the sort advanced by numerous anti-colonial revolutionaries in the mid-20th century. Consider the following quotation from the Algerian revolutionary Frantz Fanon, in his ground-breaking 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth:
The basic confrontation which seemed to be colonialism versus anti-colonialism, indeed capitalism versus socialism, is already losing its importance. What matters today, the issue which blocks the horizon, is the need for a redistribution of wealth. Humanity will have to address this question, no matter how devastating the consequences may be.
Fanon wrote this book in the context of French colonization of Algeria and the fact that most economic assets in the country-namely agricultural land-were controlled by French settlers. Even if democratic structures were set up that allowed indigenous Algerians to participate, the nature of the economy would mean that White settlers would inevitable dominate the political arena-rendering political decolonization more or less useless with regards to genuine self-empowerment and bringing material gains and prosperity to the natives. Genuine decolonization would mean the redistribution of land back into the hands of the natives, so that the political playing field is not skewed toward a wealthy economic elite.
In the context of the Bay, genuine decolonization would mean the redistribution of not land, but the means of production, distribution, and other forms of value generation. If communities were able to generate just as much wealth as the Chevron’s refinery, then the problem of the company’s dominance in politics would essentially solve itself. This implies a need for both the development of community economies, as well as direct actions to interfere with Chevron’s ability to accumulate capital. The former has already been taking root in the East Bay, in the forms of solidarity economies, urban farms, and other community-based cooperative ventures. The latter has also taken concrete forms, such during an organized blockade of Chevron’s refinery last August by thousands of local people.
This dual movement-empowering the community while undermining the corporation-presents the best way to directly engage the economic base of politics. This does not mean that electoral politics is irrelevant; on the contrary, deepening the political struggle on the level of economics is arguably the only way by which to see gains made in parliamentary spaces be anything other than a transient phenomena.
Remarks on Internationalism
A final point I wish to emphasize is that it is essential that we frame the decarbonization struggle from an international perspective. As argued above, the colonial tendencies of the oil industry is one that is reproduced along its entire supply chain. This fact renders clear the ability for different parts of the supply chain to be undermined at once. Imagine the impacts if blockades, strikes, and expropriation happened in Alberta, Richmond, Nigeria, and Romania all at the same time, in a coordinated fashion. Imagine the effects on local morale if there were clear signs of international solidarity-a solidarity not defined by Facebook “likes” or empty declarations, but one defined by concrete actions against a common enemy, perpetrated by fellow colonial subjects.
In addition, we must also recognize the disparate levels of colonial violence that different global communities have to deal with. While we have seen that colonial systems exist across the globe, we must also recognize that certain communities (like the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta) have to face far more violent systems of repression than do communities in North America and Europe. Therefore, it would be morally unacceptable for Western communities to throw off their own shackles, but do nothing to assist those dealing with far greater levels of violence, poverty, and domination-especially given that much of the perpetrating structures are based in the West.
Conclusion
The actuality of such a radical decolonial struggle in the Bay and its “devastating consequences” is probably quite far away, and perhaps might not even be necessary. Nonetheless, the parallels between decolonization and decarbonization are clear; thus, let this be a call for those concerned about the health and livelihood of the Bay Area to engage in the study of the anti-colonial revolutionaries of ages past, and their strategies and tactics, so that we may engage in a proper decarbonization struggle: one that emancipates both nature and people.
Changing Myself, the World, or Preferably Both: New Year’s Thoughts on Transformation
by Meredith Jacobson, UC Berkeley student and CSSC Online Content Manager
Check out Meredith’s personal blog, “Meredith Saunters Home,” for more of her writing.
If you would like to publish content on the CSSC website, please contact mjacobson20 [at] gmail.com
I’m entering my last semester in college, beginning to think about “what I want to do with my life.” As an activist and a generally idealistic person, looking forward into this transition is exciting and confusing, as it is for most other graduating seniors I know. My goal is to do whatever I can that will make the most positive impact on the world, and be happy doing it. Oh, and survive. As my values change, the manifestations of that goal will change.
But as I think about what my options are, I feel as though I am facing a difficult, almost impossible choice: To try to live sustainably myself, or to advocate for a sustainable society. I’m not using the word “sustainable” lightly, at least in this particular train of thought. I’m talking about living in such a way that is 100% possible to sustain into the future. This means no reliance on the conventional energy grid nor the food system. This means growing my own food, no ifs buts or ands. This means not connecting my laptop to an outlet that sucks energy that was made at a coal-fired power plant. And yes, this means no car road trips to visit friends or airplane travel home. I’m talking about the real deal.
Unfortunately, to live both 100% sustainably while organizing for broader change in society at the same time seams nearly impossible. The organizing world means a whole lot of laptop action, and maybe even flying by airplane to a conference, training, or educational event. It often means living in a city. While sustainable urban agriculture is on the rise, most modern activists rely on the industrial food system in some way, shape, or form. There’s just not enough time to live the life we’d like to live, while organizing for large-scale change. That’s why I’m pulled in two directions: to the farm, and to the city (to put it in simplest terms).
Of course, there’s a privilege dynamic to this discussion as there always is. I have the capacity to go “off the grid,” work on a permaculture farm, live the life I feel is right, and feel good about myself. Not everyone has that capacity nor that desire, and that’s why it seems so much of the real work is in cities or at least in touch with civilization. Communities everywhere will still be screwed over by polluting industries while I go off and “live sustainably.” I can go off the grid, but what does that really do for others?
A lot of modern environmentalists, sustainability organizers, and climate justice activists are moving away from the narrative that places the burden on our own backs, demanding that we live our lives differently, and toward the narrative that blames the system and demands system change. This new narrative is keenly focused on environmental justice – race, class, gender, historical oppression. It’s moving away from the idea that we each must take our own individual steps, like changing light bulbs and buying organic, and that will change the world. It’s no surprise to anyone that only a small percentage of the population is going to do that. Hence the need for widespread system change, hence the campaigns, local to global.
I think that both the narratives I mentioned are true, and necessary. We are both caught and actively participating in an ecosystem of oppression. True change requires that we work on ourselves and the system. Which is probably as difficult as it sounds to pull off.
Every activist faces that mental roadblock that tells you it’s impossible, it’s too late, there’s no point, or the solution doesn’t exist. We may put on a front of unequivocal hope, but from talking to my activist friends, I know that roadblock is real. Because the scary truth is that we don’t know if we’ll win, or even if this is a game that has winners or losers. We don’t know what it means to “win,” what that looks like. Especially with a challenge like climate change, which is threatening all life on earth and is accelerating at a dizzying pace, with its whirlwind of feedback loops, the future can look grim. I’m of the opinion that tackling climate change means changing the world’s entire economic system and societal values. I don’t believe that sustainable development and business solutions will get us all the way where we need to go. I’m not sure how we’re going to get there, but they say all revolutions start within…
I’m a human, and some days that makes me feel all-powerful and other days miniscule. I feel miniscule when I think about how my actions don’t seem to mean anything against the huge, problematic world out there. I feel all-powerful when I think about the connectivity in that world, the networks and systems that I am a part of, the web that I tug on with my little thread. Maybe it’s time we break down the walls between individual change and collective action. I want to make choices and seek actions that do both. I want to transform my lifestyle and the system that affects the choices I am able to make. I want to find personal actions that are political, and political actions that are personal. I’m looking for ideas; throw them at me folks!
As a college student and organizer, I often find myself behind the perma-glow of my Macbook, on google docs, facebook, listserves, blogs, justifying the energy consumption with the hope that my activism might be changing some piece of the world for the better. Someday the good will outweigh the bad, I tell myself. But let me get up onto my soapbox for a minute, and give my fellow activists some advice:
Keep harnessing the power of technology for good. But please promise me that you will learn the land, inhabit real places, make a home, learn its geology and history and ecology and social landscapes, participate in its present, map its future. Engage. Put your hands in the dirt and grow real plants. Because the land surrounding you is the stage on which all this is being played. And most importantly, you are a real player with real consequences, making choices every second that affect everything.
I’m not the first to tell you that there is a hell of a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the future and our fight for global environmental justice. We could triumph, or we could not. We face the possibility of a full-on revolution, the kind that we sing in our hearts, or the climate apocalypse that we fear is quickly approaching. But something recently occurred to me that is strangely hopeful: the same skills that will serve us in starting a revolution will also serve us in the apocalypse. I think in both cases we will need to know how to grow our own food, get around without cars, make our own energy, sew our own clothes, build our own houses, make our own stuff. Learning a new skill will help you in the long run, no matter what. Bring on the DIY parties!
I still do believe in campaigns like fossil fuel divestment that are harnessing economic power to make system-wide change, to start shifting wealth into positive solutions. Divestment campaigns are making ripples wider than any one individual could ever reach. Other large-scale efforts like global climate treaties, LEED certification of buildings, anti-fracking organizing, and food cooperatives are equally awesome and empowering. But I often come back to myself, and realize that my lifestyle will have to change to fit the new societal model I’m campaigning for. It just has to. Less energy, less meat, less waste, less plastic. Learn to grow food, bicycle, build things, compost, collect rainwater, make energy. Get off my “devices” and take walks. Learn all the skills I can that take me off of fossil fuels. It’s not a burden, but an empowering possibility to live more fully, freely, and in love with the earth.
So what am I going to do? Everything I can, I suppose. For starters, this semester I plan to learn how to grow food at the Student Organic Garden and learn how to chop my own wood with the Cal Logging Sports Team. I won’t give up my laptop; I’ll still be writing, emailing, google doc-ing, traveling, and organizing with the California Student Sustainability Coalition. But I would like to spend more time in my Berkeley hills, out and about, phone turned off, feeling the landscape. And what am I going to do with my life? Maybe I’ll strive for 50-50. Spend half my time working on myself and my lifestyle, learning skills and becoming more ecologically able. I’d like to go work on a farm and learn all I can, learn what it feels like to live fully in harmony. But I’ll make sure to bring whatever new skills I gain back with me and teach as many people as I can. And I’d like to live in the city, work with people, organize my community, tackle the systemic oppression that controls the way life is lived on earth. That I am even presented with choices like these is an incredible privilege in itself, and I have the responsibility to use that privilege to help others. I hope someday this pull between two opposing choices will start to be less of a pull and more of a collective push. Let’s be as bold and demanding with ourselves as we are with politicians and CEOs, and we’ll never stop growing.