Last year marked an eventful time for environmental activism both in Eugene and at the University of Oregon, from student strikes to tree sittings. With the Global Climate Strike in late September, The Emerald spoke with some of the environmental activist groups on campus about what they do, and what’s in store for UO environmental activism this year.
Climate Justice League
Brendan Adamczyk, co-director of the Climate Justice League, explained that the group is entirely student-run, and that their missions are designed by students. With up to 30 students involved in recent years, Adamczyk said that the organization is now in its 10th year. “It’s all students who come up with different campaign ideas they want to run, based on our main mission to empower students through collective action and direct action.”
Adamczyk said that the League’s recent goals extending into this year include developing a “Green Guide” to educate students about the UO environmental scene.
“Our idea is to give a guide to freshmen to tell them what’s going in sustainability on campus, who they can talk to, how they can get involved,” Adamczyk said. He also mentioned that the CJL is focused on how the university is adhering to its Climate Action Plan. “We’re going to be seeing what the president, what the school is going to be doing to cut emissions going forward,” he said.
Adamczyk said that one of the main obstacles the CJL faces is reminding individuals that environmental progress isn’t something one-off. “I think there are a lot of people on this campus who want to be and are sustainable, and I think there’s an obstacle that people say that Oregon’s already pretty green, let’s just focus on something,” Adamczyk said. “Just because you’ve hit x-amount of sustainability doesn’t mean that you’ve achieved what you need to achieve.”
Cascadia Action Network
The Cascadia Action Network focuses on direct action in working towards environmental justice through actions like protests, said Cally Hutson, co-director of the group. “We really recognize that climate change and the effects of environmental chaos affect the people who cause it the least,” said Hutson. “We’re talking about people in the global south, people of low socioeconomic status, people of color, etc.”
Hutson said that CAN officially launched in 2017, and since then, it’s developed a core group of eight to 10 individuals. “It came about from some of us being a little frustrated about the kind of environmental activism happening on campus,” Hutson said, “so we wanted to create a group more centered around direct action, and that had the connection to community groups off campus.”
The group is planning to highlight the connection between immigration and climate change by working with local immigrant rights groups to raise money and awareness, Hutson said.
Eloise Parish Mueller, co-director for CAN, said that they also intend to bring attention to the environmental impact of increased campus construction. “We also want to address that there a lot of things being cut on campus,” Parish Mueller said. “We’ve been seeing tuition hikes and that kind of thing, and all this building happening contributing to our footprint as a school.”
In addition, CAN is continuing to protest UO’s membership with the Portland Business Alliance, which has been protested before over involvement with the Jordan Cove Pipeline.
OSPIRG Students
OSPIRG Students is a student-run advocacy organization, and chapter chair Elizabeth Radcliff said that while the group has spread extensively, it has its roots at UO starting in 1971. The group is funded through ASUO, with students voting on whether OSPIRG receives financial support. “The fact that we are funded by students really means that we’re a lot of college students coming together to show the university and the city and the state that we’re going to fight for the future we think we need,” Radcliffe said.
OSPIRG hosts an internship program, and campus organizer Jennifer Hibberts said that term-by-term, OSPIRG has around eight to 15 interns working, with 20 to 35 students active in the UO chapter. In addition, Hibberts estimated that there are an average 150 volunteers involved in on-campus projects across the semester. “We have events all term long,” Hibberts said, “and we’re going to be collecting petitions on campus and getting endorsements from other student groups.”
OSPIRG isn’t strictly an environmental advocacy group, as Radcliffe explained the group has plans to combat hunger and homelessness, advocate for excess food to be directed to hungry students, and lower the price of textbooks.
However, this year there are several environment-related campaigns planned, and not all strictly limited to UO. The lead campaign for the year is “Wildlife Over Waste,” a project to cut back on plastic waste. “We’re trying to get the statewide ban on plastic foam takeout containers passed,” Radcliff said, after an initial bill with that purpose had failed in the Oregon Senate. “We’re going to be pushing for [the Lane Transit District] to switch over to 100% electric buses,” Radcliff said. “We’re also going to be working to get the campus to commit to a timeline to get 100% renewable energy.”
