Marc Nickel  Nickel is a
third-year history and sociology student. E-mail him at [email protected], or call CALPIRG at
(310) 206-4439 with questions. Â Â
Welcome back (or just plain welcome) to UCLA. Now that
we’ve all had our break from the normal routine of discussion
sections and all-nighters, it’s time to get active again.
This is college, the Mecca of youth politicized, where a
hundred-and-one different people openly present a hundred-and-one
different viewpoints. So if you haven’t yet gotten involved
with some cause, campaign or issue, the beginning of the year is a
prime time to grab onto something larger than yourself and enjoy
the ride, maybe even take a turn behind the wheel.
What did you do this summer? Like many others, myself included,
you probably got some mindless job doing menial tasks for one
reason and one reason alone: money. I know, I know, a necessary
cause. We all need to have spending money for our recreational
activities ““ and let’s not forget the ever-present
tuition bill. But now it’s Fall Quarter 2000, and each and
every one of us has a golden opportunity to put some time into a
cause of his/her choice.
Now that we’re back at UCLA, causes abound, each of them
ripe for the picking. Two issues that I am most concerned about
have to do with the well-being of the planet and the six billion
people who live on it. Both will be decisively concluded, one way
or another, before we’ve even cracked the door open on the
real new millennium in January. The two causes to which I refer are
the fate of the nation’s forests and the quality of
California’s air.
America’s last remaining national forests are priceless.
They are home to thousands of plant and wildlife species as well as
an important refuge for people to enjoy hiking, camping and
fishing. Yet sadly, they’re up for sale to the timber and
mining industries. Today, logging, mining and oil drilling have
scarred more than half of our national forest land. These are
forests owned by you and me, every man, woman and child in this
country, and yet only a mere 18 percent of them are protected from
actions like strip mining, clear cutting and road building.
HING-YI HWONG/Daily Bruin I could fill this space with
statistics to describe the problems our forests are facing, but I
don’t need to because two numbers tell the story: four and
200 million. Four is the percentage of ancient forests that are
left in the U.S., forests that once grew from the Atlantic to the
Pacific Ocean. Two hundred million is the amount of tax dollars,
your hard-earned cash, the government gives to the logging and
mining industries to subsidize the destruction of our forests.
Fortunately, this fall quarter we have a historic opportunity to
protect the last remaining 60 million acres of wild forests.
Thousands of students, like myself, across the nation will be
working with professional staffs of lawyers, scientists and
advocates to convince President Clinton to pass strong forest
legislation before he leaves office in January.
We have already made tremendous progress: last October, Clinton
talked about protecting forests in his State of the Union address.
Now it is time for students across the country to make sure our
wild forests are protected for future generations.
The second issue I will be working on this quarter will be
improving the quality of California’s air. California
continues to have some of the dirtiest air in the nation. In 1998,
95 percent of Californians live in areas that failed to meet health
standards of air quality. To make the air safe to breathe and curb
global warming, we must reduce pollution emitted from cars.
Fortunately, the technology exists to do just that. Electric
cars, which have no tail pipe and do not pollute the air exist with
ever increasing ranges. For example, Toyota’s Electric RAV-4
can achieve ranges of 125 miles between charges. While the
technology to realize this goal exists, attacks from the auto and
oil industries threaten to weaken the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV)
Program.
California is frequently cited as the nation’s leader in
environmental policies, especially in the territory of air quality.
But in order to achieve clean air, Governor Davis must pass clean
air policies. That is where students like you and I come in: we
need to show Governor Davis and the California Air Resources Board
that Californians want to breathe clean air and drive clean
cars.
Crucial decisions are going to be made on both the national
forests and clean air issues before the year 2001, resulting in
policies that could last for decades or more.
The organization at UCLA that is spearheading the efforts to
save our National Forests and protect our Clean Air is the
California Public Interest Research Group, CALPIRG. CALPIRG is
unique among UCLA student groups in that it offers an opportunity
to work on these campaigns, while earning course credit through a
professor-sponsored internship. Interns are the backbone to the
campaigns. They include everything, from running press conferences
and organizing education forums, to volunteering in local homeless
shelters and researching environmental and other public interest
issues.
I think it is safe to assume that you care about protecting the
environment, or at least don’t want to see it destroyed. So,
indulge me while I imagine all the reasons why you might care about
our national forests and California’s air. One reason might
be because you went to the redwood forests in Northern California
this summer and would like to go again next summer and one day take
your kids.
Another reason you might care is because you drove from Northern
California to Southern California this summer and gas alone cost
you almost $80, and you have no real alternatives.
You might care because your little brother had asthma and he
couldn’t play baseball with the other kids this summer. You might
care because 20 percent of your summer paycheck that went to the
government is being used to cut down forests you want standing.
All of these reasons, and more, are why I’m writing to
tell you to get involved in causes at UCLA. Be they political or
service-oriented, conservative or liberal agendas, join the
millions of students around the world; students from Tienanmen
Square in China to the Civil Rights Movement in America; students
who have used their time in college to create and forward social
change.
Aristotle once wrote, “The ultimate value of life depends
upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere
survival.” In other words, education can’t always be
found within your textbook. Don’t be content to merely ace
the midterms and cram for the finals. Don’t be content to
merely survive college; use it to change your world. And if you do
that, the results of your hard work, both in and outside of the
classroom, will affect us all for a long time.