Aramayo is a fourth-year political science student.
By Roger Aramayo
Environmental problems are issues that concern everyone. We all
breathe the earth’s air and drink its water. Why can’t
we all be concerned enough to secure clean air and clean water, if
not for ourselves, then for our children? As students, we must ask
ourselves, “What kind of world will we inherit?”
Indeed, students have always been at the forefront of reform and
activism.
It’s all too easy to think of environmental issues as the
exclusive province of liberals. Truth is, there is no rule that
says you must draw up your opinions based on party lines. Once you
do so, you don’t allow your mind to properly consider real
world problems because the solution might fall under a
“liberal agenda” or be a “republican
idea.”
Why is it that we all enjoy the planet, yet people seem to think
that the environment is some issue that exists only in the minds of
liberals, Al Gore or so called “tree-huggers”?
It is imperative that we get out of our self-fortifications and
meet to discuss those issues that concern us all. What issue bears
more relevance to both sides of the political coin than human
well-being?
The crusade for environmental issues is a quest for the
well-being of everyone on the planet.
That is why all those who are truly concerned about the air and
the water around us should protest Citigroup and its corporate
entities so that we may put an end to their manipulation of both
nature and the truth.
Corporations are an international endangerment. Citigroup, for
example, threatens the environment in the United States and abroad.
People may be familiar with Citigroup through Citibank or its
investment leg, Solomon Smith Barney.
Since 1994, Citicorp and the Chinese Development Bank have
funded the Three Gorge Dam project in China. This mega-project,
when completed, will end up costing $72 billion.
In order to fund the project, Citigroup has to ignore some
pretty important concerns as expressed by the US Export Bank:
“Protection of ecological resources and preservation of
endangered species potentially affected by the project; the
environmental and socioeconomic impacts associated with the
proposed resettlement of up to 1.3 million people to be displaced
by the reservoir; and the protection of cultural resources affected
by the project.”
The Three Gorge Dam will flood and scour the Yangtze river,
submerging 13 cities, 140 towns, 1,352 villages, 657 factories and
most importantly 75,000 acres of farmland. The obvious result is
that half of those displaced will be rural farmers.
Anyone who has read “The Grapes of Wrath” can guess
what happens next. Those subsistence farmers displaced by the Dam
will have to largely fend for themselves as there are no ready jobs
waiting to accommodate them.
An underclass of beggars and sweatshop workers will be created
out of those who survive. Proud farmers who were once independent
and happy will now be forced to carve out a meager existence in the
cities where they will most likely face hatred and anger from those
workers already ensconced there.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Dam threatens the White
Dolphin (or Baiji River Dolphin) with extinction. Once 6,000 in
number around 1950, today their numbers have decreased to less than
100. The river, as a result of the flooding, will most likely
divert the river away from a semi-natural reserve meant to protect
the already endangered animal.
How could any conservative abide the destruction of an
environment, the displacement of millions of people and the killing
of an ancient and noble creature?
Have I mentioned the looting of hundreds of
culturally/historically important sites that lie in the area?
If, as students, you are concerned about this degradation of
humanity, or the killing off of an innocent animal, or the rape of
a countryside and its culture in the name of “economic
progress,” then please join the Citigroup protest Tuesday in
downtown Los Angeles to protest Citigroup’s tyranny. Whip the
Bank!
It will be on Oct. 17 at 10:30 a.m. at 787 West 5th St. (5th and
Flower). For more information see the Calpirg office at 320
Kerckhoff.