PATIL ARMENIAN/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Jennifer
Jacobs signs a card to support CALPIRG next to
Merriah Fairchild, a CALPIRG intern coordinator.
CALPIRG is opposed to BP’s desire to drill for oil in northern
Alaska.
By Scott B. Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
The California Student Public Interest Research Group wished the
Exxon Valdez oil spill a happy 12th birthday by passing out cake
with chocolate syrup fronting as the oil spill on Bruin Walk on
Monday.
This year commemorates the 12th anniversary of the 1989 oil
spill in Prince William Sound near Seattle, often labeled the
greatest environmental disaster in recent history.
The cake’s designer said she wanted to represent something
students could identify with.
“When you think of an oil spill, in our generation, you
think of the Exxon Valdez spill,” said Kristen Zeanah, a
fourth-year psychology student and CALPIRG media director.
“We’re just trying to incorporate what people
remember and move into what’s going into the Arctic right
now.”
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the only part of northern
Alaska not open to oil drilling and is the most biologically active
area in the state, according to Nick Lazzarini, a first-year
psychobiology student and CALPIRG’s Alaska Wilderness
campaign coordinator.
British Petroleum has already declared plans to drill oil in the
refuge and is waiting approval from Congress.
“They’re poised and ready to go and we’re
trying to stop that,” he said.
BP is facing an opportune moment to drill in northern Alaska
because oil supply is low and demand is high, Lazzarini said.
“If they wait too long, public support will be too much
against them,” he said.
According to Lazzarini, BP has claimed it can drill for oil
without causing a detriment to the environment.
“We want to show that every time a company said they can
do oil drilling and still protect the environment, it’s
failed miserably,” Lazzarini said.
Zeanah said she spent three hours baking the two-foot-long super
moist chocolate cake and dyed the frosting blue to make it appear
like the ocean. A gummy shark and fish were victims of the staged
spill.
CALPIRG Intern Coordinator Merriah Fairchild said showcasing a
cake to draw attention to environmental issues was something she
did as a student at the University of Oregon.
“It’s very sarcastic to celebrate what was just a
huge environmental devastation,” Fairchild said.
“It’s easy just to get really depressed about
what’s happening to our environment, so if you can turn it on
its head and have fun with it, while educating people about it,
it’s great,” she said.
Fairchild saw the recent inauguration of President George W.
Bush as an opportunity for students to become involved with
environmental issues.
“I think it’s an exciting opportunity for students
to organize, because (Bush) hasn’t been a champion on the
environment in the past,” Fairchild said.
Protests during the inauguration were the largest since the
Vietnam War, Fairchild said.
“It feels that there’s just going to be a swelling
of student organizing on college campuses across the
country,” she said.
Zeanah said she is concerned Bush is president because both he
and Vice President Dick Cheney had worked for oil companies.
“I feel that they do need to pull favors in a
sense,” she said.
But the idea of Bush allowing oil companies to drill in the
Arctic is ridiculous, according to Zeanah.
“The amount of oil that the Arctic can produce is like six
months tops and (Bush) is destroying an entire ecosystem,”
she said.
According to Lazzarini, his organization is not asking for
much.
“We do understand that oil is in high demand, but 95
percent of Alaska is already open to drilling,” Lazzarini
said. “We’re just trying to protect one small
area.”