Berkeley Tree Sit

I thought you might like to read a NY Times article regarding the tree-sitters trying to protect some Oak trees in Berkeley. I have been twice myself to this grove to observe the tree-sitters in action, and can attest that they have been perched up there since before Christmas through some unusually cool temperatures here in northern California (high 30s and low 40s at night in some cases). They are getting "ground support" (like food and water, plus exchange of buckets) and once in a while are relieved by other activists who go up in the tree to replace them. UPDATE: The Sierra Club, which I am part of, does not have a position on this particular grove of trees. I need to make that clear, as there have been attacks made against me in connection with my role in the local Sierra Club group. However, the Club DOES oppose the University's overall expansion plan, the "Southeast Campus Integrated Projects" - which includes the removal of these Oaks.

I just wanted to blog this item, since it's a typically Berkeley story, and it's going to get very interesting in the next days and weeks as the University finally decides what to do. My suspicion is that enough noise has been made and local celebrities have spoken out, that the University will back off its plans to take down the trees. But the UC is large and Berkeley is only one campus ... so I could be wrong.

p.s. the grove itself is not very large, just a bunch of scraggly looking oak trees (not the large oaks that grow in other U.S. locations like in the midwest), plus one healthy redwood tree (which towers above the oaks). But it's the principle of tearing down these trees to build a football facility that has so many folks riled.

Sierra Club Filmfest

Well Folks,

Again I "volunteered" to do an event on behalf of Sierra Club and it's running now and looks like it's not a total failure. So I may as well tell the 5 blog readers about it. The event is called "Sierra Club / Sustainable Peralta Film Festival" and it's basically a chance to show a bunch of environmental themed movies from a list provided to us by Sierra Club national productions. (click the link to the page from national club and you can see all the movies I had to choose from). As the lead Club organizer for this event, it was my job to pick from all the available movies, the ones that I thought would go over best in Oakland. Take a look at our program and you will see which ones I chose. I did this after viewing at least twice as many movies at home on my own. The ones we aren't showing I excluded mainly because they are too, well, "white". How does one say this. Most of the movies tend to focus on issues that are rather academic / scientific and don't highlight the theme of environmental justice very well. For instance, if sea level rises 1-3 feet by 2100, as some scientists predict, which neighborhoods do you think will be affected first?* The lowlands. In Oakland, this means the neighborhoods in West Oakland surrounding the Port. These are traditionally not "white" (though it is changing even in these neighborhoods due to "gentrification" and the escalation of property value)

So what I'm saying is it's not a black-and-white issue. However, if you see most of these movies, you might not get that impression. So, we / I selected movies that highlighted social justice / environmental justice themes.

The movie THIS BLACK SOIL, which we showed Tuesday, was in fact a "stretch" in terms of being environmental, because it was really about how a very poor (black) community out east was able to organize itself (with help from outside), resist a planned prison construction and later got help from the government. But still it was a good message. In the end they showed the community getting their hands dirty working some farm fields, and so that at least made something of a connection from the people to the land vs. people to prisons. Tonight we showed POWER OF THE COMMUNITY, which was about Cuba. Attendance was about double what it was Tuesday (70+ people compared to about 35 on Tues.) This movie was probably a little more entertaining. Or maybe showing free movies on a Tuesday is just hard? After all the publicity work we did I kind of hoped more people would come. But still it's good at least that many people did come and hear our message.

I was a little nervous tonight. But since I didn't have to do much at the mike except fill in some dead space in between the movies, and act as moderator for our featured speakers, it was not too bad. My friend did remark that I used the "evil umm" a lot. Maybe Dead Crow in Georgia can give us tips how to avoid the dreaded "umm" and such filler words?

p.s. Crow, I have learned (by doing a public service announcement at KPFA) the 7 "banned" dirty words on the radio. Do you have them memorized? :-)

***

* from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise : If all glaciers and ice caps melt, the projected rise in sea level will be around 0.5 m. If the melting includes the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (both of which contain ice above sea level), then the rise is a more drastic 68.8 m.[3] The collapse of the grounded interior reservoir of the West Antarctic ice sheet would raise sea level by 5-6 m.[4]

Who Killed the Electric Car

I was at the screening of "Who Killed the Electric Car" at Humanist Hall in Oakland Friday. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It basically answers the question, "what happened to the electric car and to California zero-emission mandates." Basically, California CARB (CA Air Resources Board, a governing body with offices in Sacramento) "caved" to industry, at least according to this movie, in 2003 when the "zero-emission vehicle" requirement, established in the early 90s, was being challenged.

Mark Geller from the organization Plug-in America showed up at the movie and did a great Question and Answer afterwards. One interesting answer I thought was to my question "what about BioFuel?". Mark's opinion (granted, it is a biased opinion), is that biofuel is great, as long as biofuel / ethanol / vegetable oil is available LOCALLY, in sufficient quantity, for those people who need it. Apparently we are still far below the level where biofuel could "run out" in Northern CA... I don't know. In a mass industry scenario, according to Mark, this would not work. Callifornia would have to import biofuel from Nebraska (which is of course better, than importing oil from Saudi Arabia ...). He thinks the electric vehicles are better overall, because the "grid is available already. We don't need to build a separate infrastructure" (biofuel filling stations). I know this probably sounds like anathema to biofuel advocates. But it's an opinion worth considering ...

Studies have come out both for and against the ZEV program.
For: http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?page=article&storyid=691
(this article is by an EV advocate)

Against: http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/rr.12.02/driven.html
(RAND corporation - they argue that a "Partial ZEV vehicle" is more effective that a ZEV - and also have good ideas about the CARB buyback program to get old polluting engines off the road )

The movie is great at pointing out how far industry, for instance General Motors (and other automakers) as well as BIG OIL, are willing to go, to protect their established industry, that is, an industry based on carbon-based fuel, and carbon-burning parts, that wear out, and need to be replaced (auto parts, which are not found in ZEVs).

Interestingly, I asked Mark afterwards, did he ever talk about the subject to any international folks, and he mentioned he met some German engineers from BMW. He said they're ignoring electrics just like we are, and are focusing on the fantasy-hydrogen cars (as are the big 3, at the encouragement of our president). So it sounds like the German auto industry has its own government in its pocket, as well.

"Who Killed The Electric Car" can be rented at Blockbuster and other major DVD /video stores.