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Back
To Campus: Lots
and Lots of Lists Top 10 lists, grocery lists, Christmas lists, to-do lists ... and now saving the world lists. Well, not lists exactly, but a handful of recent books are breaking down how-to and how-not-to instructions into easily digested, short attention span-sized tidbits that go down easy with a cup of organic coffee with soy. From how to make your life a little more green to why not to listen to military recruiters, here's a sampling of recent paperbacks that, though they may be preaching to the choir, offer interesting perspectives and suggestions for what we do wrong and how to do better.
10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY, edited by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg. The New Press, 2006. $14.95. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg's small, beautifully designed book is arresting from the minute you spot it: The stark design incorporates little green plastic soldiers — in pieces. The stories inside likewise don't pull their punches. From Cindy Sheehan's personal if awkwardly written story of how she came to be the poster mom for anti-war efforts to Adele Kubein's disheartening description of her soldier daughter's attempts to receive decent medical care and former Army medic Aimee Allison's piece on military discrimination, this tiny book will reinforce every negative thought you'veever had about the military. But it ends on an up note with young activist Rae Abileah's closing chapter, "You Have Other Choices."
50 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO FIGHT THE RIGHT by Earth • Works Action Network. Earth Works Press, 2006. $9.95. The first thing you can do is buy this book (it's not even $10!), and the next thing you can do is grab a bunch of friends and read this out loud with them (you'll feel heartened and motivated immediately). Next, put a copy in everyone's gift at the holidays — it's really a gift to the world. One thing this packed-with-information little book does is help progressives remember that we believe in things like freedom of speech, civil rights, strong public education and more: traditional American values that are worth fighting for. The book also kicks that depressed, disempowered-by-the-radical-right feeling to the curb. Plus, it was published in Ashland and has lots of Oregon connections. If you can't buy the book, check it out from the library (#22: Book'Em — support libraries!). This book is useful, inspiring and basically awesome.
100 WAYS AMERICA IS SCREWING UP THE WORLD by John Tirman. Harper Perennial, 2006. $13.95. The basic problem with John Tirman's book is simple: From Reaganism to the religious right, Mel Gibson to McDonald's, there's just so much to explore. At times Tirman goes for the obvious, as when he takes Bush to task for not behaving in a truly Christian manner or runs down the reasons Americans are hooked on oil. At others, he delves into history: Eight nasty leaders appear in "A Rogue's Gallery of Dictators," and the chapter "How to Really Screw Things Up" is subtitled "Six Splendid Little Wars." If you want to get depressed about the state of the nation, here's an easy way to do it. But you may also find yourself frustrated. Each topic gets only a few pages, which means there's little room for sources or backup for Tirman's sometimes sweeping statements. Still, 100 Ways isn't a bad jumping off point from which to look deeper into America's nastiest habits.
IT'S EASY BEING GREEN by Crissy Trask. Gibbs Smith, 2006. $12.95. Did you know that you can save your ubiquitous plastic packaging peanuts and take them to the Frog Store in Corvallis for recycling (or, more likely, reuse)? Did you know there's a place in Eugene where you can recycle your used athletic shoes? Maybe you did know both of those things. But in Crissy Trask's It's Easy Being Green, a sweet little book printed on recycled paper — what percentage is post-consumer, the book sadly doesn't say — there's all of this information plus so much more. If you read the book cover to cover … well, we would worry about you, but you would know about everything related to small life choices (paint interior walls a light color; make your own household cleaners instead of spending a gazillion dollars for a gazillion toxic chemicals) that minimize your impact on the planet. It's a fact-filled, practical tool for greener living.
A New Education Center By late next year, the community may see the first phase of an expanded education center for the West Eugene Wetlands. The overall vision for the center is that it serves as a sustainable, collaboratively designed place for people to learn about the wetlands. Eight organizations have been working together for years to bring the center into existence, including the Willamette Resources and Educational Network (WREN), the city of Eugene and 4J School District, who are raising donations and proposing bond measures to fund the project. The partners will take special care not to add or remove water from the proposed site, which is located on a piece of upland prairie in the middle of the wetlands. Funds permitting, the goal is to incorporate enough green features to obtain the highest green building certification possible, LEED platinum. Like the shrinking wetlands, upland prairie acreage has dwindled to less than 1 percent of what once existed in the Willamette Valley. While wetlands are federally protected, upland prairies are not, despite the fact that they are integrally connected to the wetlands ecosystem and provide habitat for threatened species such as Kincaid's lupine. Pat Johnston, BLM West Eugene Wetlands project manager, says there are no endangered species on the site, nor any reason to think that the site provides crucial habitat. The entire area was previously disturbed, farmed or developed. Because the proposed site is on upland prairie, rather than wetlands, mitigation will not be required. But a group of scientists recently proposed that the property be added to the area designated as critical habitat for endangered Fender's blue butterfly and threatened Kincaid's lupine. They say this site is a necessary "stepping stone" for Fender's blue butterfly populations that live north and south of West 11th Avenue. Without protection for the site, the group argues, there won't be sufficient genetic exchange between the two butterfly populations. The location, selected in 1999 from a pool of about a dozen sites, is the home of the current education yurt and administrative office and was selected in part because of its easy access from the Fern Ridge Bike path and two bus lines. The partners feel that the current facilities do not meet the needs of the community. Johnston says, "We're going to be sensitive regardless of the designation." She envisions the center as providing an example of how other developments in the wetlands can minimally impact the ecosystem while meeting the community's needs. "We're not going to push this project hard," she said. "We're going to work with our environment." The selection of an architect team in November will initiate a fast and furious public process that will include a focus group on minimizing the center's environmental footprint. — Sarah Mazze
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