climate

Author’s note: Matt is a Sag sun with a cap moon and rising in cancer. By most reputable accounts, 2022 was the hottest year in human history, on pattern with climate trends since the turn of the century. The uncomfortable truth is that we have moved past the point of preventing a climate disaster, just preventing a more catastrophic climate disaster than the one unfolding before us. Property is no longer billed as ‘climate-friendly’ and now billed as ‘climate-resilient.

Climate Justice League Joins Fights for Forest Defense On October 8th, Cascadia Wildlands and Oregon Wild hosted a flotilla on the McKenzie River to oppose the pending Trump-era “Flat Country” timber sale in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. The vast majority of the proposed logging in this sale would be in mature and old-growth forests with over 1,000 acres of clear-cut style logging, even though President Biden this year ordered his administration to prioritize conserving these forests as a crucial climate protection.

A regular Wednesday guest lecture on campus became an anti-logging protest when a group of activists shut down a talk given by Tyler Freres of Freres Lumber. Freres, a third-generation logger, came to the University of Oregon law school to talk about his company and the benefits of the post-fire logging practices his company employs. Freres and his company hope to salvage the land that was burnt following the 2020 Summer Oregon wildfires, particularly the Holiday Farm Fire.

While communities across the West continue to rebuild from the literal ashes of fire seasons past, Oregonians are witnessing the timber industry hastily take what’s left of our fire- burned forests. Post-fire logging is the West’s brand of disaster capitalism. In the aftermath of wildfires, the timber industry turns a profit by advancing extensive logging programs in the name of “forest resilience” and “community fire safety.” Cloaked in nice- sounding euphemisms, post-fire clearcuts are still advancing on public lands and National Forests around Oregon.

Not so long ago Eugene, Oregon was the hotbed of the green anarchy movement: a reputation that resulted in feds kicking doors down in the Whiteaker and the Chicago Tribune declaring this small university town the “cradle to [the] latest generation of anarchist protestors,” at the dawn of the 21st century. But let’s face it, Eugene’s scene has taken a hit from the pandemic and fragmented leftist disunity. Its glory days are long over; many organizations have struggled with loss of membership and participation as Eugene’s radical rep fades to memory.

We’ve all heard of COPs— no, not the ones we are trying to get off campus, but the annual intergovernmental meetings held to discuss what exactly we are going to do about capitalism killing our planet. Every year it seems like climate change is at the top of the list for the United Nations and other government coalitions to tackle, and yet, every year we hear alarm bells from climate scientists warning that death is imminent.

Have you ever stopped in the shade of a towering tree, and just looked up? Have you ever felt a mystical tug to give a tree a hug? Have you ever soaked up their love? No way, same! But even if you’re totally not that type… trees love you anyway. They maintain ecosystem resilience against escalated threats and buffer the world against climate change, providing us living things with continued breathable air, drinkable water, and livable land.