I have been off the list for quite a while due to an overload of work and
thesis writing. As some of you might remember I am writing my thesis on
ecofeminism and Clayoquot Sound and I work as a campaigner for Greenpeace
campaigning agianst clearcutting. So...a couple things...
Clearcut logging is wreaking havoc across ecological, social and cultural
landscapes in Western Canada. It is destroying Native land before they
have settled their Treaties, it is ripping apart resource dependent
communities, drowning our salmon streams in silt and debris and
eliminating entire ecosystem types. So..
For the record I disagree with the person who wrote that
clearcutting mimics natural disturbances and the debate is really over
what type of clearcutting. Clearcutting is the greatest near-term threat
to terrestrial biodiversity. In Canada 90% of the logging we do is
clearcutting. We cannot make the clearcuts smaller to avoid doing
widespread damage as a patchwork of cuts across the landscape is also
ecologically devestating. There are appropriate ways to log but it means
drastically reducing how much we log and ensuring we maintain
representative ecosystems and ensuring that the forests that the log
maintain there original structure, diversity and functions at all scales
through time. For people who are interested I would encourage you to
contact Greenpeace Vancouver (604) 253-7701 1726 Commercial Dr.
Vancouver, V5N 4A3 for more information on ecoforestry or the Case
Against Clearcutting.
Secondly, in my thesis (Standing For Our Lives: A Feminist Journey to
Clayoquot Sound) I am exploring my experiences in Clayoquot to help to
develop the principles for ecofeminist activism...how does it differ from
environmental activism? How do we apply ecofeminism? How do we deal with
the tension that exists
between needing to address systemic domination - the realities of the
women in resource dependent communities who are still the primary caretakers
bare the brunt of the frustration, fear and violence of their
lovers/husbands/fathers as they lose their livelihoods; the realities of
the Nuu-chah-nulth people who have high suicide rates and 70%
unemployment and the reality of the rainforest continuing to be clearcut
all around us. My academic response is coalition building, economic
diversification etc. ...my gut response was to blockade the destruction
of these last valleys of intact temperate rainforest until they threw me
in jail (I also worked to build alliances between the environmental and
native communities and helped to coordinate an international market
campaign to cancel contracts with timber giant MacMillan Bloedel etc.).
It's so much more complicated than that but I thought I'ld just send this
off and see if anyone is interested in discussing these issues.
Tzeporah Berman
RR1 K32
Bowen Island
British Columbia
(604) 947-9844
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri May 26 12:50:26 1995
via Charon-4.0A-VROOM with IPX id 100.950526135531.448;
From: "Jackie Van Brocklin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: UTA Libraries
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 13:55:21 CST
Subject: World Environment Day
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY is **JUNE 4**
Does anyone know of any special events or involvements regarding
the above day? I'm putting together an exhibit on this subject
and would like to incorporate this.
Also, *JUNE 5* is NATIONAL TRAILS DAY. Any info on this would be
greatly appreciated, also!
Muchas! ---JVB
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri May 26 17:15:34 1995
Date: Fri, 26 May 1995 16:16:53 -0700
From: Doug Hunt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: World Environment Day
The United Nations Environment Program distributes resources for World
Environment Day each year. You may reach them through the U.N. gopher
or web at gopher.undp.org
