At the Divestment Rally on Friday I realized that so many people are so passionate about this subject. It really opened my eyes into how fossil fuels are really impacting our planet. When I first walked up to the rally I was a little intimidated and did not really know what to expect. I thought it was actually a little intimidating. But, once I walked under the tent a lady came up to me very friendly and asked me to sign their petition. I happily did so, and immediately felt more welcomed.

Once the rally started the chants I though were very compelling. They created a message not only by what they were saying but how they were saying it. It was the strength in what they all believed in made me take a step back and look at this through there eyes and how much strength it takes to stand up for what they believe in.

This strike reminded me a lot of the GTF strike that happened at the end of fall term. Although there was not as many of them, and no one really knew about this rally, I think that these people that were yelling the chants were so much more into what they were saying and you could hear how much they care in their voices. They also had quite a few speakers during this rally that shows people what their thoughts and outlooks are on this subject. They are trying to get their voices heard so that more people are aware about climate change and the use of fossil fuels.

I really enjoyed this rally. I thought it gave me a new perspective on how fossil fuels are detrimental to our lives.

This past Friday I went to the Global Divestment Rally. The rally is supporting the University of Oregon Foundation to sell its investments in fossil fuel extraction companies. Right now the University of Oregon is selling their stock to make more money and people would like them to use that money to invest in fossil fuels instead of stock.
The rally consisted of a few speakers including the mayor of Eugene and student at the University of Oregon. The student really caught my attention because she was speaking on behalf of the students here and was representing the undergraduate school. She claims they took a survey last year and 73% of University of Oregon’s students approve and support the investment into fossil fuels. I think the percentage is really high and could make a difference in changing this part of our school. I thought her speech was empowering because she made it in a students perspective that we need to stand our ground and not let them take our money to invest in stock. The money should be put into use by investing fossil fuels to save our environment.
Before coming to the rally I did not really know what to expect or even know what it was. Luckily Stephen was there to explain to us what the rally was about and what they are trying to do. I was surprised to see so many people their from the community supporting this and how involved they really are in the school. I am glad I went to the rally because I got learn about something new and something I will now support at this school. Before coming to this event I did not know this existed or what the school was doing with our money and I am really happy I came and saw first hand what is happening.

This past Thursday I went to the climate change and Oregon salmon talk. There were two tribe members there talking about climate change and how it is affecting the salmon and their tribes. They told us there are four tribes that include, the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Nez Perce. Each of these tribes have fishing and hunting rights on the lands. Currently climate change has been affecting the salmon and steelhead by winter flooding and it is affecting their eggs and overwinter juveniles. During the summer their has been low flows which leads into migrating or spawning adults. Than throughout the year there has been increased water temperatures which will stress on migrating. During the meeting the audience came up with a climate change improvement for the salmon by growing more trees. We also talked about how the dams are affecting the salmon because it is hard for them to go through and the warm water and climate change on top of it is making it worse. Some people in the audience brought up creating passages for the fishes which would be hard to do. I think the ideas the audience brought up during the speech were great ideas which I hope will happen in the future to save the salmon. One of the tribe members brought up towards the end of the speech that salmon is in an ingredient in a lot of things we don’t know about and if they are in danger than we are in danger. After he said that it made me realize if our food is diminishing and the necessary products we need in our body are diminishing than what is going to happen to us.
Before coming to this talk I did not really know what it was about it or what to expect. But I really enjoyed coming and learning something new. It made me more aware of some of the other things climate change is doing to our environment that we do not necessarily talk about in class. I thought this talk had a really great turn out, more people than I thought would come but I think they really liked seeing the students there supporting this.

“Hey hey, ho ho

Keystone Pipeline’s got to go

No more gas, no more oil

Keep that carbon in the soil”

On Friday at 3:00 PM, a rally was organized to protest the University of Oregon’s investment in fossil fuels. With petitions to sign and posters to hold, the group got together to make their grievances clear to the administration of the university. As I approached the tent, I was handed a pen to sign the prepared petitions and a sheet with lyrics to the chants and songs that were to be sung. The chants contain lines like “every time you pump a barrel, you increase our climate peril” and “corporate greed- we’ve got to fight, polluting Earth is not a right” to convey their displeasure with where the university invests millions of dollars. The aim of divestment is to re-budget the university’s priorities from dangerous fossil fuels to other places more in line with students’ interest.

Contine reading →