Sections

SNRE students: Environment key to '96 election

Recognizing the importance of raising environmental awareness in the 1996 election, environmental groups and students in the School of Natural Resources and the Environmental organized a three-day conference last weekend called "The Greening of Politics."

Conference organizer Christian Sinderman, a second-year graduate student, said progress begins with education.

"The year of 1996 is most important for environmental issues. Lobbying, writing letters and making phone calls to the current Congress do not get us anywhere. We have to educate voters on environmental issues," Sinderman said.

Chuck Barbieri, director of the Ann Arbor chapter of Greenpeace and co-organizer of the conference, said, "1996 may be the last chance to change things around because the 104th Congress has destroyed many environmental laws for decades."

Barbieri said many students lack the knowledge to practically carry out their environmental concerns. The three-day workshop helped to get more people to take a stand on environmental issues and prepared them to work on political campaigns for the environment, he said.

Sinderman, who is majoring in environment advocacy, came up with the idea for the conference. He said the main goal was to train people to become more politically active and to mobilize them to stand up for environmental protection.

The workshop intended to combine lectures, seminars and discussion groups to provide students with hands-on political skills, Sinderman said.

The conference, with about 100 participants, invited local politicians and environmental activists such as Sierra Club Political Director Dan Weiss and U.S. Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor) to help students organize a strategy for the 1996 presidential election, Sinderman said.

"The Greening of Politics" opened with a speech by Rivers, who urged students to get involved.

"You must participate. We all have to roll up our sleeves and get involved," Rivers said. "It makes a difference who is in the White House because people are making decisions about pollution, the air, the endangered animals."

Rivers told participants to "make a statement" in the 1996 election campaign. She said the most powerful way to influence environmental decisions in Congress is to participate in politics.

Weiss said with humor, but in an urgent tone, "Environment is an issue about future, children, values and character. If each of you talk to 100 voters, that'll be 1,000 voters."

Weiss urged the participants to get their views into news and other political media programs, including calling radio talk shows and newspaper.

Participants responded to the speeches with enthusiasm and questions.

Most students said they planned to volunteer to work on environmental issues in political campaigns or to look for a job in related areas after completing the workshop.

Kati Evans, an RC junior who is presently working for the Ann Arbor Ecology Center, said, "I want to go beyond learning about environmental issues. It's more effective to get people elected than trying to convince people who're already in office to change their minds."