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ENVIRONMENTALISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Jay Lininger, acting as spokesman during a protest at Boise Cascade Thursday, is perceived by many as an emerging leader in the environmental movement of the 21st century. Most activists believe the future holds more difficult challenges By Paul Fattig When environmental activist Jay Lininger looks at the movement in the 21st century, he envisions changes and challenges.
But he also sees lessons learned in the latter part of the 20th century as forming the framework for the movement's focus in the early decades of the next millennium. "We have to pay closer attention to our class bias in the future," he said. "As a movement, that has undermined our credibility with the public in the past. We need to deal with issues of economic equality and access to land. "Environmental issues will necessarily also become increasingly global in scope," he added. "Yet it's imperative we remain focused on our own back yard." With the century closing in on a movement that largely began in the revolutionary 1960s, conservationists are taking stock of a calling that has been both loved and loathed in Southern Oregon. Most activists believe the easy battles have been won and that the 21st century, less than two months away, holds more difficult challenges. Some see the movement's future as a continued series of direct action in the form of civil disobedience. Others say the answers lie in courts of justice. And some say the court of public opinion holds the final verdict on the future. Still others, like Andy Kerr, former leader of the Oregon Natural Resource Council, have formed Alternatives to Growth Oregon to focus on over-population and consumption issues. A fourth-generation Jackson County resident whose grandfather was a logger, Ashland-born Lininger, 24, is perceived by many as an emerging leader. Although he hails from blue-collar stock, the activist in the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands group has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Oregon."I think we really have to deal with quality and justice in the future," Lininger said. |
