BY MICHELLE NIJHUIS
10 Aug 2004

莉莉•唐(圖片：地球島嶼協會)

　　16歲的莉莉•唐住在加州的南帕沙第納市，在那兒，大自然有時顯得很遙遠。但當唐拜訪過阿洛宇溪(Arroyo Seco)─一個位於城市內卻仍未被開發的生物棲息地後，認為大自然遙不可及的感覺因此改變。「當我走到那兒，我便能感受到內心的平靜。」她說，「沒有城市的矯飾和噪音，我覺得大自然似乎全然地接受、擁抱了我。」

　　唐在七年級時第一次拜訪了這座峽谷，那是她和她的家人從中國移民到美國的一年後。身為「阿洛宇溪自然科學小組」的一員，她和她的同學紀錄著這小溪的接骨木、美國梧桐、活櫟樹和其它動植物。一年之後，當這項研究計劃因缺少經費而幾乎告吹時，她卻撐下來了，她是唯一一位幫忙小組顧問繼續他在峽谷進行研究工作的學生。當唐升上高一時，她重新開始了這個社團，並找到20位願意加入的學生。最近，當巴沙迪那阿洛宇溪林地和野生生物公園預定在九月份開始對大眾開放時，這個新生的團體試著說服南帕沙第納市議會去保護一塊佔地四公畝的地區。唐和她的小組計劃著要專心於他們的研究，以及這個地區的自然復育，同時唐希望能繼續她在大自然的探險。

　　「我真的對環境保護工作很感興趣，我想要成為一位生態學者。」她這麼說道。她也想要到西部的荒野地區探險，但首先，她提到：「我得先拿到我的駕照。」

Lily Dong.(Photo: Earth Island Institute)

　　Sixteen-year-old Lily Dong lives in South Pasadena, Calif., where nature can sometimes seem very far away. But that feeling changes when Dong visits Arroyo Seco, a canyon that holds some of the last undeveloped habitat within the city. "When I go down there, I can feel peace," she says. "It doesn't have all the pretense and noise of the city -- nature is really accepting."

　　Dong first visited the canyon in seventh grade, about a year after she and her family first arrived in the U.S. from China. As part of the Arroyo Field Science Team, she and her schoolmates documented the arroyo's elderberries, sycamores, live oaks, and other plants and animals. A year later, when the program faltered from lack of interest, she persevered; she was the only student to help the group's advisor continue his scientific work in the canyon. As a first-year high school student, Dong restarted the club, eventually boosting membership to 20 students. The revitalized group recently helped convince the South Pasadena City Council to protect a four-acre area as the Arroyo Seco Woodland and Wildlife Park, slated to open to the public this September. Dong and her group plan to stay involved with the study and restoration of the area. And Dong hopes to continue her adventures in nature.

　　"I'm really interested in environmental work -- I want to be an ecologist," she says. She also wants to explore some of the West's big wilderness areas, but first, she says, she'll have to get her driver's license.

克莉絲蒂娜•王(圖片: 地球島嶼協會)

　　在2004年的國情咨文中，布希總統只提到一項與自然保護有關的法案。在這場演說之後，加州柏克萊大學的三年級學生克莉絲蒂娜•王對她的環境政治學同學們發表了聲明：她是『自然保護投票人聯盟』的校園招募人，需要大家的幫助。「人們對於總統未能針對環境議題發表演說深感不滿。」在她發表聲明後，有五位同學願意一同合作。這個小組一整個春天在校園內擺放桌子，拉住路過的學生，並請他們志願參加「自然保護投票人聯盟」於夏天要在一些游離州， 如佛羅里達、新墨西哥、奧瑞崗和威斯康辛進行的活動。在學期結束前，王和她的小組已經找了20位學生，準備在長達63週的時間裡到游離州進行拉票。

　　布希總統的言行紀錄也為她的活動幫了個忙。「大部份的人都不知道布希在『自然保護投票人聯盟』中得了個F的評價。當他們聽到這消息時，眼睛為之一亮，並詢問著：『總統作了什麼，而得到F這樣的成績？』」

　　現在在沙加緬度州議會和自然資源保護署實習的王小姐說：即使組織當地民眾有其困難性，明年畢業後她仍會繼續從事她的環境工作。「有80%的時候你是被忽略的，被人拒絕會讓你覺得很煩，但當你找到一個真正有興趣的人時，之前的辛勞、不悅似乎都得到了補償。」

Christina Wong (Photo: Earth Island Institute)

　　In his 2004 State of the Union address, President Bush made only a single passing reference to conservation issues. The day after the speech, University of California-Berkeley junior Christina Wong responded with an announcement to her environmental politics class: She was the campus recruiter for the national League of Conservation Voters, and she was looking for help. "People were pretty riled up" by the president's failure to address environmental issues, she remembers, and five of her classmates agreed to pitch in. The small group set up tables on campus, buttonholed students throughout the spring, and asked them to volunteer for the LCV's summer campaign in the swing states of Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin. By the end of the semester, Wong and her crew had signed up 20 students for a total of 63 weeks of swing-state canvassing.

　　President Bush's record came to Wong's aid on the campaign trail as well: "Most people don't know that Bush got an 'F'" from the LCV, she says. "It immediately opens their eyes when they hear it. They say, 'Wow, what is the President doing to earn an 'F'?"

　　Wong, who has interned at the state capitol in Sacramento and with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says she will continue her environmental work after graduation next year -- even though grassroots organizing has its tough moments. "You get ignored 80 percent of the time," she says. "It bugs you to get rejected, but it makes up for it when you get someone who's really interested."

尤金•皮爾遜(圖片: 地球島嶼協會)

　　科羅拉多大學的學生政治家─尤金•皮爾遜知道如何進行一場困難的協議。當學校的行政部門提議大量增加學生收費以支付新的法律學院和三間校園建築物的費用時，皮爾遜為他的同學以及自然環境提出抗議。校內的學生政府─依規定在校方正式提出增收學生費用方案前，可行使同意權的學生單位，願意在有附帶條件的情況下，付出這筆款項。

　　威斯康辛州人、當時擔任學生聯盟立法議會的副主席的皮爾遜說：「我們說：『那就以學生的方式來作這項工程。』我們希望這項建築計劃能朝環保的方向進行，並且能考量到勞工問題。」協議之後，學校行政部門同意達到美國綠建築委員會(LEED)建築評估系統的「銀標準」，同時建築花費的百分之一挪為達到「金標準」的費用。大學方面也同意支付工人可維持生活的工資，和提撥新增收學費的二成作為學生財務資助。雖然全體學生未對提高學費和綠建築計劃進行投票，但有數千名學生在公開評論期間發表意見，支持者約為反對者的四倍。

　　現年21歲，擔任學生聯盟立法議會主席的皮爾遜，在2005年的秋天將頂著分子生物學的學位畢業。最後，他提到他願意在科學和政治的兩個領域中扮演橋樑的角色，或許會在美國國會大廈擔任政策顧問吧。

【文章連載】
■環保先驅布勞爾的徒子徒孫們 新一代環保鬥士臉譜(上)　(下)

Eugene Pearson (Photo: Earth Island Institute)

　　University of Colorado student politician Eugene Pearson knows how to drive a hard bargain. When the school's administration proposed a hefty student fee increase to pay for the construction of a new university law school and three other campus buildings, Pearson defended both his constituents and the environment. The student government -- which is required to approve all student fee hikes -- agreed to pay the bill, but not without concessions.

　　"We said, 'Let's do this on the students' terms,'" says Pearson, a Wisconsin native who was then vice president of the student union legislative council. "We wanted [the building project] done green, and we wanted it to be conscious of labor issues." Negotiations led to the administration's agreement to make all four new buildings meet the "silver" standard of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building rating system, with 1 percent of building costs going toward meeting the even higher LEED gold standard. The university also agreed to pay project workers a living wage, and to earmark 20 percent of the new fee for student financial aid. Though the student body didn't vote on the fee increase and green-building plans, several thousand students testified during a public comment period, with supporters outnumbering opponents by 4-to-1.

Pearson, 21, is now president of the student union legislative council, and will graduate with a molecular biology degree in the fall of 2005. Ultimately, he says, he'd like to help bridge the worlds of science and politics, perhaps as a policy adviser on Capitol Hill.

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