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October U;l, 2000 The Blue Banner Page 3 Perspectiues Start small when beginning environmental activism fin enuironmental uiewpomt Summer Starling Environmental Columnist oftentimes, students feel as if the war on the environment is some thing they are powerless to halt. An individual student’s ability to com pletely eliminate environmental degradation is, in fact, a fruitless battle. But there is a multitude of ways in which individuals can reduce the negative impact on our planet, the simplest of which require only a few extra seconds and some fore thought, while more detailed ways call for rigorous lifestyle adjust ments. If students choose to adopt either of these or anything from the rain bow in between, largely significant changes may come. Each choice that students make regarding consumption and dis posal affect three central issues of the environmental threat: energy, waste, and global integrity (defined as matters surrounding world hu man rights, economic justice, labor practices, etc.). Students have the power to im mediately reduce stress imposed on the planet, whether on an occa sional or dedicatory scale. Beginning with habits of reduc tion that require no money and very little extra time, such actions are made possible just by utilizing the facilities already available on campus. Regarding waste, it is helpful to know that the majority of waste students are accountable for is gen erated from our eating habits. Be coming conscious of how much food we leave on our plates can lessen our impact immediately. Only using styrofoam cups for coffee and ice cream in the cafeteria to go, and walking the extra three feet to get a mug or bowl when planning to eat inside would make an enormous dent in UNCA’s waste collective. If you see a piece of litter in need ofa proper home, pick it up. Choose to walk to the end of the hall to sort and recycle all of your trash. Save your printouts with blank backs and reprint new assignments in these spaces. Likewise, write on the backs of notebooks’ pages and save entire notebooks worth of pa per waste. To begin conserving energy, opt to walk, ride a bike or catch the city bus to run errands downtown. Not only does this lessen the impact of a vehicle on the road and in the city, but choosing to walk or ride promotes further funding and leg islation for alternative transpor tation. Also, make a habit of conserving electric energy by turning off lights and appliances whenever leaving home. Concerning global integrity, the simplest thing to begin doing is to support local businesses as opposed to Wal-Mart and other huge chain corporations. Consumers in Asheville are blessed with a plethora of smaller, more centralized busi ness from which to purchase food, clothes, school and cleaning sup plies, and anything else in high demand among students. Moving to actions that heighten environmental impact reductions calls for more investments in both time and money. Each person’s waste production can plummet in this area through the use of reus able containers. Low on initial cost, purchasing sturdier cloth bags for grocery and other shopping, washable contain ers for meals, and, one of the best items, a long-lasting drink bottle, will eliminate almost all container waste. Also, choosing snack foods with no packaging, like fruit or sand wiches, lessens waste. Although not all food vendors will accept containers, many smaller places will, including Cafe Ramsey for smoothies. Reducing waste also equates to investing more money into com mon products for more sustain able ingredients or packaging. As Anti-sweatshop movement at universities fin enuironmental viewpoint Candice Carr Environmental Columnist The clothes you are wearing were probably at least partially made in a sweatshop, perhaps many sweat shops. Low tariffs, thanks to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that the World Trade Orga nization was created to enforce, make it very cheap to ship goods, especially raw materials, over bor ders. This means that a shirt could start as cotton grown in India by an American company, then be sent to Indonesia to be spun into thread, then to El Salvador to be woven into cloth and then to Mexico to be cut and sewn before getting sold in America for less than ten bucks. How could it be cheaper to do it that way? Criminally low wages, physical abuse, forced labor and almost non existent tariffs make it easier for rich corporations to make a buck anywhere in the world. At the same time, the structural adjustment policies enforced by the Interna tional Monetary Fund keep poor countries in an economic position to accept these conditions, often favoring brutal dictatorships. It’s slavery. So, sweatshops exist. What can we do about it? Several years ago, the United Students Against Sweat shops began their campaign to get sweatshop-made apparel out of university stores. The campaign caught on like wildfire, and last year, hundreds ofschools tooksteps to try to eliminate sweatshop-made clothing from their stores. Unfor tunately, it is a very tangled situa tion. First of all, there is the human rights issue. According to the Na tional Labor Committee, workers in Burma work for 4 cents an hour, often in chains. If we are trying to help the workers, do we want them to lose their jobs? No. That might have been the best job available for them. The idea here is corporate account ability. Wouldn’t that be nice? The way that this can best be done is by mandatory factory disclosure, which is the listing of the names and ad dresses of all factories that a com pany buys from or owns, which would allow human and labor rights advocates to do drop-in inspections. There is a group that pretends to be a watchdog group called the Fair Labor Association. The FLA was started with good intentions, but human rights and labor rights groups dropped out when the cor porations began to build loopholes into the policies of the organiza tion. You can find their affiliates and charter online at www.fairlabor.org. Good luck stay ing awake. The way that they “ensure” that there is no sweatshop labor in their factories is as follows. They have inspectors who are on the company • payroll go look at these factories. The factories are given prior notifi cation of the impending inspec tion, which gives them ample time to prepare. And best of all, they are only re quired to inspect 10 percent of fac tories, and not even ones chosen at random. Factories can refuse or accept inspection. With their wads of corporate money, the FLA began to promote themselves shamelessly to universi ties. E-mails were sent out, trying to recruit university membership in the FLA, and one came here to our chancellor. Concerned about the issue, our chancellor called a meeting with the folks at the book store. Hesitant to pay the hefty yearly membership fee, they thankfully decided to not to join the FLA, and tried to find a solution to the sweat shop issue on their own, by asking that each company and distributor that the bookstore orders from send written assurance that they do not use sweatshop labor or buy from companies who do. I would like to commend the bookstore’s Virginia Mankins and Mike Small for their whole-hearted efforts on this issue. They receive a letter every year from each com pany that explains the code of con duct and assures that they do not use sweatshop labor. The only prob lem is that we must take the word of the company. Do you trust corporations? I know I don’t. While it seems difficult to know what else we can do, there must be steps that we can take to get full factory disclosure. Two years ago, the USAS began to create their own watchdog group that would monitor factories and push corporations for full disclo sure. Especially with the goal of FLA to tag their clothing “sweat shop free,” it becomes increasingly important to get the truth out to the public. Last year, the Work ers’ Rights Consortium was born, and they are already visiting fac tories. A USAS delegation just got back from visiting a Nike Factory in the Dominican Republic. You can check it out at www.usasnet.org and vwv'w.workersrights.org. The hope is that WRC can create pressure for corporations to have good conditions and living wages so as not get reported to labor groups, and to fully disclose all factory locations. The list of schools joining forces with one another is growing all of the time. My hope is that, one day, UNCA will be on that list, and all schools will be on the WRC’s. It is important that grassroots efforts have the support of the institu tions oflearning, especially when such institutions have so much buying power and influence on markets. If we are against slavery and cor porate dominance, we must fight sweatshops. I am glad that our bookstore has an active interest in finding an answer to this problem, and is so willing to talk and work with the students who are inter ested in this issue. In most univer sities that have anti-sweatshop cam paigns, students must stage sit-ins and banner hangs to try to force their administration into adopting an anti-sweatshop policy. It is another demonstration of the greatness of UNCA that we are able to sit down and agree on these things. H three-part workshop is offered free by Consumer Credit Counseling Seruice of Western llorth Carolina, Inc. at their flsheuille offices. Learn how to set your moneygoals, deuelop a realistic budget, breali costly money habits and other aspects of money maganement. For more in^ formation, call (828) 255-5166. ■ . students, our use of paper through out campus has huge effects not only the environment, but on the paper industry also. Post-consumer paper, envelopes and notebooks sold at the bookstore and elsewhere help minimize this impact. This connects to global responsi bility also. In choosing products that promote a healthy cooperation of all of the Earth’s inhabitants, such as animal-testing free prod ucts, the demand for sustainable products will increase. Several com panies have chosen to create a healthier line of sales by eliminat ing animal testing. Some of these companies include Revlon, Avon, Estee Lauder, Mary Kay and Gillette. Energy reductions initiatives in clude organizing carpools, purchas ing bus passes for regular use and investing in CFFs (Compact Fluo rescent Fixtures). These slightly more expensive fixtures reduce the amount of electricity used without compromising comfortable light ing. Finally, for those among us who would like to make consequential adjustments in their daily routines and ways of living, the challenges are greater. Actions necessary to soften a lifestyle’s environmental costs require rigorous questioning and researching. Clothing companies such as the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy are responsible for harmful deforestation. Many large corpo rate retailers such as Wal-Mart are being investigated for the alleged violation of many international la bor laws. These realities make envi ronmental consumer choices ur gent and far-reaching. Choosing to take the steps of en vironmental consciousness, begin ning with the simplest actions and working toward a more environ mentally responsible existence gradually elevates thinking to a truly alert mind frame. With each of these proposed ac tions, the more enthusiastic efforts directly correlate with stronger en vironmental responsibility, and thus, with more pronounced sustainability. These issues have varying priori ties with different students, but with every student, giving minimum ef fort, our environmental harmful ness as a student body would take a lovely dive. This is not an inflated, idealistic statement—this could be our reality. The Blue BannermelcQmes letters and comments regarding the content or quality of this publication. Letters should should not exceed 300 words. Letters for publication must also include the author’s signature, class standing and major or other relationship to UHCR. All submissions are subject to editing for length and content. The deadline for Letters to the Editor is noon on Tuesday. Please send letters to: The Blue Banner, Karpen Hall 244 One Uniuersity Heights, flsheuille, n.C. 28804, submit a letter uia the Blue Banner Online, or e-mail banner@unca.edu. The Blue Banner Staff Editorial Board Emma Jones Sarah Wilkins Kathryn Krouse Lena Burns Sarah Lacy Lauren Deal Matt Hunt Ben Weigand Editor-in-Chief News Editor Features Editor Sports Editor Photo Editor Copy Editor Online Editor Asst. Online Editor Staff Kay Alton, Amanda Anderson, Casey Blankenship, Patrick Braswell, Annie Crandall, Keith Cromwell, Rachel Crumpler, Kristina Elliot, Ben Ezell, Walter Fyler, Anthony Greco, Seth Horner, Luke Knox, John Locke, Justin Meckes, Angela Nantz, Bridgette Odom, Lauren Owens, Sanna Raza, Edward Ruschmann, Rebecca Travers, Justin Wolf Cate Bergman Angela Nantz Manasers Business Manager Circulation Manager Columnists Candice Carr, Sean Clancy, Kevin Rollins, Summer Starling Mark West, faculty advisor The Blue Banner is the student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. We publish each Thursday except during summer sessions, final exam weeks and holiday breaks. Our offices are located in Karpen Hall, room 244. Our telephone number is (828) 251-6586. Our campus e-mail address is banner@unca.edu. An online version of The Blue Banner is also available at http://www.unca.edu/banner>. Nothing in our editorial or opinions sections necessarily reflects the opinion of the entire Blue Banner staff, the faculty advisor, or the university faculty, administration or staff. Unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of The Blue Banner editorial board. Letters, columns, cartoons and reviews represent only the opinions of their respective authors. The Blue Banner reserves the right to reject any advertisement on the basis of content or space availability. Advertisements represent only the interests of the paying contributors. The Blue Banner welcomes submissions of letters and articles for publica tion . All submissions are subject to editing for clarity, content and length, and are considered on the basis of interest, space, taste and timeliness. Letters should be typed, single-spaced, and should not exceed 300 words. Letters for publication should also contain the author's signature, classifica tion, major or other relationship with UNCA. The deadline for letters is noon on Tuesday. If you have a submission, you can send it to The Blue Banner, Karpen 244, One University Heights, Asheville N.C. 28804. The deadline for display ads and the Pr'l calendar is Monday at 2 p.m. Classified ads are due at 5 p.m. on Monday.
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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Oct. 12, 2000, edition 1
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