PCC CouSii&i
VOL. 32, NO. 9
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
APRIL 16, 1970
Teath-ln Pushes Environment Quality
Unification Against
TWENTY-THIRD PSALM is being read over the
remains of a smog-killed tree as concerned stu¬
dents witnessed the ravages of pollution at Lake
— Courier Photo by Brian Bailey
Arrowhead recently. The Ecology Action group
on campus is busy readying for their Teach-In
next Wednesday.
Smog-Killed Pine in Protest
Against Effects of Pollution
With opposition on every issue
from Vietnam to long hair, the
chances of the majority of the
American public uniting under a
common cause to strive for a com¬
mon goal is very unlikely. But be¬
cause of an urgent problem fac¬
ing our country and mankind,
this unification is now taking
place.
The problem is the pollution of
man’s environment, and the unifi¬
cation to combat this problem is
becoming larger and stronger
with the passing of each smog-
filled day.
More and more people are be¬
ginning to realize that if some¬
thing isn’t done very quickly
about the pollution that is threat¬
ening the earth, there may soon
be no earth — just one giant trash
can.
It seems, though, that as the
battle against pollution gains sup¬
port from some, others are work¬
ing hard opposing measures that
would eliminate the dumping of
waste into our lakes and sky and
stop the unnecessary destruction
of wooded areas and wildlife.
Not surprisingly, the people
who are fighting anti-pollution
legislation are, in fact, big busi¬
ness — those firms that exploit the
forests and seas for financial gain
and those that use the lakes and
sky as dump yards for the manu¬
facturing waste products.
According to officials from the
Sierra Club, an ever-increasing
amount of escaping oil from off¬
shore drilling is floating onto
the beaches and killing fish and
on man.
Many students are contributing
to the success of the ecology ex¬
hibits and other special features.
For instance, William Bockus’ ad¬
vertising design class is aiding in
the construction of some of the
exhibits and is also making charts
and posters.
Several of Charles Lewis’ sculp¬
ture students are providing
works, and the people from Rob¬
ert McDaniels’ sign shop are mak¬
ing two 15-foot banners to hang
outside the show.
Not only will works of art and
posters be furnished, but there
will be tapes played from some of
the speeches delivered by Dr.
Ehrlich, famed “Population
Bomb” author. Some short movies
on pollution will also be shown.
Probably the most unique fea¬
ture of the gallery plans will be
a natural gas truck brought on
campus from the Southern Cali¬
fornia Gas Company. The truck,
run by natural gas, will be used
to demonstrate a possible source
of power, containing no hydro¬
carbons, for vehicles of the fu¬
ture. A representative from the
company will probably be on
hand to discuss its benefits and
answer any questions.
fowl while polluting public recre¬
ation areas. But the real tragedy
of this situation is that the oil
companies are fighting all meth¬
ods that would prevent this cat¬
astrophe from occurring.
“There is one area,” commented
a secretary from the Sierra Club,
“in which the simple installation
of a pipeline would have prevent¬
ed an oil leak, but the company
involved felt it too expensive and
fought the proposal until it was
defeated. Now there is an oil
slick in that area that is causing
untold destruction to wildlife.”
It is to inform the general pub¬
lic and stop this type of misman¬
agement of our environment that
the Ecology Action committee has
planned the Teach-In next Wed¬
nesday. It is hoped that through
this type of program the people
of the United States will continue
to demand stronger anti-pollution
measures and begin in their own
lives to do what they can to curb
this awesome situation.
By JEFF WICKLAND
Twenty members of the PCC
Ecology Action Group drove to
Lake Arrowhead April 1 to wit¬
ness a government “salvage and
sanitation” operation — the har¬
vesting of smog-slaughtered Pon-
derosa Pines, more than 50 miles
from Los Angeles.
The group, led by co-chairmen
Barbara Lagunoff and Mike Tan-
chek, returned with the remains
of one of the strangled trees.
During Ecology Week, the top
will be erected on campus as a
trophy of man’s desecration of
nature.
The rest will be milled into
plaques and sent with demands
for action to legislators and gov¬
ernment officials.
The U. S. Forest Service period¬
ically roots out unhealthy trees,
but this was the first cut brought
on by air pollution. More than 40
trees were cut that day alone, ac¬
cording to Forest Supervisor Don
Bauer, by the Big Bear Timber
Company.
The company has bought the
rights to two million board feet
of smog-weakened lumber out of
the San Bernardino National For¬
est.
The Forest Service took the op¬
portunity to dramatize the effects
of airborne sewage on the forest.
Representatives of Life, UPI, the
national networks, and several
other news services, as well as
PCC students, gathered at the
Rim Forest Ranger Station and
were taken to the Timber Sale
area a few miles from the lake.
There, over the whine of chain
saws and heavy equipment, For¬
est Service experts explained the
operation.
Death from Smog
Only three per cent of the con¬
demned trees were dead. Smog
had weakened resistance to dis¬
ease and insect invasion in the
rest, creating dangerous health
and fire hazards.
Most of the sick trees were
Ponderosa Jeffreys, which make
up 60 per cent of the forest trees
in the Sierras. They are very sen¬
sitive to smog, and the effects of
air pollution have been observed
in them as far away as Sequoia
National Park.
The trees cut near Arrowhead
will be replaced by 70,000 Sugar
Pine and Giant Sequoia sprigs
which, hopefully, are more toler¬
ant of smog.
Smog effects were demonstrat¬
ed by comparing a healthy Pon¬
derosa twig with a brown, shriv¬
eled diseased one. Bark, chipped
away from a downed tree by club
members, revealed the galleries
and dead tissues left behind by
Pine Bark Beetles.
Saplings No Substitute
A 12-inch Sequoia sapling, typi¬
cal of the new planting, was dis¬
played by rangers, but it was a
poor substitute for the giant Pon-
derosas, marked for cutting with
bands of blue paint.
The tree claimed for Ecology
Action was a small example only
12 inches in diameter. A chain
saw took only a few seconds to
grind through it. Students gath¬
ered around the fallen trunk,
while Ecology Action member
Paul Schwartz read a short bene¬
diction, “The Twenty-Third Psalm
Revisited.”
23rd Psalm, Revisited
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want;
He maketh me lie down in what
once was green pastures,
He leads me beside still waters,
which are now heavily polluted.
I am guided over straight paths
That are strewn with beer cans.
As I walk through the valley of
the shadow of smog,
I fear many evils; for pollution is
all around me.
Thou hast given us food, which
we have spoiled with DDT,
Thou hast blessed us with oil, and
we have spilled it over our
beaches.
We ask for thy goodness, mercy
and guidance
In our struggle to preserve our
environment.
Forgive us, God.
Amen.
Lumbermen then sawed up the
tree, and students loaded the
parts into pickup trucks for the
return to Pasadena.
Club participation in the timber
sale was suggested only six days
earlier by Bob Swinford, a PCC
instructor and member of the
Forest Service.
Most of the group turned out
for the administration-approved
field trip, which left the campus
before 7 a.m.
Art Gallery Aids Full-Stale
Effort Against Pollution
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The significance of “Earth Day”
-a day protesting pollution — on
Vpril 22 will be exhibited through-
>ut the PCC campus during the
veek of April 20-24.
One of the ways that Earth Day
vill be celebrated is via the PCC
Vrt Gallery located in the mall.
The gallery will be buzzing with
ictivity on April 21, 22, and 23. It
vill contain photographs, graphi¬
cs, and displays showing environ-
nental destruction and its effects
Anyone concerned about the
summer smog that destroys his
lungs and brings tears to his
eyes, or about the vast destruction
of beaches due to oil slicks, is
urged to see and support Earth
Day activities at PCC.
The art gallery will be open
from 10 to 2 and 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
April 21-23.
— Courier Photo by Brian Bailey
FIRST TREE KILLED by smog was claimed by PCC students as a
reminder that pollution is an ever-increasing problem that man
is going to have to face in the future. Students loaded the cut
tree into trucks and brought it back to PCC to have it cut into
blocks and sent to legislators to help them to see what pollution
is actually doing.
Pollution a Must