Page 5 - Sustainable Life - February 13th, 2014

Pamplin Media Group Thursday, February 13, 2014
SuStainablelife C5
SustainableLife

Teenager to lead state

anti-fracking campaign

Student inspired by
term at Conserve
School in Wisconsin

By JILLIAN DALEY
Pamplin Media Group
Most of the 100 grassroots
activists selected by
MoveOn.org to lead Fracking Fighting initiatives across the
nation are college-age or older.
Riverdale High School junior Megan Larkin is circulating a
Megan Larkin is an exception, petition against natural gas and
one of only two high-schoolers chosen.
oil fracking after
The 16-year-old intends to spearhead an Oregon campaign winning a stipend from
against natural gas and oil MoveOn.org to Wayne Wirta and
fracking, rallying people to sign a petition she’ll submit to Ore- lead an Oregon campaign.
Rob Fullmer
gon legislators. She hopes to hand a petition with 300 signa- PHOTO COURTESY OF volunteer at the regular SOLVE
tures to state policymakers, and MEGAN LARKIN
cleanup event in
then arrange a meeting with one of them.
cember 2012 with her twin brother, Brian Larkin, also a mination. ... I just ind it inspir- ing.”
Northwest Portland.
“It’s a really big goal,” Larkin says.
Riverdale High junior.
Conserve School is a Wiscon- Their father, Tom Larkin, says that Megan, one of six siblings, TRIBUNE PHOTO:
Fracking, or hydraulic fractur- sin-based environmental pro- has developed a self-suficiency JAIME VALDEZ
ing, combines horizontal drilling techniques and massive injec- gram that takes 100 students at a time from throughout the nation.
that comes with being a member of a big family. He’s really im- SOLVE: Litter still
tions of sand and chemical-laced “It’s great to see some of our pressed with her initiative and
water to loosen shale and re- lease oil and natural gas.
alums, like Megan, who aren’t waiting for college but are al- hard work combating fracking.
“It’s not like her mother or I
Environmentalists worry that blasting shale rock can trigger ready jumping in and trying to make a difference and showing are helping her behind the scenes,” he says. “She’s doing it dropped, despite changes
earthquakes, and the chemicals that young adults — a junior in on her own.
can leach into drinking water.
“Part of my campaign is high school — can make a differ- ence,” says Stefan Anderson, “We’re extremely proud of her.”
increasing public awareness to teach people about what head of the school.
Megan Larkin also was in- Jillian Daley can be reached at ■ From page 1
Hood National Forest. McGowan worries about the
sues, clothes and transit tickets. He has hauled many a tire out of
fracking is,” Larkin says. “It’s volved in the Green Club at jdaley@lakeoswegoreview.com and coast: ships dumping their trash the bushes along Skyline Road, a
very dangerous to public safety and public health and the Riverdale.
After Conserve School, she 503-636-1281, ext. 109.
vided by SOLVE, which sends armies of citizens to Oregon’s 427 in Oregon waters and billions of plastic pellets called nurdles hot spot for surreptitious dump- ing. One time he found a half-can
environment.”
Oregon doesn’t have any ac- was one of 100 students accepted into Green Schools Alliance’s miles of coastline twice a year to pick up trash.
washing up on the sand.
Angela Stewart is an interpre- of hydrochloric acid.
Selinger started out collecting
tive fracking wells, but the state Student Climate and Conserva- In 1990, SOLV IT was created tive park ranger based at Harris trash on his own, but found he
does serve as a shipment point for oil derived from fracking in tion Congress. She then became a Green Schools Alliance intern.
to clean up Portland-area neigh- borhoods and address the prob- Beach State Park
in Brookings, in
was self-conscious and it was boring.
“SOLVE’s not just an event; the North Dakota oil fields. Now she aims to make River- lem of illegal dumpsites. It be- Southern Oregon.
So in 2008 he
it’s instilled in Trains carrying the oil travel alongside the Columbia River in dale a member of the Green Schools Alliance, requiring a came the largest Earth Day cleanup in the United States.
She’s been in-
volved with
teamed with SOLVE and Food
Oregonians.”
the Columbia River Gorge.
Oregon LNG, an energy com- commitment to using less ener- gy, among other measures.
“SOLVE is a remarkable hold- over from the days of Tom Mc- SOLVE since 1986,
and has noticed
Front co-op to make it a commu-
— Angela Stewart, pany, is seeking to create a lique- “I’ve been trying to make my Call; it’s a child of the bottle bill,” how on some
nity event. After
interpretive park ranger, ied natural gas facility at the mouth of the Columbia River in school greener, make my com- munity greener,” she says.
says Jack McGowan. He and his wife, Jan, ran SOLVE for two de- beaches, even pris-
tine ones like Har-
doing their hour, the eight or nine
Harris Beach State Park
Warrenton. Larkin, of Portland, wants legislators to use their in- Brian Larkin says his sister is excellent at managing her time cades from Hillsboro, before moving into semi-retirement in ris, she sees pul-
verized plastic fall-
regulars get free snacks at Food
luence to stop the facility, which to make room for activism, Bend. “McCall wanted to create a ing through her ingers with the Front and visit awhile. “I don’t
would involve fracking at other locations.
homework and cross country.
“She gets down to business, PHOTO COURTESY OF MEGAN LARKIN volunteer spirit in Oregon,” Mc- Gowan says. “He could not stand sand.
“SOLVE’s not just an event; it’s know who’ll show up. We’ve had school groups as well as law vio-
Her passion to battle fracking arose while attending the Con- and she’s very dedicated and fo- cused,” he says. “She just moti- Larkin savors a view of Mount
Hood while hiking the Paciic Trest armchair quarterbacks. Don’t just complain, do something.”
instilled in Oregonians,” she says. “When I take school kids on a tide lators,” Selinger says.
Littering seems to be one of
serve School from August to De-
vates herself with a lot of deter-
Trail.
McGowan was a TV reporter pool walk, on the way back I hand those low-impact offenses that it
with KGW when he took over SOLV in 1990. It had “no employ- out bags and ask if they’ll clean up. I’ve never had one say no.”
takes thousands of people to commit, and hundreds to reme-
mental
environ
ees, no ofice, no phone, a lone P.O. box and $12,000 in the bank.” Stewart turns in water bottles for the deposit, using the money dy. That could be why the SOLVE volunteer ethos is Oregon’s only
It expanded into wetlands and for the Junior Ranger program. chance of beating it.
river restoration, as well as ight- ing illegal dumping all over the It’s only education and peer pres- sure that can change the situa- On that bright Saturday morn- ing near Elephant’s Deli, Lisa
state.
tion. “I’ve noticed that when Hamilton was out with her
Thinking of ways you can protect the environment?
Part of the success of SOLVE is what McGowan calls “the care someone does drop trash, people here will give them a scowl.”
daughter, Ruby McShane, and her West Sylvan Middle School
Growing your own veggies? Upgrading your water and feeding of volunteers — the spiritual feeding of how they feel Don’t toss that, Don
friends Lilly and Hannah Ken- nedy. For the eighth-graders, it
heater? Riding your bike to work? We recognize that Oregonians are eager for information about living more about themselves and their com- There’s a scene in the TV dra- was a school community service
Earth-friendly lives.
munity. We never take our volun- teers for granted.”
ma “Mad Men” where Don Drap- er and his picture-perfect family requirement, but they were to- tally enjoying themselves.
Sustainable Life, a monthly special section appearing in the Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers, will Culture change
have a picnic. As they head back to their car, Draper throws his “Last week we found some roadkill that Mom thought was a
inform and inspire readers to make a difference.
McGowan says the old slo- beer can deep into the park like a mop,” McShane says.
gans — Give a Hoot, Don’t Pol- lute and Keep Oregon Green — football, and his wife shakes all their trash from the blanket on to “I found a real collection of things, a No. 10 bottle cap, a huge
WATCH FOR SUSTAINABLE LIFE, THE SECOND need reformulating for today’s Oregonians.
the grass. (Watch it at www.you- tube.com/watch?v=roREnVhd_ piece of glass, a penny, a cup, a tennis ball, a ticket ...” says Lilly
WEEK OF EVERY MONTH, IN ALL
“There’s no excuse for pollu- og&feature=youtu.be)
Kennedy. She has her limits,
OUR NEWSPAPERS!
tion any more. Where once the racist joke was laughed at, now It’s a head-slapping moment from our perspective, the impli- though. “I won’t pick up dog poop or roadkill.”
for the most part they’re frowned cation being people today would “We’re inding a lot of Trader
upon. The person who throws a fast-food wrapper from a car, never do that. But, like smoking tobacco, littering still hangs on.
Joe’s bags,” Hamilton says. “And last week Vaughan Street was all
that’s no subconscious thing, it’s a choice.”
“I see a lot of fast-food wrap- pers. People toss them from their bottles and cans. There’s a lot of partying ‘round there.”
SOLVE IT volunteers pulled cars,” says Selinger, who patrols Back at Elephant’s, Fullman
out around 50,000 dumped tires in the tricounty area in his day. the area around Northwest Thurman Street and 23rd Ave- notes that 21 volunteers collect- ed around 700 pounds of trash in
Dumping still goes on. He knows where old mattresses, applianc- nue. “And Styrofoam popcorn. I think it blows out of the back of an hour, which went into the Trader Joe’s Dumpster. “The
SUSTAINABLE LIFE : An informative guide to green living in your community
es, couches and pesticides get trucks without people noticing.”
rest of the neighborhood won’t
tossed down ravines in the Mt.
Other common inds are tis-
doit,sowedoit.”
Mark

and

Dave

are
0313
686.12
3to6pm 456
back!

Monday-Friday