On January 30, 2007, a team of UC Berkeley students representing the Oil Enforcement Agency (OEA) suited up and convened on the main thoroughfare of campus. It was the Week of Action for the Campus Climate Challenge, so all across the country and in Canada youth were mobilizing on over 585 campuses to raise visibility about our climate crisis. Students decided to directly educate the community and their peers, so they took to the streets to ticket gas-guzzling SUVs that were parked in on- and off-campus parking lots and along the surrounding streets. The violations provided the drivers with facts and figures to illustrate the links between oil dependence, war and global warming, and that better alternatives exist.

For example, the Ford Explorer coughs up a mere 18 mpg whereas the Toyota Prius glides at 51-mpg --costing us $186 billion per year at the pump. This price tag represents 40% of the oil we use, which is expected to increase by 33% in the next 20 years (source: US Dept. of Energy and Union of Concerned Scientists). Connecting the oil droplets, the informational tickets also note that our addictive appetite will be satisfied from foreign, unstable areas that necessitate the deployment of US soldiers to maintain control of petroleum reserves (source: US Dept of Energy and Wall Street Journal).

Students wanted to show them that driving an SUV is unacceptable. Doing so consumes a disproportionate amount of the earth's natural resources, contributes to human rights abuses and the climate crisis, and in essence jeopardizes the well being of current and future generations. Doing their part, students are currently trying to implement a sustainable transportation policy, pass a referendum for student fees to support sustainability projects, and urging UC President Dynes to sign off on a system-wide policy for attaining climate neutrality --as well as entering the Leadership Circle for AASHE's American College and University President Climate Commitment, which is very similar.