TWO students at the University of California, Berkeley, pour jugs of a thick, dark liquid onto the steps of the campus administration building. Wearing lab coats emblazoned with the BP logo, they shout at passers-by to 鈥渟tart getting used to oil鈥�.
This was the scene last month, as protesters chanting 鈥淣o BP!鈥� opposed a deal between industry and academia to develop new biofuels. Admittedly, it was a dim echo of the 1960s, when Berkeley was the global epicentre of student revolt. Still, this humble demonstration was a reminder that the radical spirit lives on. Berkeley is a scientific powerhouse with a political conscience, where even an apparently progressive effort to develop 鈥済reen鈥� fuels provokes an outcry that the university is selling its soul to Big Oil.
Four decades ago, thousands of Berkeley students laid siege to campus buildings in the name of free speech. Firebrand Mario Savio railed against the machine of Berkeley鈥檚 administration and urged students to 鈥減ut your bodies upon the gears鈥�. In 2007, just a small crowd turned up to berate BP, and the 鈥渙il鈥� was actually molasses 鈥� which the students had wanted to clean up before they were arrested.
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Today, the radical flame may burn brightest in the hearts of some of Berkeley鈥檚 senior academics. In February, BP, Berkeley, its neighbour the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign announced a $500 million project to develop new biofuels. Since then 130 Berkeley faculty members have signed a petition expressing concerns that the deal may compromise academic integrity.
Even in a department that stands to benefit from the deal there are reservations. Dan Kammen, who works in Berkeley鈥檚 Energy and Resources Group (ERG), believes firmly that the world desperately needs pioneering research into alternative fuels 鈥� which the BP deal can facilitate. But with big business leading the way, he is concerned that it could come at a social and environmental cost.
鈥淭he classic example is Miscanthus,鈥� Kammen says. He is referring to a tall grass that could be used as a source of cellulose to make cheap ethanol. 鈥淵ou can do all these things with it in terms of producing fuel, but you鈥檙e never going to be able to eat it.鈥� And while US farmers will not starve if their fuel crops were suddenly to plummet in value, the same may not be true of poor farmers in Indonesia.
Such political awareness is rare among researchers looking to develop new energy technologies, but at Berkeley, and especially within the ERG, it is ingrained. 鈥淓veryone here sees themselves as a scholar and an activist,鈥� says Kammen. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a matter of where on the spectrum they are.鈥� Indeed, some of his PhD students are actively involved in the Stop BP-Berkeley campaign.
鈥淓veryone here sees themselves as a scholar and an activist. It鈥檚 just a matter of where on the spectrum they are鈥�
The BP row is not a one-off, either: in 1998, when the multinational Novartis paid $50 million for rights to cherry-pick Berkeley鈥檚 research on plant biotechnology, it provoked a storm of protest.
One thing seems certain, says Kammen: such intense debates are a product of the campus鈥檚 legacy of radicalism. 鈥淲hen you do a deal like this with Berkeley you build in dissent,鈥� he says. 鈥淏P has chosen a difficult date.鈥�
鈥淭here has not been a peep of protest at Illinois,鈥� he adds.
