Earth Island Institute

To Drill or Not to Drill

The Spring 2010 issue of Earth Island Journal is now at newsstands and online! Among other dispatches and reports from around the world, the magazine includes:

• An in-depth feature story from the farmlands of New York and Pennsylvania, where residents are torn over the question of whether to allow natural gas extraction to occur in their quiet communities.
• The debut of our new debate section, +/-, which features opposing arguments from sustainable rancher and author Nicolette Hahn Niman and PETA campaigner Lindsay Rajt over the question, Can you be a ‘good environmentalist’ and still eat meat?
• An interview with Dr. Jane Goodall, the famed chimpanzee researcher and tireless environmental activist.
• A hopeful report from the Klamath River basin in California and Oregon, where farmers, ranchers, fishermen and several Indian tribes have agreed to the largest dam decommissioning in history. Veteran journalist Jacques Leslie uncovers the story behind the recent newspaper headlines in explaining how these diverse communities reached consensus on dam removal.

Thursday March 4, 2010

Show Your Support

The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) has proposed dramatically expanding bear hunting across the state. Last month, the CDFG unveiled plans to: allow an unlimited number of bears to be killed during hunting season; permit the use of high-tech global positioning equipment (GPS) and “tip switches” on hound collars to make it easy to locate and kill bears (a tip switch alerts hunters when hounds have treed a bear); open the first-ever bear hunting season in San Luis Obispo county and expand hunts in Modoc and Lassen counties; and significantly expand the hound training season, allowing hounds to harass bears nearly all year long. The California Fish and Game Commission will ultimately decide to accept or reject the CDFG's proposals. Add your organization to the letter to the Commission. The letter will send an important message that there is strong opposition to the agency’s bear hunting proposals. To add your organization to the sign-on letter, simply send the following information to Brian Vincent at ; your name, title, organization, address, email, and phone number. Deadline to sign on to the letter: Wednesday, March 10, 2010.

Thursday March 4, 2010

DIY Wastewater Systems

On Sunday, March 14, Bob Feinbaum, Director of Hydro Nova will be conducting a workshop dealing with on-site wastewater system operation at the Building Education Center (BEC) on Page Street in West Berkeley from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone who lives beyond the reach of sewer lines (or aspires to) is invited to attend. Call Sydney at BEC at 510 525-7610 for registration information.

Thursday March 4, 2010

Florida Coyote and Fox Penning Suspended

After investigations and public pressure from Project Coyote and other national and local organizations, Florida has temporarily suspended coyote and fox penning – the trapping of foxes and coyotes in pens where they are then chased and often ripped apart by dogs for staged competitions. Two Florida papers published editorials in support of a ban, which you can read on Project Coyote’s homepage along with a campaign update. This is a huge step forward and the result of continued public pressure to prohibit this cruel and heinous practice, but this is far from a done deal. Project Coyote and its allies are asking people to continue to write to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission urging a ban on the practice. In addition, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (INDNR) has issued a staff report in support of a statewide ban on coyote and fox penning. INDNR will hold a public hearing on this issue on March 16th and is accepting public comments on the issue now. Project Coyote is asking people to write to the Indiana Natural Resources Commission.

Thursday March 4, 2010

Living with Coyotes

Camilla Fox, of Project Coyote, and Rob Ruiz, chief park ranger of the Marin County Parks and Open Space Department, will discuss "Living with Coyotes" in a presentation scheduled from 7-9 p.m., April 5th at Christ Presbyterian Church at 620 Del Ganado Road in Terra Linda, CA.

The event is sponsored by the Los Ranchitos Improvement Association, Mont Marin/San Rafael Park Neighborhood Association, North San Rafael Coalition of Residents, Santa Margarita Neighborhood Association, Santa Venetia Neighborhood Association and Terra Linda Homeowners Association.

For information, call 499-9234 or send an e-mail to .

Thursday March 4, 2010

Earth Day and our Future

Sustainable World Coalition (SWC) presents, “Creating a Healthy Future – Where do we go from here?” an inspirational Earth Day kickoff event on Wednesday, April 21 from 7-10 p.m. at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, CA. Network with colleagues and celebrate the planet with Mark Dubois of the Pachamama Alliance; SWC, which will bring copies of its recent edition of the Sustainable World Sourcebook; and John and Ocean Robbins (John is the author of Diet for a new America, and Ocean is the founder of Youth for Environmental Sanity). Admission to the event is $15 at the door and includes a copy of the sourcebook.

Thursday March 4, 2010

Siberian Pearl

Don’t miss a chance to learn about Lake Baikal, the world’s largest fresh water lake, and the challenges faced by communities working to protect this natural resource. Meet a delegation of Russian environmental leaders from Buryatia, Siberia’s largest indigenous community, who are working to protect Baikal; see a slide presentation by wilderness photographer Boyd Norton; hear stories of Dave Brower’s travels to Lake Baikal in the 1990s; and join a conversation with Gary Cook of Baikal Watch (eii.org/baikal), Melissa Prager of Center for Safe Energy (eii.org/cse), and John Knox of Earth Island Institute. “David Brower and the Pearl of Siberia: Lake Baikal in Conversation and Photographs,” Thursday, February 25th at 7:00 p.m. at the David Brower Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $5-$20 and you can purchase tickets in advance (eii.org/cse/baikal) or pay at the door. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday February 18, 2010

Help the Bears

Big Wildlife (bigwildlife.org) is urging California residents to help them in their fight to stop the expansion of bear hunting in California. Every year, hunters legally kill more than 2,000 bears across California, with the most bears killed in Siskiyou, Trinity, Humboldt, Shasta, and Tulare counties. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species (iucnredlist.org), an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 black bears are legally hunted each year in the United States and Canada, while an unknown number are also illegally poached. Shockingly, it is even legal for trophy hunters in California to chase bears with packs of hounds. To make matters worse, the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) has proposed dramatically expanding bear hunting (dfg.ca.gov/news/pubnotice) across the state. If these proposals are adopted, bears will have virtually no escape. Please urge the California Fish and Game Commission to reject them! Public meeting on bear hunting proposals: March 3, 2010
Deadline for public comments on proposals: March 13, 2010

Thursday February 18, 2010

Building Solutions in North America, Community by Community

In a climate of economic distress and uncertainty, El Niño and climate change, communities in Mexico and California are addressing global problems with real-world local solutions. The Tamalpais Valley Community District organized a meeting with the Mayor of Mill Valley and Viva Sierra Gorda (vivasierragorda.org) to explore how two communities – one in Marin County and the other in Jalpan de Serra in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico – can build a partnership around awareness of ecological footprints, simple solutions that are already reducing local impacts, and a plan of action for 2010. If you are interested in learning more and want to participate, contact Laura Pérez-Arce, , of Viva Sierra Gorda.

Thursday February 18, 2010

Rockin’ Success in 2009

Celebrate Connect the Dots’ (connectthedotsnetwork.org, CtD) success in 2009 at the 2nd Annual Benefit Concert (connectthedotsnetwork.org/concert) on March 5th at 5:30p.m. in San Francisco at the Roots Division. Rock with local bands and feast your eyes on visual art while you learn more about how nonprofit organizations are reducing their environmental footprints throughout the Bay Area. In 2009, CtD served 15 nonprofit organizations across 31 facilities that provide community services and supportive housing to vulnerable populations. CtD guided these organizations in making changes to their facilities in order to conserve 2.9 million gallons of water, divert 178 tons of waste and reduce 94,035 kwh each year. These nonprofit organizations expect $202,481 in savings within the first year with accrued savings of $862,843 in five years. Come and share your energy!

Thursday February 18, 2010

Risky Nuclear Business

EcoPerspectives (eii.org/ecoperspectives) has released “Nuclear Power Plant Loan Guarantees: An Unacceptable Risk,” by Mary Byrd Davis (eii.org/islandWire/loan.html, .pdf). Last year 9,992 MW of wind power was installed in the United States. That is the equivalent of more than eight nuclear reactors of the type being built at Vogtle 3 and 4, which just received a federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The award is ironic, since the cost of Vogtle 1 and 2 helped to bring an end to the expansion of nuclear power in the 1970s and 1980s when the estimated cost of $660 million for four reactors ballooned to an expenditure of $8.7 billion for two.

Thursday February 18, 2010

Youth get Rooted in Community and Food

Rooted in Community is pleased to announce that it will hold its 12th Annual Conference July 21-25, 2010 (eii.org/islandWire/ric-date.html), hosted by SEEDS (seedsnc.org) in Durham, North Carolina. Get rooted in your community with other youth representatives from organizations across the country. Please save the date and make plans to attend.

Thursday February 18, 2010

Cruise Blues

State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Larry Hartig recently booted Gershon Cohen, Project Director of the Campaign to Safeguard America's Waters (eii.org/csaw), off the cruise ship advisory panel in Alaska. Cohen co-wrote the cruise ship initiative approved by voters in 2006 that, in part, places regulations on cruise ship wastewater discharges. Six Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter of complaint to the governor that the cruise industry should not be allowed to dictate the panel's membership, calling the corporate pressure "a troubling abuse of power" and asking Gov. Sean Parnell to reverse the decision in the absence of a valid reason for Cohen's removal. Read more about this seemingly unwarranted decision in the article from the Juneau Empire.

Thursday February 4, 2010

Drum Roll Please…

The Cove just received a nomination for Best Documentary feature film (oscars.org) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science! We're talking Oscars people. The other four films nominated include Food Inc., Burma VJ, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, and Which Way Home. Check out Ric O'Barry's thoughts on his blog (saveJapanDolphins.org/blog.html) about what an Oscar nomination means for him and Save Japan Dolphins' mission to shed light on the Taiji dolphin slaughter.

And if you find yourself in the Santa Barbara area on February 10^th join us for lunch to support the work of Ric O'Barry and the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition. O'Barry will be in Santa Barbara to support Louis Psihoyos, Director of The Cove, as he accepts the David Attenborough Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The party starts at noon on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. Contact Ariana Katovich for more details at 859-510-9154 or email ariana at earthisland.org.

Thursday February 4, 2010

BYA Film to Show at Siskiyou

Forces of Nature: Stories of the Brower Youth Awards is showing throughout the 2010 Siskiyou Film Fest (siskiyoufilmfest.org) on Friday evening February 19^th and Saturday afternoon and evening. The event kicks off Saturday with a 6:30 p.m. screening of the film Food Fight at Summer Jo's, 2315 Upper River Road Loop in Grants Pass. Admission is free but seating is limited. Call 541-476-6882 to reserve a spot, or make reservations online at summerjos.com.

Thursday February 4, 2010

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