Earth Island Institute

Youth Be Told

If you are reading this before 6:30 p.m. Pacific and are in Berkeley, stop!!! head on over to our Earth Island Presents . . . event ‘Celebrating Young Activists: Building a Green Movement & Changing the World’.

However, if you cannot be with us tonight to celebrate the achievements of young environmentalists, join us two months from today for our 11^th annual Brower Youth Awards on October 19, 2010.

BYA—the premiere awards honoring bold young environmental leaders —will honor six young activist heroes at our lively and inspiring awards at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

Support our New Leaders Initiative by buying a ticket for the BYA Opening Reception or just come on out for the BYA Ceremony and applaud these young green achievers for free, but be sure to reserve your spot today!

Thursday August 19, 2010

Story Honor

Speaking of excellent Journal features, Earth Island Journal editor Jason Mark was honored by the Society for Environmental Journalists in their 9th annual journalism contest for “Outstanding Small Market Reporting, Print.” The SEJ contest judges cited Jason’s Autumn 2009 Journal cover story “Hacking the Sky” “Mark’s explanation of the emerging and controversial notion of geo-engineering was authoritative without being wonkish, and brought an important piece of environmental science vividly to life.”

Thursday August 19, 2010

Engulfed

The Autumn 2010 Earth Island Journal is in the mail to our members and subscribers and it will be on newsstands soon, but why wait?  You can read the excellent investigative features on the catastrophic BP Gulf oil spill on our website.

Thursday August 19, 2010

Bag it!

Join Earth Island project, the Plastic Pollution Coalition for the Film Festival to Support California Single-Use Bag Reduction Act, AB 1998. The festival will screen important and entertaining films on the world’s most common consumer product and plague to the environment: the single-use plastic bag. Sunday, August 22, 2010 @ 4:00 p.m. @ UCLA’s James Bridges Theater. For more information please contact Lisa Boyle, Esq. at lisa at plasticpollutioncoalition.org.

Thursday August 19, 2010

Content Partners

If a hard-hitting new issue and honors from fellow journalists weren’t enough, we are also thrilled to announce that Earth Island Journal is now a part of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets, including The Progressive, The Nation, Mother Jones, Grist.org, and many others. The Journal was also recently made a content partner on the Guardian (UK) Environment Network, a web portal for “news and comment from the world’s best environment sites.”

Thursday August 19, 2010

Blog it!

Travel through Central Asia from your desktop by reading the lively blogs of three of our Earth Island projects:

Follow Earth Island’s Jennifer Castner, project director of The Altai Project on her travels through the Altai, a uniquely diverse, mountainous region of southern Siberia.

And join Earth Island’s Ono Ganzorig, project director of Mongol Environmental Conservation on a 4,000 km journey across the Mongolian steppes, desert, and the capital city of Ulaanbataar.

This summer, Melissa Prager, Program Manager of the Center for Safe Energy journeyed from Odessa’s Black Sea to Siberia’s Lake Baikal meeting ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Read her EcoTravel Blog.

Thursday August 19, 2010

Dolphin Planet

Tune in to Discovery’s Animal Planet on Friday August 27^th at 11p.m. E/P just after the season finale of Whale Wars for the first episode of the new mini-series Blood Dolphin$. Picking up where the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove left off, this new series features the tireless efforts of Earth Island’s Ric O’Barry, director of our Save Japan Dolphins campaign and our International Marine Mammal Project team’s dolphin protection work around the world, including our efforts to save Solomon Islands’ dolphins.  Watch the Animal Planet promo trailer for Blood Dolphin$ and visit the series’ website: animal.discovery.com/tv/blood-dolphins.

Thursday August 19, 2010

Inspirational Youth Share Their Passion

Join Earth Island’s New Leaders Initiative and Earth Island Presents… at the David Brower Center on Thursday, August 19th for ‘Celebrating Young Activists: Building a Green Movement & Changing the World’ (eii.org/events/youth).

Hear from today’s young environmental leaders, featuring Julia Butterfly Hill, the inspirational activist & co-founder of the Engage Network and the inspiration behind What’s Your Tree? Julia will moderate a conversation with recent Brower Youth Award (BYA) honorees; Alec Loorz  (BYA09), Hai Vo (BYA09), Rachel Barge (BYA07), & Shadia Fayne Wood (BYA04).

Representatives from local Bay Area environmental youth groups – such as 350.org, Action for Nature, Bay Area Wilderness Training, Communities for a Better Environment, Green Café Network, Just Food, Living Laboratories, Movement Generation, Project Jatropha Earth Team, Rooted in Community – will be on hand to share information about their work in the local community as well. Tickets are available at eii.org/events/celebrate. Sliding scale $10 – $20 / $5 – $10 if 21 years of age or younger.

Thursday August 5, 2010

Utility Boxes: A Blank Canvas

Please check out, and follow, EII’s new blog (60boxesproject.blogspot.com) about Streets Alive and the 60 Boxes Project! The 60 Boxes project, an initiative of the Streets Alive! program at Earth Island Institute, combines and promotes art and nature in downtown Berkeley. The project aims to work with artists, businesses, and community members to bring vibrant art to unexpected places: 60 dull, grey utility boxes in downtown Berkeley. Local artists will paint each box according to the theme of “Sustainability,” creating public art and resonating with themes important to the Berkeley community. If you are an artist local to the Bay Area with interest in participating, please submit your portfolios to Ariana Katovich at ariana at earthisland.org. We are working hard to make this a reality. Special thanks to our rock-star intern, Casey Ogden, for launching the blog!

Thursday August 5, 2010

Hey Costa Rica, Follow Your Own Laws!

Once a shining star on Ethical Traveler‘s “Ethical Destinations” list (ethicaltraveler.org), Costa Rica was dropped from the list when it became one of the world’s main hubs for sex trafficking. Today, Costa Rica is wrestling with another menace: shark finning. Shark finning is the act of slicing off the fin of a living shark and discarding it back into the sea, where it dies a horrible death. The amputated fins are then exported to Asia, where they are used to make an ominous delicacy: shark fin soup. Despite the passage of a law banning shark finning in Costa Rica, the practice continues. Ethical Traveler has partnered with PRETOMA to save the sharks, and help Costa Rica reclaim its place as an eco-friendly destination. To take action please sign on to Ethical Traveler’s campaign letter (ethicaltraveler.org/costa-rica-shark-finning).

Thursday August 5, 2010

Coyote Talks From Coast to Coast

Hear about coyotes, the important role they play in ecosystems, and useful tips about coexistence. Project Coyote’s Camilla Fox will present “Coyotes in Our Midst: Learning to Live with America’s Wild Song Dog,” and show the San Francisco-based film American Coyote: Still Wild at Heart at the Strybing Arboretum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco on August 5th from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Sponsored by Department of the Environment, City & County of San Francisco. Camilla will also speak about coyotes on August 25th (7 p.m.) at the Tam Valley Community Center, Mill Valley, California. Across the country, in Maine, Project Coyote’s Geri Vistein will present “I am Coyote” an outdoor experience for area school children on September 21st as part of Bay Day hosted by the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay at the Wildlife Refuge in Bowdoinham. Geri will also present “Farming with Carnivores” at the Maine Common Ground Fair, in Unity, Maine on September 25th. More info about these and other Project Coyote events (projectcoyote.org/events.html) on their website.

Thursday August 5, 2010

Don’t Feed the Plastic Bag Monster

Every year Californians are estimated to use 19 billion plastic bags, an average of 500 bags for every person - many of which will end up in our rivers and oceans causing major harm and damage to our precious eco-systems. A ban on plastic bags is one of the biggest single cuts we can make to reduce marine debris pollution. California Bill, AB 1998 would ban single-use plastic bags in California for good! As senators gather this August to vote we need to make sure we are heard and that this bill passes! Californians Against Waste (cawrecycles.org) needs you to wear a Bag Monster costume on August 12, 2010 at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco at their “Don’t Feed the Bag Monster” event. They will provide the costume, a free reusable bag, snacks and water. Let the state know you are fed up with the unnecessary waste of single-use bags!

Thursday August 5, 2010

Under the Sea

Get down and boogie for the dolphins! Join the International Marine Mammal Project for a fundraising event for Save Japan Dolphins campaign Thursday, August 12th. DJ Billy Vidal will be spinning the tunes at Rouge Nightclub, 1500 Broadway Street in San Francisco. The party starts at 10 p.m. and donations will be taken at the door. For more information contact Steffanie Lund at steffanie.suzette at gmail.com.

Thursday August 5, 2010

Boot Camp Nonprofit Style

Imagine 1,500 passionate people gathered together to strengthen their communities and neighborhoods. That’s Boot Camp – a fun, intensive one-day conference where you will learn to bring your ideas for empowered communities into reality. The Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp 7th Annual Conference is Saturday, Aug 14, 2010 at UC Berkeley. For more information and to sign up, visit the Craigslist Foundation website (craigslistfoundation.org/boot-camp).

Thursday August 5, 2010

Youth Activists Share Their Stories

EII Presents… ‘Celebrating Young Activists: Building a Green Movement & Changing the World’, Thursday, August 19, 2010 at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley.

Join us for this thought-provoking conversation with empowered young activists, as they talk about their role in the global youth environmental movement. Featured panelists—Alec Loorz (BYA09), Hai Vo (BYA09), Rachel Barge (BYA07), & Shadia Fayne Wood (BYA04)—all received the Brower Youth Award in the past for their amazing work. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m. Come early to enjoy live jazz music, mingle with young environmental activists, and visit with some of the dynamic Bay Area environmental and social justice organizations engaging this new generation of activists in the Hazel Wolf Gallery of the David Brower Center.

For more information call 510-859-9100. Media Inquiries: Kevin Connelly at press at earthisland.org 510-859-9155.

Thursday July 22, 2010

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