IslandWire is our bi-weekly e-newsletter. Sign up at the bottom of this page for the latest campaign and events updates, news, and calls to action from Earth Island’s global network of environmental projects.
Earth Island Journal's Autumn 2018 issue — a special edition exploring the intersections between the environment and women's rights — is now out on newsstands. The extended, 68-page issue — which includes reportage and personal reflections by environmental journalists, writers, and well-known activists, such as Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Leonard, Kathleen Dean Moore, Osprey Orielle Lake, and Kandi White — not only highlights the challenges women face in the environmental movement, but also celebrates women's leadership and explores ways in which our movement can be a stronger champion of women's rights. We will be rolling out articles from the issue starting next week. In the meantime, subscribe to the Journal or buy a digital copy of the special issue. Help us produce more intersectional issues like this one by making a donation to our Green Journalism Fund today!
Ursula Rakova, co-founder of Earth Island's Climate Wise Women, has been named as one of 22 Climate Trailblazers by the Global Climate Action Summit, to be held in San Francisco from September 12 to 14. Climate Trailblazers are individuals from around the world who represent both emerging and established voices on climate change action, activism, and ambition. Rakova serves as the executive director for Tulele Peisa, a community-based organization responsible for the voluntary relocation, due to climate change impacts, of the Carteret Islanders to Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. In September 2014, Ursula was awarded the UNDP Equator Initiative Award for building local solutions to climate change and displacement.
EII's Conservation Kids is sponsoring a free conservation photography workshop for teenagers, ages 13 to 18, at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center on September 16 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Participants will get to use professional camera gear as part of the program. The event is free and participants must register prior to the event. Learn more and download the registration packet here.
Back for its second year, EII's Real Food Real Stories' StorySlam 2018: Rooted and Rising promises to be an evening of delicious food, connection, and powerful authentic storytelling from our Bay Area food community. Emceed by Jocelyn Jackson of People's Kitchen Collective, the storyteller lineup for the evening includes Francis Ang (Pinoy Heritage), Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski (State Bird Provisions), Amisha Gurbani (The Jam Lab), and more. Although General Admission is sold out, there is still a need for volunteers! If you are interested, please fill out this form.
Registration is open for KIDS for the BAY's 2018-2019 Programs for Schools! Our students will create models of the San Francisco Bay, investigate real striped bass fish and Dungeness crabs, plant native plants along local creeks to help restore riparian habitats, discover the animals and plants that live in creek, bay, and ocean habitats in engaging field trips and much more! The program tunes school students into science, connect them with nature, empowers them to become active environmentalists, and provides professional development for classroom teachers. All programs support Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core Curriculum. Learn more about the program.
Earth Island's New Leaders Initiative has just announced the 2018 Brower Youth Awards winners! Read all about this year's inspiring recipients, and join us in celebrating them at the 19th Annual Brower Youth Awards ceremony on October 16 in San Francisco's beautiful Herbst Theater. Tickets to the ceremony are FREE. You are also invited to meet the BYA winners at a special reception preceding the awards ceremony. Register for your free awards ticket and purchase your reception ticket today.
Bay Area Wilderness Training is looking for a new team member! The Earth Island project's mission is to create equitable access to outdoor experiences for youth of color and low-income youth. BAWT envisions a world where all youth have access to the wilderness. The Program Associate will directly report to the BAWT gear library & operations manager and will support ongoing operations of the Oakland, San Francisco, and South Bay (Milpitas) outdoor equipment gear libraries. The highest level of independence is expected. Initiative and a proactive approach are a must. Looking for someone to start immediately. Learn more about the position here.
Get the latest environmental news from Earth Island Journal. Here are our favorite stories from the last two weeks:
Most Popular: Aboriginal Elders Face Off with Uranium Mining Co. in the Australian Outback. Reporter Elizabeth Murray updates us on Australia's indigenous Tjiwarl people's long running battle to protect their ancestral homeland in the Western Desert from mining interests.
Editors' Pick: A Tale of Two Whales. Writer and conservationist Helen Raine narrates how her recent trip to Baja California drove home the perils of irresponsible whale watching.
In a one-two punch, the US Environmental Protection Agency recently published two rules that will severely threaten the US' ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. First, EPA is proposing to roll back rules that would have required automakers to nearly double the fuel economy of passenger vehicles to an average of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. The EPA is also proposing to revoke California's waiver, which allows it to set its own vehicle pollution standards. Comments on this proposal are due October 2, 2018. Second, EPA just released its proposed replacement for the Clean Power Plan, the United States' hallmark carbon emissions regulation. EPA's proposal is significantly less stringent than the Clean Power Plan and, according to EPA's own estimates, will lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 from an increase in the extremely fine particulate matter. Comments on this proposal are due October 30, 2018.
Earth Island Journal is proud to be a media partner of the annual San Francisco Green Film Festival that kicks off in the city today. This year's lineup includes a powerful film about threats to Botswana's Okavango Delta, a documentary about the Indigenous movement for climate justice, and an inspiring film about the first solar-powered flight around the world. On September 9, Journal Editor Maureen Nandini Mitra will host a conversation following the world premiere of STROOP: Journey into the Rhino Horn War — a hair-raising documentary that takes viewers to the frontlines of the war against poaching — at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. View the full screening calendar and get your tickets today.