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Celebrate Earth Day with Us!

In celebration of Earth Day tomorrow, April 22, Earth Island Institute will be a community partner of the Wild & Scenic Film Festival taking place in person and virtually at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. Don’t miss this year’s top films on environmental activism and outdoor adventure! The films explore the topics of nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture, and more. Check out the festival trailer here. Use discount code WSFFEI to receive $5 off your ticket. Proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to Earth Island.

Tickets

2022 Grassroots Accelerator for Women Leaders

For the past three years, Earth Island’s Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) has been spearheading a successful accelerator program in the United States to catalyze the critical efforts of women leaders who have stepped forward to protect our families, communities, and ecosystems from climate threats. The program is designed for seasoned leaders who have projects well underway that they’re looking to expand or deepen in impact. Through this program, the work of 88 women leaders has reached more than three million people thus far. Applications are open until May 20 for this year’s U.S. Grassroots Accelerator. If you or a leader you know are ready to scale your initiative for environmental and climate justice, apply or nominate a leader here.

Report on Campus Land Management

Earth Island’s Herbicide-Free Campus has just released a groundbreaking report on the current status of collegiate land-care practices. The State of Ecological Campus Land Management Across the U.S. examines the costs and benefits of transitioning from conventional land care rooted in synthetic pesticides to organic land care. Based on interviews and survey data, the report shows that transitioning to organic land care can save water and money. It also highlights best practices currently implemented by colleges across the country that are spearheading the movement to organic land care. Photo courtesy of Cascadia College.

Growth in Outdoor Learning

Earth Island’s Green Schoolyards America (GSA) has always been hard at work but their efforts over the past two years of the pandemic to support educators and students with outdoor learning options have been heroic. The result is a growing nationwide network of tools and practices to support learning outdoors during the pandemic and beyond. Coming up, GSA will be co-presenting a four-part webinar series featuring the country’s leading experts in outdoor learning. GSA also offers ongoing “Community of Practice” sessions to foster a space in which education leaders and advocates can learn, share, and network. And since May is International School Grounds Month and Living Schoolyards Month, GSA invites you to celebrate by trying the activities in their schoolyard activity guides.

Turn Eco-Anxiety into Eco-Action

Every day we are faced with news of climate change, the global plastics crisis, depletion of the rainforest, and more. With so many imminent threats to our environment happening all at once, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Join Earth Island’s Plastic Pollution Coalition on April 27 for a special webinar on how to turn climate anxiety into climate action. Moderated by Heather White, CEO and co-founder of One Green Thing and author of One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet, the webinar will also include Maya Penn, three-time TED speaker and CEO of Maya’s Ideas, and Dr. Britt Wray, Human and Planetary Health Fellow, Stanford University, and author of Generation Dread. Register here.

Register

Best Wishes to Climate Action Now

Over the past 40 years in our role as a fiscal sponsor, Earth Island has championed more than 200 projects within the organization and celebrated those that went on to form their own nonprofits. We are pleased to announce that one of our projects, Climate Action Now!, which works on planting trees and pollinator gardens to cultivate habitat and capture greenhouse gases, is bursting out of its seed coat and becoming an independent organization. We wish them the best on their journey forward. Stay in touch on their progress here. Photo of the school garden at James Lick Middle School in San Francisco, one of the project’s 19 school gardens.

News Flash

Earth Island projects in the media:

• Could rethinking food culture transform our world? In Nonprofit Quarterly, Jovida Ross and Shizue Roche Adachi with Earth Island’s Real Food Real Stories, and Julie Quiroz of New Moon Collaborations, dive into the ways food-culture work offers a dynamic and intersectional approach to addressing the most critical issues of our time. Read the article here.
• Lisa Owens Viani and Allen Fish, co-founders of Raptors Are the Solution, were recently interviewed on the Sustainable World Radio podcast about raptors and the impacts of anticoagulant rodenticides (rat poisons) on non-target animals, including raptors, bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, bears, and fish. Listen to the interview here. And Lisa Owens Viani was recently profiled in Counterpunch. Read the profile here.