Sign Up for IslandWire

It’s back-to-school season when our focus naturally turns toward the next generation. Education plays a critical role in shaping engaged citizens and dedicated stewards of our natural world. Watching students return to the classroom is also a reminder of our shared obligation to leave behind a planet where they can thrive. Our work at Earth Island is fundamentally an investment into their future; we’re fighting for the healthy ecosystems and resilient communities they deserve to inherit. Read this month’s IslandWire to discover how our network is supporting environmental education and empowering young leaders who will carry this vital work forward.

Join us on Thursday, September 17, at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California, for a lively Earth Island Journal salon featuring Annie Leonard and Jason Dove Mark, moderated by Editor-in-Chief Maureen Nandini Mitra. The longtime environmental activists, authors, and thinkers will discuss how independent journalism and storytelling serve as antidotes to historical and environmental amnesia and can inspire action in times of rapid change. Details here.

This year’s Brower Youth Awards ceremony for environmental leadership is scheduled for Monday, October 19, at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. Join us in celebrating six bold young environmentalists from across North America who are working to build a more sustainable and just world. Registration details coming soon. Learn more about the program.

Under the Trump administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has begun a review of California’s Coastal Management Program with the aim of undermining the state’s authority to safeguard its 840-mile shoreline. As part of the review, the federal government is seeking public input on offshore oil drilling, pipeline infrastructure, desalination, undersea cables, deep-sea mining, spaceport development, and other projects that could shape the future of California’s coast. Help defend California’s coastline and its thriving marine economy by adding your comments to the Federal Register by August 22. See sample language from Shark Stewards.

She Builds Power just completed an ambitious challenge: the 7 Wells in 7 Weeks campaign. Across 23 villages in Kenya and Uganda, women trained by She Builds Power led their communities in constructing seven wells to bring safe spring water to 9,327 people. But the real goal was bigger than infrastructure development. The project helped women gain technical skills, mobilize their communities, work with traditional and government leaders, and run the builds themselves. The impact of this work is already rippling out: Some of the women are planning their next wells to construct. That’s what happens when we don’t just build wells but also build local power. Watch a 15-minute campaign wrap-up.

Project Coyote’s Keeping It Wild program inspires the next generation of wildlife advocates. Designed for K-8 classrooms, this education initiative gives teachers free open-access curricula on foxes, coyotes, wolves, and other wild carnivores. Lesson plans are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards and designed to promote empathy, scientific literacy, and compassionate coexistence. From the Wild for Wolves unit to Fascinated by Foxes and Curious About Coyotes, students learn how misunderstood species shape healthy ecosystems, and they gain tools to think critically and act on behalf of their wild neighbors. This is science-based hope for a more coexistent future.

While artificial intelligence (AI) is often framed as a digital revolution, its foundations are deeply material. As the world experiences a rapid digital transition driven by the development of AI, the unevenly-regulated expansion is creating multiple layers of risk for Indigenous Peoples. These range from mineral extraction and water depletion to concerns around Indigenous data sovereignty, intellectual property, surveillance, and exclusion from decision-making. In a new article, SIRGE Coalition’s Bryan Bixcul and Tallgrass Institute’s Nalori Chakma explore AI’s mineral footprint and raise important questions about the need for AI governance that respects Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Read the article here.

Clen Moore Head Start in Coldwater, Mississippi, shows how a little funding combined with dedicated educators and community support can offer wonderful farm-to-ECE (early care and education) opportunities for young learners. In January, the childcare center joined Mississippi Farm to School Network’s Mississippi Sprouts program — which connects children in ECE settings with fresh local food, hands-on gardening, and nutrition education. With assistance from the program, Clen Moore transformed its empty garden beds into a thriving veggie patch, where more than 100 students have harvested cabbage, tomatoes, and other fresh produce. Director Phyllis Sanford says the garden has become a source of joy for students, families, and community partners alike. Learn more.

The ALERT Project’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to strengthen rules governing the use of chemical dispersants during oil spill response could be the tipping point for creating safer products. The EPA’s recently-updated list of oil spill response products includes just six dispersants and washing agents, as opposed to the 130-plus clean-up products — including over 20 dispersants — that used to be on the list. ALERT is currently challenging three of those six for not truthfully reporting the known or anticipated impacts of dispersant use on people and wildlife, as is required by the rules. (The others were listed after ALERT’s complaint was filed.) Read more here.

Riki Ott, director of Ultimate Civics, was recently interviewed in the latest edition of Ralph Nader’s newspaper, Capitol Hill Citizen, which hits the desk of every member of Congress in Washington, DC. In the interview, Ott shares her inspiration, the history of her game-changing advocacy, and how Ultimate Civics’ unique curriculum — which weaves information about the rise of power and wealth imbalances into standard-aligned civics education — is inspiring youth to shape their own futures. Learn more about Ultimate Civics’ bipartisan, innovative, solution-oriented, and project-based lessons on its America 250 blog, and read Ott’s interview here.

Earth Island Institute is pleased to welcome its newest project: Mineral Rights Action Network (MRAN). Led by co-coordinators Lauren Tatarsky and Don McCown, MRAN is a national organizing project that aims to activate oil and gas mineral rights owners across the United States to join grassroots movements fighting fossil fuels. The network, which kicked off in the summer of 2024, is run by owners of oil-and-gas mineral rights who recognize the untapped potential of often conflicted and immobilized owners who care about climate change and the ecological and human injustices wrought by the oil industry.

As part of its mission to provide guidance to optimize beneficial partnership and engagement with Indigenous Peoples, Tallgrass Institute now offers its Free, Prior and Informed Consent Due Diligence Questionnaire in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and French. Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) flows from Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination and protects their decision-making power on matters related to their land, resources, and ways of life. Indigenous Peoples define the processes and protocols that companies and governments should use when seeking their FPIC. The questionnaire exposes potential harms to Indigenous Peoples as well as project risks that could affect a company’s success. Learn more here.