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Earth Island Announces Brower Youth Award Winners

The New Leaders Initiative of Earth Island Institute recently announced the six recipients of this year’s Brower Youth Awards. The winners will be honored at an in-person ceremony at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California, on October 18. This is the 23rd year of the annual Brower Youth Awards, the premier environmental youth award in the country. From local restoration initiatives to divestment campaigns, this year’s awardees are tackling some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. Learn more about the winners and get your free tickets to the ceremony by visiting the New Leaders Initiative website.

Victory: Louisiana Judge Denies Permits for Massive Petrochemical Plant

Yesterday, in a major legal victory for environmental justice activists, a judge in Louisiana reversed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s decision to issue air permits that Formosa Plastics needed to build its proposed petrochemical complex in St. James Parish. “Stopping Formosa Plastics has been a fight for our lives, and today David has toppled Goliath,” said Sharon Lavigne, founder and president of RISE St. James, a project of Earth Island Institute. “The judge’s decision sends a message to polluters like Formosa that communities of color have a right to clean air, and we must not be sacrifice zones.” Read more about this victory here. Photograph of Sharon Lavigne by Brad Zweerink/Earthjustice.

Urban Futures

The Autumn 2022 issue of Earth Island Journal is out. Don't miss the great selection of articles and essays in this special extended edition that explores a wide range of issues and solutions related to cities and their environmental impact. We look at how urban centers across the world are being reconfigured to put people in better relation with each other, and with nature. We explore ideas around affordable transit, retrofitted infrastructure, zero-waste initiatives, tree cover, the will of water, urban bioregions, and more. Read it here — and please consider subscribing to support independent environmental journalism.

Berkeley Bird Festival

Earth Island’s California Institute for Community, Art & Nature is teaming up once again with the Golden Gate Audubon Society and the University of California, Berkeley, for the Berkeley Bird Festival, a free, all-day event on October 16 to celebrate the magical presence of birds in our lives. Diverse activities include bird walks, sidewalk chalk drawing of birds, and a children’s bird costume contest and parade on Solano Avenue. Additionally, the David Brower Center in Berkeley will offer multiple activities throughout the day. More information here.

Green Schoolyards Protect Children and Mitigate Climate Change

Earth Island’s Green Schoolyards America (GSA) recently announced the launch of the California Schoolyard Forest System, a statewide initiative to increase tree canopy on public school grounds to shade and protect PK-12 students from extreme heat and rising temperatures due to climate change. And in related news, California recently approved an unprecedented investment of $150 million over the next three years to create green schoolyards and schoolyard forests at K-12 schools across the state. GSA helped advocate for this investment on behalf of California’s 10,000 schools and 6 million children.

Coral Reef Protection in Malaysia

This week in Malaysia, Earth Island’s Stop Fish Bombing (SFB) is collaborating with the World Wildlife Federation-Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) to protect coral reefs around Mabul Island, a fish-bombing hotspot. By using SFB’s bomb detection technology, marine conservation teams with WWF-Malaysia will be able to more accurately and quickly locate reefs that need to be restored after being blasted by fish bombers. Time is of the essence since coral reefs have a short window in which restoration efforts can work. This new video explains the illegal practice of fish bombing and SFB’s technology. Fish bombing has been reduced by 60-70 percent in areas where SFB’s arrays are deployed.

Building Oyster Reefs in San Francisco Bay

The San Francisco Bay is welcoming a new oyster reef. Dixon Marine Services, under contract with the Port of San Francisco, recently installed 60 oyster reef balls (ORBs) in the waters off Heron’s Head Park to help protect the shoreline and restore the ecosystem (an ORB can be seen on the right side of the boat in the photo). Each ORB contains bags of oyster shells that were collected, cleaned, cured, and bagged by Earth Island’s Wild Oyster Project and their incredible volunteers. This reef is part of a larger shoreline protection and restoration project funded by local measures and carried out by a coalition of government agencies and organizations.

Shark Stewards Advocates for Sharks and Rays at CITES COP19

In November, Earth Island’s Shark Stewards will join an international coalition advocating for increased protections for sharks and rays under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) in Panama. Working with the Shark Research Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the group proposes that all hammerhead sharks, all requiem sharks, and all guitarfish be listed under a regulatory category to help ensure the viability of these species. The sharks are widely impacted by the lucrative shark fin trade. Many of the proposed species are critically endangered and even facing imminent extinction. Learn more here. Image courtesy of CITES.

Maximizing Food for Your Budget, Health, Community, and the Planet

Join Food Shift, a project of Earth Island Institute, and community partner StopWaste on a virtual tour and cooking demonstration on how to take climate action by reducing food waste at home. Food Shift will share the process behind its food recovery and redistribution program, Operation Together. Chef Jen, culinary director of Food Shift, will also demonstrate how to make the most of the food you have at home through recipe templates and simple tips and substitutions adaptable for any ingredients or skill level. Register here for this free event on September 22, 12:00-1:00 p.m. PDT.

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Coyote-Friendly Communities Making a Difference

A program developed by Earth Island’s Project Coyote is making a difference in communities that are striving to create positive coexistence between humans and wildlife. In Massachusetts, a Project Coyote representative shares his story of working with local animal control officers on the rescue of four coyote pups. And in Marin County, California, Project Coyote participated with Marin Humane and Marin County Parks in this educational presentation on coexisting with coyotes. Project Coyote’s Coyote-Friendly Communities (CFC) equips communities across the country with coexistence tools, and their newly formed partnership with the National Animal Care & Control Association is propelling CFC to reach an even wider audience, including animal control officers.