Project News

Earth Island News

Earth Island Institute is proud to announce its two newest projects:

CarbonfreeDC is a grassroots initiative dedicated to mobilizing DC area residents toward one goal: dramatically reducing local carbon emissions. For more information, visit www.carbonfreedc.org.

Fired Up Media is an award-winning network of videographers, photographers, bloggers, and journalists on the front lines of the youth climate movement. For more information, visit www.firedupmedia.com.

Center for Safe Energy supported its partner organization Crude Accountability in a successful bid to win the release of Andrey Zatoka, an environmentalist and civil society leader from Turkmenistan, who was unjustly convicted of assault and sentenced to five years in prison on October 29. The founder of the Dashovuz Ecology Club, one of Turkmenistan’s oldest and most respected environmental nongovernmental organizations, Zatoka is a well-known scientist and advocate on environmental issues. According to Human Rights Watch: “These charges seem unfounded and the trial was patently unfair.” Although his five-year sentence was commuted to a fine, Zatoka was stripped of his Turkmen citizenship and forced to leave the country immediately. For more information about the case, visit www.azatoka.org.

Alec Loorz, the 15-year-old founder of Kids vs. Global Warming and recent Brower Youth Award recipient, went to Congress in November for a press conference with Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry, who are championing legislation to stabilize US greenhouse gas emissions. Loorz told the media and members of Congress that the under-voting-age population of America is very concerned about climate change and needs the country’s politicians to pass the strongest legislation possible. Loorz presented the senators his Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels, signed by 25,000 students. In December, it was on to Copenhagen for Loorz, where he presented the Declaration to international climate negotiators. For more information, visit www.kids-vs-global-warming.com.

The Sustainable World Coalition is set to publish the first national edition of its Sustainable World Source Book, featuring an introduction by renowned environmentalist Paul Hawken. A “user’s manual for the engaged citizen,” the Source Book provides a broad overview of the most important issues and aspects of sustainability with an emphasis on solutions and actions. For more information, visit www.swcoalition.org.

Project Coyote has produced new tools and resources to assist communities with public education and outreach about living with coyotes and other native carnivores. The information can be found here. Also, Project Coyote’s founding director, Camilla Fox, and advisory board member, Dr. Marc Bekoff, have a chapter in the new book New Era for Wolves and People (University of Calgary Press). Published in October, the chapter analyzes the crucial relationship between the management of wolf populations in North America and human ethics, attitudes, and policy. Project Coyote is also working to support the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act (H.R. 3710) in the US House of Representatives. Introduced by Representative Nita Lowey, (D-NY), the bill would effectively ban body-gripping traps from National Wildlife Refuges.

In October, the Center for Ecosystem Restoration (CER) and its partners made the first step toward restoring migratory fish to an important river system in Massachusetts when the organization completed an engineering study that details the costs and benefits of removing three obsolete dams on the Shawsheen River. The Shawsheen is a tributary of the lower Merrimack River, one of New England’s largest and most important watercourses. The study demonstrated that the dam removals will allow migratory fish to pass upstream while avoiding any new flooding problems and eliminating the risks associated with aging dams. This fall, CER and its partners will host several public meetings on the restoration and begin the advanced analysis of the project, which will lead to final engineering and permitting, with the goal of removing the dams in 2011 and 2012. For more information, visit www.ecorestoration.org.

On September 30, 2009, KIDS for the BAY received the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) in the Children’s Environmental Education category. The GEELA recognizes individuals, organizations, and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership for voluntary achievements in conserving California’s resources, protecting and enhancing the environment, and building public-private partnerships. Executive Director Mandi Billinge traveled to Los Angeles to attend the reception, held at the Governor’s Global Climate Summit 2, and accept the award from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. KIDS for the BAY is honored to receive statewide recognition for its work delivering quality environmental and science education to public elementary schools.

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