Why I’m Hopeful

It’s a strange time. And not just the political time we live in. I’m writing from Chongqing, China, where the air quality is wonderful and “healthy” (a green color for those of you familiar with the conventions of air quality maps). And I’m reading about my family and friends in California and the San Francisco … Read more

You Can Help Us Stop Plastic Pollution This Week

This #GivingTuesday, will you help us combat ocean plastic pollution? The holiday season is just around the corner, and I want to invite you to kick it off with us on #GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving and a great opportunity to support a cause close to your heart … Read more

Building Zero Waste Campaigns in Vietnam

Southeast Asia, and especially Vietnam, is becoming the world’s new dumping ground. Following China’s recent import ban on recyclables, the influx of shipments of international plastic waste has been outpacing the construction of recycling facilities, piling up in Vietnam’s ports and triggering a temporary ban on plastic imports this past summer. Will Vietnam hold strong … Read more

Check Out Grassroots Coal Films

Grassroots activists are at the forefront of the fight for a just transition to clean energy. This fight has only become more urgent with the recent U.N. report by climate scientists calling for immediate and radical reduction of carbon pollution worldwide to avert catastrophic climate change. To shine a spotlight on the brave grassroots heroes … Read more

This is What Climate Change Looks Like in Alaska—Right Now

In Utqiaġvik, Alaska, the northernmost community in the United States, last winter’s temperatures were so warm that algorithms in weather monitoring stations were flagging them as false. Biologist Craig George says “the term is no longer ‘climate change’ in Utqiaġvik, it’s ‘climate changed.’” With Alaska and the rest of the Arctic warming twice as fast … Read more

NEWS FROM THE FIELD: Meet the “Plastic Whisperer”

Zhao Zhong can determine any type of plastic simply by touching it. This extraordinary skill earned him the nickname “plastic whisperer” when he was sorting through plastic and other household trash in Ha Long City, Vietnam, last month to help us curb the tsunami of plastic trash choking our oceans. Zhao Zhong, a veteran of … Read more

Lake Baikal Loses a Critical Champion

Ecologist and indigenous activist Sergei Shapkhaev, who galvanized popular support for the world’s largest freshwater lake and protected it from industrial activities, has died in his native Buryatia in southern Siberia at age 71. Longtime friend and fellow activist Anatoly Lebedev says Sergei was “a symbol, an omen, a shamanic totem of Lake Baikal.” Inspiring … Read more

3 Exciting Victories for Arctic Conservation

Does it feel like the Arctic just can’t catch a break these days? Living in Alaska, I see changes to the climate first hand and I hear stories from those living in small communities along the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. I’m bombarded with relentless news coverage reminding me that the Arctic is melting, communities … Read more

A Message from the Arctic

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an environmental, cultural, and human rights advocate from Canada and the former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. She is the author of “The Right to be Cold,” which is the culmination of her work over the last 25 years discussing climate change, leadership, and sustainability in the Arctic. On April 10, … Read more

A Rare Win for Eco-Activists in Siberia

Something unheard of happened in Siberia last month: A district court canceled a permit for a new open-pit coal mine. The big winner? The environment. In 2016, the provincial government in Russia’s Kemerovo region seized agricultural lands from private landowners to hand over to the private coal mining company Stroypozhservice (SPS). Four landowners refused to … Read more

Tell Trump the Arctic Ocean is Not for Sale

The Trump administration is moving forward with its disastrous plan to hand Alaska’s waters over to Big Oil. Its first target? The Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Tell Trump and his administration that you want to #ProtectTheArctic. Located above Northeastern Alaska between Point Barrow and Canada, the Beaufort Sea is experiencing the same decline … Read more

NEWS FROM THE FIELD: The Birth of Russia’s Anti-Coal Movement

Not Sitting on the Fence: A Coal Check-in with Vladimir Slivyak of Ecodefense! The people who live near Berezovsky coal mine are fed up. On February 17, local citizens took to the streets near the Siberian town of Novokuznetsk in the heart of Russia’s famed Kuzbass region, one of the largest coal mining areas in the world. For 10 hours, about 80 people blocked the road to the Berezovsky open-pit coal mine. Five protesters … Read more

NEWS FROM THE FIELD: Offshore Oil Drilling Protests in Anchorage

On February 21, I joined dozens of impassioned Alaskans to protest the Trump administration’s reckless plan to sell nearly all our coastline to Big Oil. Standing outside the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage, I watched through the fog of my breath in the chilly winter evening as Alaska Native activists called the plan a violation of … Read more

Alaskan Voices Will Not Be Silenced By Big Oil

For many Alaskans, the ocean is part of who they are. The state’s 40,000 miles of coastline is dotted with small Alaska Native communities that depend on the marine environment for their way of life. These subsistence hunters catch and harvest fish, polar bear, birds and their eggs, crab, walruses, seals, and whales. These animals are not … Read more

7 Reasons to Ban Heavy Fuel Oil From the Arctic

Despite the seriousness of the threat, the use of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) by ships in the Arctic seems to have escaped the public consciousness and the media. It’s been overshadowed by more dramatic stories like melting glaciers and starving polar bears. But it should be one of the most talked about environmental concerns of … Read more

Our Top 5 of 2017

The most powerful force on Earth is people power. Every day, people around the Pacific Rim who are finding new and creative ways to protect us all from climate breakdown, air pollution, water loss, and plastic waste. Here are five wins that you helped us and our partners on the ground achieve in 2017. We truly couldn’t … Read more

What I’m Fighting for in the Arctic

One of my most cherished gifts given to me is a beautiful sealskin vest made by my grandmother. She was from St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea between Russia and Alaska. There, life continues to be sustained by our traditions of subsistence, with blessed wildlife that has nourished our people for thousands of … Read more

Every Day I Remind Myself Why I’m in This Fight

I’m not going to lie to you. This has been a difficult year. Every day I remind myself why I’m in this fight: my son Paul and my daughter Eleanor. Since they were young, my wife Kim and I have taken them on summer backpacking trips to the Sierras, the Rockies, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, … Read more