The Heart of the Ocean: Alaska’s First National Marine Sanctuary?

A new source of hope for sustainability and Indigenous co-management of natural resources is being developed far off the Alaskan coast. Alaĝum Kanuux̂, or Heart of the Ocean, is set to become Alaska’s first National Marine Sanctuary — a model for truly sustainable co-management of environmental and cultural resources.  In the Bering Sea, 300 miles … Read more

In solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Pacific Environment’s staff and leadership express solidarity with protesters in the Bay Area and everywhere who have taken to the streets over the murder of George Floyd by a police officer who was supposed to protect people. Floyd’s murder, coupled with those of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, and Tony McDade, as well as the racist targeting of … Read more

“No Delays or Softening of Climate Action at California Ports,” Pacific Environment Tells State Authorities

Pacific Environment and Environmental Defense Fund today urge the State of California to move forward overdue climate mitigation and public health measures in California ports. Specifically, we call on the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board to reject several proposals we’ve become aware of asking for delays or roll backs in … Read more

Alaska Natives Lead Conversation Toward a Just Transition

A recent Alaska Native-led statewide gathering in Fairbanks—Kohtr’elneyh Remembering Forward: A Strategic Framework for a Just Transition—explored a hopeful and provocative approach to transforming Alaska’s oil-dependent extractive economy to one that is ecologically sustainable, equitable, and just. The summit centered on learning from the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples—living in balance with the land, adapting … Read more

Decisions in London, Impacts in the Arctic

Earlier this year, Mellisa Maktuayaq Johnson told a room full of international shipping experts in London that “the sea and the land are our store.” Most people in the audience are used to shopping at supermarkets like Safeway or Costco, so it took a moment before they grasped the implications of what they were hearing. … Read more

Local Solutions to Global Plastic Pollution

Yu Jianfeng recently started fighting “white pollution,” as people in China call plastic pollution based on the ubiquity of discarded white plastic bags. “Plastic is a really big problem for rivers,” he said. “It is eaten by fish and other wildlife and its toxic chemicals can move up the food chain. It affects individual species, … Read more

Conservation—It’s about the People

When recently a pod of 100 dolphins swam through Cu Lao Cham Marine Protected Area (MPA) off the coast of Central Vietnam, it got residents and park officials talking. It had been a long time since people spotted marine mammals in the coastal waters. Development and fishing had driven them away. “Maybe a big typhoon … Read more

Three Things I’m Grateful for This Year

Earlier this month, I was in a rural area of China, up in a mountain village whose residents—mostly small-plot farmers and proprietors of small tourist hostels—had agreed to participate in a project to try to reduce the plastic waste of the village. The villagers quickly learned that almost all their waste was plastic waste from … Read more

More Ships, More Risks: How We’re Protecting the Arctic

As Arctic sea ice continues to diminish, more ships are traversing routes that were once death-defying feats. In the last decade, ship traffic through the Bering Strait alone has more than doubled. The Arctic is home to hundreds of communities and tens of thousands of marine mammals like beluga whales, walruses, and seals. All this … Read more

Mapping Carnival’s Destructive Wake

Imagine: Sheer walls of blue ice wedge their way through mountains to meet the sea. Humpback whales rise to the surface to feed on gulps of herring and krill. Seagulls flock to the whales’ cavernous open mouths to snatch a meal. Small coastal communities that live as one with the land and sea. For more … Read more

Celebrate Marine Life with Us this #WorldWildlifeDay!

From the Arctic to Asia Pacific, this year we are celebrating marine life. Check out our new video to see how much our lives depend on healthy oceans. Pacific Environment and our local partners protect critical habitat for marine species in the Arctic and Pacific oceans. We help establish protective zones that allow threatened wildlife … Read more

Ridding the Arctic of the World’s Dirtiest Fuel

We live in remarkable, stressful times. The last five years have been recorded as the five hottest on record, worldwide. Reports are coming in that an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius may come even sooner than we thought. Worrying news is reaching us from the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps, and from the Himalayas, about … Read more

Carnival Corporation cruise ships put Arctic, Subarctic marine mammals at risk, groundbreaking new map shows

SAN FRANCISCO — A groundbreaking new interactive map released today by the international Clean Up Carnival coalition shows that nearly half of Carnival Corporation cruise ships traveling through the Arctic and Subarctic pass near or through critical habitats for marine mammals including orca, walrus, and bowhead, narwhal, and beluga whales. The map details information on … Read more

Do You Want to Help Protect the Arctic?

Last February, Indigenous and environmental allies and I sat at a table in London with international policy makers. We had a proposal between us to protect communities and wildlife in the Bering Strait and Sea from increased ship traffic. At that moment, years of advocacy and community organizing hung by a thread. In a surprise … 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