When U.S. President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met a few days ago to ratify and affirm the climate commitments they made in Paris, that rightly got the big headlines. But the agreements of Paris grew from the work in the trenches, done in the years preceding, by hundreds and thousands of organizations and … Read more
With the Paris climate conference only a month away, the world is getting into gear to address many serious global issues on an international scale. During the climate talks, Pacific Environment will be hosting The Cost of Coal, a film festival that highlights the negative environmental, health, and social impacts caused by the world’s ravenous appetite … Read more
The Amur River is the largest, still free-flowing river in Asia, and its basin the most biodiverse region in Russia. But its vast forests, wetlands, and steppes, as well as its endemic tigers, leopards, cranes, and bears are threatened by a voracious demand for energy and natural resources. Drawing on lessons learned over the past … Read more
It has been a banner year for us and our local partners on the frontlines of environmental justice around the Pacific Rim. Here are seven accomplishments I’m especially proud of; they would not have been possible without your support. Preserving Untouched Wilderness The Russian Far East is a region of unparalleled wilderness, rich in … Read more
Russia’s Far East and Arctic are regions of unparalleled wilderness, rich in biodiversity and vast intact ecosystems. The region is also home to dozens of indigenous cultures, endangered wildlife, and forests so vast they are only rivaled by the Amazon’s. Over the past two years, Pacific Environment has worked with dozens of community leaders, conservationists, … Read more
In late September, about 35,000 walrus crowded together on a beach in northwest Alaska. This was not an isolated incident, but its sheer size attracted a lot of media attention. It clearly showed that climate change is severely altering walrus behavior. These walrus haul-outs are happening on both sides of the Bering Strait. Pacific Environment’s … Read more
With all of the negative attention Russia is receiving in the news lately, it’s easy to overlook the many inspiring people who are fighting for social and environmental justice in Russia. One such courageous activist is Suren Gazaryan, winner of a 2014 Goldman Environmental Prize for challenging government corruption and environmental degradation—at great personal risk. … Read more
For generations, indigenous groups have been battling governments to protect their sacred lands. Danil Mamyev, a Pacific Environment partner and founder of the Uch-Enmek Nature Park in Russia’s Altai region, and Caleen Sisk, chief of the Winnemum Wintu tribe in northern California, are the key figures in a new documentary by Sacred Lands Film Project. … Read more
First published in the Huffington Post On March 25, 2014, my Huffington Post blog, Will the U.S. Fund Russian Gas Exports?, reported on the U.S. Government’s consideration of funding for the enormous and environmentally harmful Yamal liquid natural gas (Yamal LNG) export project in the Russian Arctic. I questioned whether the U.S. government should subsidize … Read more
First published in the Huffington Post As the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine grows, Western governments are talking tough about sanctions against Russia. President Obama and the European Union have now leveled sanctions against Russian and Crimean political figures and a bank, but not yet against other companies. As Rachel Maddow points out, with these sanctions, … Read more
First published on Rivers without Boundaries On March 14, 2014, at public hearings in the town of Mogocha, located in Zabaikalsky Province in eastern Russia near the border of China, local people endorsed an ambitious plan to develop a nature reserve on 330,000 hectares. This protected area is being designed to safeguard the upper flow of … Read more
A few months ago we told you about a great victory for the Western Gray Whale: Shell Oil and Russian oil giant Gazprom scrapped its plan to build an oil drilling platform in the middle of the whales’ summer feeding ground. Now, I’m happy to tell you that there has been another win in our … Read more
It’s official, and I’m jumping with joy. We protected one of the planet’s most endangered whale populations from additional oil drilling near Sakhalin Island in the Russian sub-Arctic. Sakhalin Energy, a conglomerate led by Shell Oil and Russia’s Gazprom, asked for two new oil drilling platforms that would have threatened the primary feeding ground of the last … Read more
Pacific Environment learned today that joint venture partners Royal Dutch Shell and Gazprom scrapped plans for two offshore platforms for Sakhalin II, an enormous sub-Arctic oil and gas project off the coast of Sakhalin Island in Russia.
After years of local and international resistance, Russia’s oil giant Gazprom finally abandoned plans to build a gas pipeline that threatened indigenous cultural sites and untouched wilderness in the Altai Republic in Siberia. In the last decade, the construction of multi-national pipelines has received worldwide attention—the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline in the U.S. … Read more
Perhaps helped along by the foul odor emanating from the notorious Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev announced on a recent visit that the hugely unpopular plant on Lake Baikal’s shore will finally close. Medvedev’s announcement is a big win in the decades-long battle fought by Pacific Environment and other international … Read more
Pacific Environment brought together conservationists from Russia and the United States to protect two of the world’s most important freshwater lake ecosystems from hydropower damage. The North American Great Lakes form the largest group of freshwater lakes on earth. Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, Russia, is the world’s deepest lake at 5,387 ft. and likely … Read more
Pacific Environment is proud to announce the winner of the 2013 Whitley Award – our own Eugene Simonov. The award is well deserved; it recognizes Eugene’s talent, years of hard work, dedication, and his tremendous impact on the environment in his community and beyond. Eugene joined Pacific Environment as the Conservation Science Specialist in February 2013 … Read more
Centuries ago, European settlers stumbled upon the New World, a pristine world teaming with wildlife and abundance. Immediately the race was on to exploit these resources which were thought to be limitless. We now know what happened to the great northern forests, the prairie, the buffalo and the Native Americans who depended on the environment … Read more
Sakhalin Island, sometimes called “The Edge of the Earth” lies off the coast of Russia and just north of Japan and looks out onto the vast Pacific Ocean. The beautiful island is already home to two large-scale oil extraction projects led by Exxon, Shell, and Gazprom, with highly detrimental effects on the ocean and wildlife … Read more