Will you chip in to help us meet our goal of raising $1,000 this #GivingTuesday? Every gift helps. Your #GivingTuesday donation will help support 4 waste audits in January 2019. Why waste audits? Because they are a critical first step to designing zero waste solutions that will help cut down on ocean plastic pollution. By sorting through … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
On February 8, I marched through the streets of Sacramento dressed as a whale! Why? To protect our coasts from offshore drilling. I joined over 500 activists and indigenous, environmental, and bipartisan legislative leaders from across California who rallied in Sacramento to protest Trump’s plan to open the state’s coast to offshore oil drilling. (You … Read more
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
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
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
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
Last year, I accompanied Yun Jianli on a surprise visit to a wastewater treatment plant in her hometown Xiangyang in Hubei Province. We were investigating river pollution and asked the plant’s environmental manager to show us the equipment. It was noon, we were standing out in the burning sun, and I was feeling too hot … Read more
The Arctic hosts one of the world’s most productive and most pristine marine environments. An oil spill of heavy fuel oil, which could devastate this fragile world and destroy food sources for arctic communities, is the top threat associated with increased Arctic shipping. Heavy fuel oil is extremely toxic and slow to degrade. Oil spill … Read more
As 2016 ends and we look ahead to the challenges of 2017, I want to pause for a minute and share with you some encouraging news for the future of the Arctic. Pacific Environment has been campaigning for a fossil fuel-free Arctic for nearly a decade, together with many environmental groups, community allies and supporters … Read more
“The anticipated increase in ship traffic in the Arctic is second in magnitude only to the initial arrival of European settlers on our shores.” When my friend Austin Ahmasuk, a leader from Nome, Alaska, said this, it really hit me just how dramatically the world is changing for Arctic indigenous peoples whose lives are inextricably … Read more
Imagine: A local villager admitting that she accepted a color TV from the owner of a factory that is polluting a nearby river. Environmental officials questioning pollution data presented by a local environmental group, shouting, “Where does your data come from? Why is this the first time we are seeing this?” Similar incidents happen all … Read more
