Bluewater Blocks Chevron!
After a series of explosions shut down several Chevron refineries, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) granted Chevron an emergency variance to sell up to 3.5 million barrels of "dirty" gasoline in California. Bluewater Network (BWN) and Communities for a Better Environment filed suit, charging that CARB's closed-door decision violated state laws and created a dangerous precedent of profits- over-environment. Faced with an environmental lawsuit, CARB moved to place a 15-cent levy on every gallon of Chevron's sub-par gas. Its profits at risk, Chevron suddenly was able to find sufficient quantities of clean gas from out-of-state. "This is a victory for clean air," declared BWN's Brooke Coleman. "We hope Chevron and CARB learned a lesson." In other news, Bluewater convinced the US Senate to pass a resolution banning the use of the toxic fuel additive MTBE.

Think Globally, Hire Locally
Earth Island's Global Service Corps (GSC) has hired two local activists to run its programs in Kenya - Kay Marten and Eddie Mwanzia. GSC has launched two major programs: the Kenya Sustainable Agriculture Program (KSAP) and the Global CPR Service Corps. KSAP teaches biointensive agriculture to community members in Kenya's Western Province. (GSC's sustainable agriculture model program launched in 1996 is now being replicated in Kibwezi in Kenya's Eastern Province.) The Global CPR Service Corps (Conservation, Preservation and Restoration) realizes a long-held dream of Earth Island Founder David Brower, who has committed $10,000 of his $421,000 1998 Blue Planet Prize to help GSC set up US volunteers to work on CPR projects in Kenya. Brower has dedicated a second $10,000 to establish a CPR program in Costa Rica.

The Brower Fund
David Brower is working with labor unions to oppose oppressive moves by the World Trade Organization (see "The Houston Principles" in this issue). Dave has written the foreword to an exquisite collection of nature/spirit writings called The Sacred Earth (New World Library, Novato, CA 1998, 172 pp, $12.98). "This book is no substitute for being outside," begins Brower. Then he goes on to praise the passages by 60 nature writers whose words delve into experience, practice and belief that link surroundings and soul. In August, Dave was elected to the Sierra Club's Conservation Governance Committee.

ReThink Paper
RTP is proud to announce The Tool Box [www.rethinkpaper.org], an interactive website created to provide a comprehensive overview of ecological paper options. The Tool Box contains an on-line lexicon of the paper industry's specialized symbols and terms and offers an ecological action plan for paper users to adopt before their next paper purchase. The on-line Tool Box was created by the talented website design firm, Stoneground Solutions [www.stoneground.com].

The Sacred Land Film Project
SLFP has been awarded a completion grant from the Public Broadcasting System. The funds assure completion of SLFP's In the Light of Reverence, a two-part, two-hour documentary on Native American struggles to protect three critical spiritual sites - Mt. Shasta in California, Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and the Four Corners area of the Southwest. Check the EII website for broadcast schedule announcements. Visit their website [www.sacredland.org].

China Biodiversity Network
CBN is working with the University of California at Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group to conduct renewable energy demonstration projects in Lige, a village in Yunnan, China. Energy audits will assess sustainable energy options - small hydroelectric, solar electric and wind - for cooking, heating and lighting. Also involved: the China Exploration Research Society, the Yunnan Geography Institute, and staff and students at the Yunnan University. Visit their website [www.earthisland.org/cbn].

Net Profits
You can buy anything from art for your wall to toys for your bulldog online at Shop2Give [www.shop2give.com] and have a percentage of your tab go to Earth Island! Tell your friends about this cyber-store that lets you earmark your favorite 501(c)3 for a "green kickback." You also can help EII every time you buy a book through our on-line EII Bookstore. You'll be linked to Amazon.com, where we've assembled a list of Dave Brower's ten favorite titles. Order a book from "Dave's Top Ten List" and EII receives 15 percent of the sale price. Other EII Bookstore orders return 5 percent to Earth Island. But remember: patronize your local independent community bookstores first!

Fits to a T
Earth Island's new T-shirts are in and, for the first time, they are made from 100 percent organic cotton. These shirts (courtesy of environmental shirt king Jim Morris) are available for $14 (plus $3.50 shipping and handling). Checks payable to Earth Island may be sent to EII's Karen Gosling.

John Muir Project
Director Chad Hanson and Dave Brower challenged the advocates of the pro-logging Quincy Library Act in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times. Brower and Hansen argued that the Quincy "compromise" (which supposedly found common ground between the logging industry and the environmental community) would nearly "double current logging levels ... in the northern Sierra Nevada." US Forest Service studies have determined that such large-tree logging "has increased fire severity more than any other recent hu-man activity." Heeding such warnings, nearly 70 congressmembers have co-signed the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act (HR 1396), which would halt timber sales on public lands and channel tax subsidies from corporate timber barons to communities. "It's about time," Brower and Hanson wrote. "As a nation, we are not so poor that we must log our national forests, nor so rich that we can afford to."

The Borneo Project
The Borneo Project has just released a new CD featuring a selection of traditional Kayan songs from the Borneo rainforests. Copies of Music from the Forest are available with a donation of $60 or more to The Borneo Project [1916 A, MLK Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, (510) 705-8987]. Proceeds go to the Uma Bawang Residents' Association in Borneo. Visit their website [www.earthisland.org/borneo].