Bouquets for Brower: In October, EII founder Dave Brower traveled to Japan to receive The Asahi Glass Foundation's Blue Planet Prize. Dave was accompanied by Brower Fund Director Mikhail Davis, former Director Chris Franklin and Dave's son, author Ken Brower. Press conferences, interviews and a few cocktail parties offered Dave the opportunity to inspire Japan's environmental community and encourage Japan's corporate community to follow his example. Dave Brower and centenarian eco-activist Hazel Wolf were both included among the 20th century's 100 Environmental Heroes in the 75th anniversary issue of Audubon magazine.

Jetskis Beached: Last year, Bluewater Network's (BWN) campaigns resulted in jetski bans in the city of San Francisco as well as in five National Parks - Golden Gate National Recreational Area, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Everglades, Olympic and Grand Canyon. BWN's work also led to proposed regulations to reduce Volatile Organic Chemical emissions in California by over 100 tons a day - one of the largest reductions in the history of the California Air Resources Board and the equivalent of removing more than four million cars from the roads. BWN warned a Congressional hearing that inadequate tanker construction rules threatened another Exxon Valdez oil spill. Bluewater's accomplishments were celebrated on National Public Radio, German Public Radio and in the Detroit News, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Montreal Press.

Journal Wins Leadership Award: In December, the American Institute of Graphic Artists' presented its Environmental Leadership Award to Earth Island Journal. Honorable mentions went to the Public Media Center, Tim Hamilton (organizer of a national tree-free paper event) and Mitchell Mauck for the design of a fish-shaped cover for storm drains. The Journal also was nominated for the Tenth Annual Utne Reader Alternative Press Award (for Best Scientific and Environmental Reporting). The Journal won this award last year.

Ecological Paper Cooperative Formed: ReThink Paper (RTP) and the Independent Press Association (IPA) have announced a joint effort - Printing Alternatives Promoting Environmental Responsibility (PAPER) - to form an ecological paper purchasing cooperative for progressive publishers. The next step: a national ecological purchasing program to increase the use and lower the cost of ecologically preferable papers.

Tibetan Plateau Project (TPP) Director Justin Lowe was a presenter at the First International Congress on Tibetan Medicine in Washington, DC last November. The event featured an address by the Dalai Lama and presentations by experts from the US, Europe, India, Tibet and Mongolia. Lowe participated in a day-long seminar on Tibetan environmental issues and Tibetan medicine, and joined other environmentalists and traditional healers in a discussion of the use of endangered species in Tibetan medicine. Lowe won support for plans to develop a medicinal plant conservation project in cooperation with Tibetan doctors and local villagers in the Himalayan region of Nepal.

Tagatay Diary: Among the 100 delegates from 31 countries attending the International Conference on Alternatives to Globalization in Tagaytay City in the Philippines last November was Henry Holmes, director of Sustainable Alternatives to the Global Economy (SAGE). Holmes reports that it was "an extraordinary experience to be in a conference of this nature that was not dominated by Europeans and Americans, but that was truly international in scope, with people of color being in the majority… a true reflection of the world."

Service to Kenya: In November, Jamie Kemsey left for Kenya to serve as Global Service Corps' new In-country Coordinator. GSC's volunteer service program focuses on teaching HIV/AIDS awareness to school children and community groups in Kibwezi and surrounding villages in eastern Kenya. Jamie will be working with Kenyans and other foreign volunteers to secure a just and sustainable future for Africa. In Costa Rica, GSC will begin collaborating with communities along the Nicoya Peninsula, a move that will bring GSC's volunteers to a more remote area where their services will have a greater effect.

The Orca Update: IMMP's Mark Berman reports that Keiko (the star of the Free Willy movies) is now using ecolocation to find and feed on free-swimming fish in his Icelandic sea pen. Keiko has become more independent and "is ignoring his human trainers more as his wild instincts kick in. He is a totally different whale than he was in Oregon." Keiko has been visited by pinnipeds and pilot whales and other orcas may begin to visit when the herring run begins. Berman and IMMP Project Director David Phillips were featured speakers at January's Whales Alive Conference in Maui, Hawai'i.

Working those Assets: Working Assets, the activist phone company, featured both Bluewater Network and the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) in action advisories included in their customers' phone bills last year. Bluewater's campaign to ban jetskis in National Parks and IMMP's campaign to halt construction of a Mitsubishi salt plant in Mexico's San Ignacio Lagoon (Summer 98 EIJ) received an outpouring of support from Working Assets customers. Past alerts have generated as many as 50,000 calls and letters in support of featured projects. And, thanks to a $4,100 grant from working Assets, this issue of Earth Island Journal is being printed entirely on tree-free paper.

The Yggdrasil Institute is monitoring a disturbing development in the uranium enrichment industry. Last summer, in the largest privatization in US history, shares of the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) were sold to the public. This unprecedented action threatens to depress market prices of uranium and jeopardize the US-Russia agreement to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles by recycling uranium as a civilian reactor fuel. Yggdrasil is preparing a series of reports assessing the effects of USEC's privatization on the US-Russia uranium deal and also analyzing the implications of AVLIS, a new enrichment technology.

Deadly Trade: A new Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP) booklet, Slain by Trade, analyzes the World Trade Organization's attack on the US law that protects endangered sea turtles from drowning in shrimp nets. The STRP report concludes that the global trading system threatens environmental sustainability. Included are resource lists and action tips. Slain by Trade is available from STRP (415) 488-0370.

Visit Earth Island's website to learn about Earth Island Institute's many projects and campaigns. You can read lengthier versions of Earth Island Journal articles, send letters to the editor and even suggest story ideas for future issues. And if you buy books through our web link to amazon.com, a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit EII programs!