Excited to Be Here!

Hi there!

My name is Brian, and I’m new here. I joined the Journal earlier this month, and I couldn’t be happier. Some of you may recognize me from the work I did as the editor-in-chief of High Country News, an environmental magazine for the Western United States. To most of you, though, I’m probably a stranger. Either way, I thought I would take a moment to explain why I’m so excited to be part of this magazine and its community.

At High Country News, we focused solely on one part of the world, the US West, and as a guy who grew up in Wyoming, I found that work rewarding. However, as a guy who left Wyoming and spent more than a decade abroad as a foreign correspondent, I found the work limiting, as well. The environmental challenges that we are facing are not only daunting; they are interwoven. There is no easy way to separate the drought that is drying up the Colorado River from the heat waves that are pummeling China, France, India, and so many other places. As climate impacts worsen, an understanding of these connections will become increasingly important.

Earth Island Journal offers a great chance to improve this understanding. Here, we explore stories from all corners of the globe, to help connect the dots, and to find solutions to the world’s shared challenges. We try to put diverse ideas in conversation with each other in the hopes that our readers will gain a broader understanding of this small planet, the island we all inhabit. That’s exciting, not just for me, but hopefully all of you at this fraught moment in time. 

We just wrapped up the magazine’s latest issue, a special edition that focuses on urban environments. If you are a subscriber, it will be in your hands soon. If you haven’t subscribed yet, now’s your chance.  

In the weeks and months ahead, I look forward to learning more about you all, just as I look forward to helping bring important stories and ideas to the magazine. I hope that together, we can take on the biggest challenges of the day, and never forget how interconnected we all are. 

Thank you all for reading, and don’t forget to share this newsletter with your colleagues, friends, and anyone else who values environmental news and perspectives from all across the world. 

See you soon!

Brian Calvert
Associate Editor, Earth Island Journal

A Lithium Conflict in Spain

Locals in Spain’s Valdeflores Valley area are opposing plans by an Australian multinational to the mine the region’s lithium deposits, considered to be the largest in Europe. The conflict is one of several in western Spain, as companies eye the region amid a green energy boom.
 

Peru, Post Oil

The oil industry has been the economic engine of the Peruvian Amazon’s Loreto region. Now Loreto, which trails the country in health care and education and is strewn with polluted oilfields, needs to plan for the post-oil era.

Connected Struggles

Last November, a leak at a US Navy fuel storage facility in O‘ahu contaminated the water supply of tens of thousands of citizens across Honolulu and the South Shore. Now the a campaign to shut down the facility is reviving the Hawai‘ian sovereignty movement.

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