Through the hard work of the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) and generous grants from the Juan Young Trust and the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District both our documentary, “Beyond the Spill” and our curriculum, “Just Below Surface:  Perspectives on the Gulf Coast Oil Spill” have been distributed to over 20 Portland area high [...]

On September 16, 2010 the Sacramento Bee reported on a connection between California’s newly published environmental curriculum and British Petroleum. The article, “BP Aids State’s Schools Content,” stated that BP had been one of a few for-profit entities that worked over the course of 7 years to create 13,000 pages of curriculum. Environmental groups and [...]

A week ago Wednesday, I gave my first presentation on the PDX to Gulf Coast Project and I had several reasons to be worried: I’ve been working on this project, “pedal to the metal,” since early June and though our trip to the Gulf was by all measures a success, our work means nothing unless [...]

When I heard the news of the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20th, my first thought was, “this is my fault!”  After all, I am addicted to oil, and that rig would not have been out there had we all not been so reliant on the stuff. With every image I saw throughout the summer [...]

What should students be learning about to shape our futures? Alternative energies according to John Caruso, Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Tulane University. Caruso’s specialty is marine ichthyology and some of our group met Caruso and his wife, Pamela, for a lovely brunch meeting this past Sunday. We discussed how the oil spill’s impacts [...]