The Cleanest Line

Buy a Song, Benefit the Environment: New Benefit Tracks from Patagonia Music

Looking for some good music to enjoy over the long President’s Day weekend? Love supporting grassroots environmental groups? You're in luck! A bunch of new Benefit Tracks have been added to Patagonia Music:

• "AMEN (LIVE)" by Edens Edge benefits Urban Farming
• "THE WANDERING (ACOUSTIC)" by Ryan Bingham benefits Surfrider LA
• "DON'T GIVE UP (LIVE)" by Green River Ordinance benefits Urban Farming
• "TONIGHT" by Sugarland benefits Surfrider LA
• "ODETTA" by Joe Henry benefits Friends of the Los Angeles River
• "DJEGH ISHILAN (LIVE)" by Tinariwen benefits Nevada Wilderness Project
• "SLOW DOWN" by ¡MAYDAY! benefits ECOMB
• "OPEN THE ROADS" by Chuck Ragan benefits Gulf Restoration Network

Each one of these songs is exclusive to Patagonia Music -- you won't find them anywhere else -- and at least 60% of the proceeds will benefit the associated environmental group. Visit Benefit Tracks to preview these songs and more.

If you’re looking for a good mix to stream from your iPhone or computer, hit up the New Music Stream and launch the Patagonia Music Player, or download the free Patagonia Music app for your iPhone. Note: Patagonia Music is only available in the United States.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Grand Canyon Wins New Protections From Uranium Mining

by Taylor McKinnon

The Obama administration rang in the New Year with a gift to wildlands and wildlife: a 20-year ban on new mining on 1 million acres of public lands around Grand Canyon National Park. The move, in the face of a rash of new uranium-mining claims, bans new claims and prohibits exploratory drilling and mining on existing claims lacking “valid existing rights” — the vast majority of claims in the area. It’s a historic decision for an iconic landscape that will save streams and rivers from pollution and protect scores of species from the scourge of industrial mining waste.

Editor's note: We're late getting this good news posted, but it's worth celebrating nonetheless. We asked you twice to take action on this issue — first in February with a special video from Jonathan Waterman, then again in April — and your voices have been heard. Thank you. Photo: James Q Martin

The decision is clearly popular. Nearly 400,000 people from 90 countries wrote the Interior Department urging the ban. And since it was enacted, it’s won praise from Indian tribes, businesses, elected officials, scientists and outdoor enthusiasts who value the canyon’s environmental health and its economic value as a tourist attraction.

Action Alert: 24 Hours to Stop Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

by Hans Cole

Last year, we joined 350.org and concerned citizens across the country in spreading the word that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has no place in a national vision for clean energy. On November 6, 2011, citizens surrounded the Whitehouse, over 1200 people were arrested during several weeks of peaceful protest, and thousands of voices from across the country helped provide the political leverage to stop forward movement on the pipeline. It was a real victory in the battle to re-shape our energy future.

But – today, the fight against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has reached another crucial turning point. The Senate may vote as early as tomorrow to green light construction of this project without additional environmental or economic review. Senators in favor of the pipeline are trying to attach a measure to the current transportation bill that would likely lead to approval of the project.

Watch the Trailer for Groundswell

by Chris Darimont

How could we possibly give voice to marine mammals and other life threatened by one of the largest industrial projects ever conceived? After all, whales, dolphins and the like – as intelligent as they are – cannot mount their own defense against the oil industry.

[Video: Groudswell (Trailer) from the Patagonia Video Gallery]

Oil giant Enbridge Inc. and its international partners have proposed the Northern Gateway Project, a massive pipeline that would cross nearly 650 miles of Canadian wilderness, hundreds of fish-bearing streams, and dozens of First Nations territories. This oily tentacle would stretch west from the Alberta tar sands to British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest where the raw crude would await transport by tankers to Asia and, potentially, California.

Never before have oil tankers dared to travel along this stormy and largely unspoiled coastline. Most vessel traffic consists of modest fishing boats owned by people from remote aboriginal villages that dot the shores. These people continue to depend on the abundance their ocean provides them. Not surprisingly, their opposition to Enbridge and the Northern Gateway project is fierce.

Introducing EcoWatch - Your Daily Source for Environmental News

by Marc Yaggi

Where do you get your news? For decades, the news media in the U.S. has been controlled by a small group of corporations who dictate what you see, hear and read. The internet has provided outlets for alternative voices and opportunities to speak the truth about issues that corporate controlled media would sweep under the rug. Despite these new opportunities, one thing was lacking—a place to unite the voice of the grassroots environmental movement.

On Oct. 27, 2011, EcoWatch and Waterkeeper Alliance launched EcoWatch.org to unite the voice of the grassroots environmental movement and mobilize millions of people to engage in democracy to protect human health and the environment. The launch took place on the shores of the Cuyahoga River – a location that played a major role in the birth of the modern-day environmental movement and the Clean Water Act. EcoWatch.org is the only media source that focuses exclusively on environmental news aggregated from more than 1,000 environmental organizations worldwide. The site also showcases original content in its Insights column from national leaders in the environmental movement, including EcoWatch’s advisory board members, Wendy Abrams, Ed Begley, Jr., Lester Brown, Laurie David, Paul Hawken, Randy Hayes, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Phil Radford, Laura Turner Seydel and Harvey Wasserman.

Mike Colpo 1975-2011 - Raising our Glasses to Localcrew

Mike Colpo, associate editor of this blog and frequent contributor (as “localcrew”), died suddenly on December 7 while trail running on his lunch hour near the Patagonia Distribution Center in Reno. He was 36.

[Above: Mike and Skeena share some love. East Humboldt Range, Nevada. Photo: Old School]

All of us who worked with him are in shock: Mike was young, fit and apparently healthy, his loss unexpected. And Mike was so modest about his talents and accomplishments that, now that he has gone, we’re coming to realize how much he took with him. He was a graceful writer and fine editor and a Zen-like master of the 140-character Tweet. He was a committed, and knowledgeable environmentalist who had a special love for Nevada’s wild places. He was a monster on his mountain bike and his beloved Xtracycle, an excellent backcountry navigator, telemarker, fly fisherman and alpinist who took a month out every summer to guide for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Wyoming.

Guys like Mike never just disappear though. He’ll pull away and maintain a pace you can’t quite match. You see him cresting the hill way ahead and dig deep to catch him. He’ll drop in on the pow stash and you’ll just see him, a speck on the horizon until you’re not sure he’s still there at all. But like all adventure hounds, he’s there somewhere, among the trees and tall grass, his nose to the ground, thinking and looking for something fun. –Team Bacon Strip from “R.I.P. Mike Colpo”

Putting Pen to Paper in Opposition of the Pebble Mine

By Laura Linn Meadows

These days, taking action on an environmental issue requires little more than a click or two of the mouse button. It’s an effective way to tell your elected officials how you feel without sacrificing time from your busy life. There are some issues, however, that strike so deeply we are compelled to do more. The proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, is one such issue for Wyoming native, Laura Linn Meadows, so she took the time to write this touching letter to her congresswoman. And in time-honored tradition, she also submitted it her local paper, Jackson Hole News and Guide, to increase exposure and inspire others. At the end of the letter we have an “easy” way for you to take action on this issue.

[Wyoming's Gros Ventre Wilderness, the author's inspiration for writing the following letter. All photos: Laura Linn Meadows]

Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis
113 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congresswoman Lummis,

I want to share a story with you. I recently returned from a pack trip into the Gros Ventre Range as the cook, a packer, and a guide with my brother, an outfitter. Our parents were waiting at the trailhead with trucks and trailers and transportation back to town for our guests. As I rode in with my packstring and the dudes, my father, who was beaming with pride, met me on the trail. His pride wasn’t because his kids were following in his footsteps for the first time, as Pete and I have taken many other pack trips together. He was proud because, for the first time, we had followed in the footsteps of our great-grandfather and grandfather. We had taken our guests to the Six Lakes, the favorite stomping ground of our predecessors. Pete and I are the 4th generation of Linns to parade our guests past the Cowboy Camp, dropping down to the Gros Ventre River at Upper Falls, past Darwin Peak, down the Jagg Creek Trail to Six Lakes, and over Two Echo Park. That’s 100 years of horseshoe tracks, double diamonds, and bacon fried on a campfire. That’s four generations of eyes peeking through binoculars at elk, moose, sheep, deer, bears, and wolves. Now I’m looking forward to the day when I have kids of my own that can climb into a little saddle on a big horse and weave down the same trails, watch brookies in the clear water of Crystal Creek, and find the big dipper in the night sky as the coals of the campfire putter out.

The River Speaks... and So Can You

by Chris Kassar

Every time I kneel down next to a river – even if just for a moment – I swear I can hear it speak to me. I know this probably sounds crazy, but I also know I’m not the only one who hears wise murmurs rising from the ripples of wild waters. For many of us, the rhythm of a river can mesmerize our soul, capture our spirit and force us to really stop and listen.

The Baker River, nestled deep in the mountains of Chilean Patagonia, is no different. I spent weeks walking its banks, riding its waves, and crunching through the epic ice fields that feed it. I even floated over the exact spot where its journey as a river ended and it emptied into the sea – a feat in and of itself given that so many rivers, including my very own Colorado, no longer even make it all the way to the ocean. But, this trip from source to sea was much more than just a fun adventure. We – team Rios Libres – immersed ourselves in the landscape so we could arm ourselves with the knowledge needed to join the fight to protect Patagonia’s wildlands and the people who depend on them.

During our excursion, the mighty Baker spoke volumes and gave us a glimpse into what the world used to be like - full of untamed lands, untouched rivers, intact forests and people who depended on the land and each other to survive. Spending a month at the edge of the world was like traveling back in time to an age when things were simpler and nature remained largely unaltered by the trappings of man.

What a Mess – Remembering a World before Plastic Pollution

by Gerry Lopez

I spent a lot of time surfing a spot in Indonesia called G-Land. Remotely located on the edge of the Alas Purwo National Park, on the southeastern tip of Java, it was, relatively speaking, far from civilization. Actually, as the Indonesian sea eagle flies, it was only about 15 kilometers from the nearest village but with the terrain and local inhabitants in between, it might as well have been a million miles. Residents of that area included the Java tiger, herds of wild boars, the Indonesian wild water buffalo, the Komodo dragon, more deadly snakes than one could shake a stick at… well, I often wondered what I was doing out there with no more protection than a few surfboards.

Patagonia surf ambassador, Gerry Lopez, shares a story today about life before single-use plastics. Read on for some rarely seen photos from the early days at G-Land and an opportunity to join the Plastic Pollution Coalition. [Above: With waves like this, who would want to do anything else all day long? Gerry at G-Land, sometime in the late '70s or early '80s. Photo: ©Don King]

In the mid to late 1970s, we were permitted to build a temporary camp with some bamboo tree houses and a shack to cook in. The lack of human presence made the beaches – the only area we frequented – absolutely pristine. We brought our drinking water in glass bottles, the only containers available at that time. We dug latrines out in the jungle and burned all of our garbage. When the coming of the monsoons heralded the end of the surf season, we left.

Stuffing Ourselves on Black Friday

by Annie Leonard and Rick Ridgeway

The following Op-Ed first appeared in the Friday, November 25, 2011 edition of the Los Angeles Times. Annie Leonard is founder of The Story of Stuff Project. Rick Ridgeway is Vice President of Environmental Initiatives at Patagonia, Inc.

[Annie Leonard (left) speaking at Patagonia's 2011 Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference. Photo: Tim Davis. Rick Ridgeway (right) speaking at the 2009 United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change. Photo: Kodiak Greenwood]

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Today is Black Friday, when holiday shopping hoards descend on malls across the country, and retailers hope to turn a profit as their accounting books transition from red ink to black. This year, Black Friday comes two months after Earth Overshoot Day, when our planet’s accounts – the ones that measure human demand on the planet’s services that support our economies – transitioned the other direction, from black to red.

Each year our planet can produce a certain amount of resources and absorb a certain amount of use – nature’s budget for the year. One group of scientists that keep an eye on this is the Global Footprint Network, and by its calculations, in 2011 we exhausted the annual budget on September 27th, less than 10 months into the year. That means we are currently 135% above the capacity of our planet to replace essential “services” like clean water, clean air, arable land, healthy fisheries and stable climate. Our over-consumption is eating into the very ecological systems that all the world’s economies – and indeed, all life – depend on. If that is troublesome, consider that by 2050, we'll be 500% above capacity unless we change how we make, use and throw away stuff.