Celebrate the World Environment day with the Earth Charter!

Kartikeya Sarabhai and the Center for Environmental Education (CEE) in India received the 2009 Stratosferic Ozone Layer Protection Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

I am glad to announce that the Earth Charter International will be hiring Jaana Laitinen to become the liaison and facilitator of our youth network from the beginning of February 2009. I am very happy that Jaana has accepted our offer and I invite you all to join me in warmly welcoming Jaana in her new position.

Though I don't like to start off 2009 in this way, I have some news that I have to share with you...

At the end of January, I will no longer be the International Youth Coordinator at Earth Charter. All of you know that I love my job here, so this was no easy decision. I cried for the first time in years when I told my colleagues.

We are pleased to share with you our report on the "Buddy Experiment" that paired 80 youth with 80 members of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) for 6 months earlier this year. Youth were invited from the Earth Charter Youth Initiative, Global Youth Action Network, TakingItGlobal, Peace Child International, Peace Child Peru, Youth Action for Change, and UNEP's South Asia Youth Environment Network.

We received 16 high quality project proposals from Earth Charter Youth Groups (ECYGs) all around the world for our "Special Projects Fund." A kind "thank you" to all those Youth Groups that submitted proposals!

At its 232nd Convention held from Nov. 14 to 15 in Mahwah, NJ, the Episcopal Diocese of New York officially endorsed the Earth Charter. The Diocese consists of more than 200 congregations encompassing Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City, and the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester. “There were about 600 delegates registered and the vote was overwhelmingly in favour” reported Had Talbot.

Jaana Laitinen and Daniel Korpela are interning full-time with Earth Charter International here in Costa Rica for 6 months.

After several months of research and development, ECI gladly releases the Earth Charter Guide to Religion and Climate Change.

The seventh ECEN Assembly took place in Milan from 24-28 September 2008. The title of the Assembly was “The True Challenge of Climate Change”. It provided a platform for discussion, exchanging experiences and best practices, and framing theological responses to the massive challenge ahead of us. Michael Slaby participated in a panel discussion on the role of the Churches in Europe in debate on global warming and co-facilitated ECEN’s working group on environmental education.