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Your Clean, Green Fiesta
 Happy Cinco de Mayo! We want to help you have a great celebration, whether you're throwing a party, brushing up on your español, or working with Spanish-speaking folks on environmental issues. First (can we get a drum roll?) we'd like to unveil our spruced-up EcoCentro website and blog, where our issues are written entirely in Spanish. Qué bonita e importante.
And now -- it's party time! Check out our Green Life blog for tips on how to throw a planet-friendly Cinco de Mayo celebration, and share your own ideas with us. Hasta la vista...
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Wind Mill, Baby, Wind Mill
 Sharks, seals, jellyfish, and polar bears showed up to oppose offshore drilling and support clean-energy development when the Department of Interior held public hearings around the country at the end of April. In its waning days, the Bush administration pushed through a 5-year program that would open the majority of America's coasts to offshore drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has extended the public comment period through September.
Read more about the hearings, watch a video account of the San Francisco event, and submit your own comments (no costumes required).
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Speak Up, Show Up for CO2 Ruling
 It was great news for Earthlings (like you) when the U.S. EPA ruled last month that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and should be regulated by the Clean Air Act. The finding could go a long way toward curbing climate change. That decision kicked-off a 60-day public comment period, and more than 13,500 of you have used our easy online form to officially register your support. If you haven't already done so, please speak up and be a part of the Public Register -- it only takes a couple of minutes.
You can kick it up a notch by attending one of two EPA public hearings on the decision, in Arlington, Va., on May 18, and in Seattle, Wash., on May 21. Sign up online with us and we'll make it easy with tips on testifying, maps and directions, and info on carpooling. Let us know if you can come.
Use this link to get started: www.sierraclub.org/bigpicture
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Forty Wines, Five Judges -- and the Winners Are…
 Sierra magazine's Green Life editors gathered a selection of wines that claim to do their part for the planet and invited a handful of experts -- two sommeliers, two wine writers, and a wine-competition judge -- for a tasting. They "swirled, sniffed, sipped, and spit," and named the winners -- a variety of reds and whites you'd be proud to display in your wine cellar.
Check it out in Sierra's May/June issue. And don't miss the "Perfect Pairings" recipe for mushroom risotto.
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Special Kudos for Muir on Earth Day
 There was no shortage of activity and good work on April 22, Earth Day 2009 -- music festivals, eco-hero honors, family hikes, and more, which you can read all about in our Scrapbook blog.
We're especially proud to report that on that day, Sierra Club founder John Muir was inducted into The Extra Mile -- Points of Light Volunteer Pathway. The pathway, a line of bronze medallions that create a one-mile walking path in downtown Washington, D.C., is a national monument dedicated to the spirit of volunteering in America. Muir joins honorees like Helen Keller, Cesar Chavez, Rachel Carson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
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'You Brush Your Teeth With Seaweed!’
 Many urban kids are strangers to nature because their families lack the income, awareness, or skills to get them out there. Sierra Club Inner City Outings (ICO) volunteers are eager to introduce these kids to the outdoors on safe and fun wilderness excursions. In Tampa Bay, Florida, for instance, a group recently explored an estuary where they watched herons hunt and learned that carrageenan, a derivative of seaweed, is found in toothpaste.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, an ICO volunteer who helped lead a hike for middle-school students in inner-city San Diego, California, was gratified by the kids' hunger for adventure and excitement over a creek crossing. ICO introduces about 12,000 young people a year to the wonders of nature.
Read more about the adventures described above and consider getting involved with the program.
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