Earth Share of Washington - News

Katrina's real name

By Ross Gelbspan, from an OpEd in The Boston Globe

THE HURRICANE that struck Louisiana was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming.

When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause was global warming.

When 124-mile-an-hour winds shut down nuclear plants in Scandinavia and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland and the United Kingdom, the driver was global warming.

When a severe drought in the Midwest dropped water levels...Read the full story

August 31, 2005 | Comments Off

Fewer spotted owls in Washington

The harvest of spotted owl habitat on nonfederal lands around owl nests is driving the bird toward extinction in this state, conservation groups said Friday.

Logging rules enacted in 1996 to protect northern spotted owl habitat on state and private lands need to be strengthened, they said.

“It’s no longer a secret why the northern spotted owl is rapidly going extinct around Washington state,” said David Werntz, science director for the Bellingham-based Northwest Ecosystem Alliance.

Werntz based his comments on a draft report released late Friday by ...Read the full story

August 30, 2005 | Comments Off

Toxic burden for poor, minorities

And EPA looks set to ease remedy efforts

“I’m tired of being a dumping ground.”

Debbie Carlin ticks off the reasons why she often feels bombarded by environmental hazards. The noxious fumes wafting from a nearby paint company were bad enough. They plagued Carlin’s South Park.

There also is the Duwamish River, a Superfund cleanup site, which flows a short walk from her house. Her dog can’t swim there safely. Most fish are too tainted to eat.

Now Southwest Airlines wants to bring its noise...Read the full story

August 29, 2005 | Comments Off

Toxic flame retardents found in bodies of Northwest women

Flame On!

By Clark Williams-Derry of Northwest Environment Watch, originally published in the Cascadia Scorecard Weblog.

Dumb headline (unless you’re a Fantastic Four fan), but a serious subject. A new chemical analysis, being released today by California EPA scientists at an international scientific conference in Toronto, shows that 30 p...Read the full story

August 25, 2005 | Comments Off

Recycling of electronics encouraged

Hey, you with the old cell phone in the utility drawer!

You with the obsolete computers and TVs gathering dust in the attic!

If you’re like a lot of folks, you’re wondering: How the heck am I supposed to get rid of this stuff, without it leaching toxic chemicals in a landfill or fouling the Third World?

Seattle already has banned tossing computer monitors, televisions and mobile phones in the trash. King County is following with a ban effective Oct. 1 that also includes computers.

This electronic waste — “e-waste” in the vernacul...Read the full story

August 23, 2005 | Comments Off

West Coast states unite on car regulations

SALEM, Ore. — Despite an effort by auto industry lobbyists to kill the move, two Pacific Northwest States - Oregon and Washington - are getting ready to adopt California’s new vehicle emission standards to reduce greenhouse gases.

When that happens, California’s newly implemented emissions standards - the toughest in the country - will be in effect along the entire West Coast from Canada to Mexico.

By 2016, all new cars, SUVs and light trucks sold in the West Coast states would have to comply with the toug...Read the full story

August 22, 2005 | Comments Off

Washington attracts growing solar-panel industry

At least four companies in the solar manufacturing business are considering building or expanding facilities here — plants that could bring hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the state.

The solar industry is expanding rapidly, with growth estimates ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent per year. Strong and growing demand in Japan, Germany and California has even outstripped the supply of photovoltaic cells and the pure silicon that most cells are made from.

Solar panels are in short supply throughout the United States, with installers reporting mon...Read the full story

August 19, 2005 | Comments Off

Cars replacing industry as leading polluters in Washington

Study shows pollution in Puget Sound sediments is changing

OLYMPIA - Toxic metals are declining in Puget Sound sediments while chemicals known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are increasing in some locations, according to results of a long-term study just released by the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology).

In the study, called “Temporal Monitoring of Puget Sound Sediments: Results of the Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program, 1989-2000,” Ecology scientists collected and tested sediments at 10 sites in...Read the full story

August 16, 2005 | Comments Off

Air pollution increasing in Columbia River Gorge

PORTLAND, Ore. — Something about the wind whistling down the Columbia River Gorge defines an image of clean pristine air from the sparsely settled regions east of the Cascades.

No longer.

“It’s a very polluted soup,” said Bob Bachman, a meteorologist and air resource specialist with the U.S. Forest Service.

“You have very high nitrogen deposition rates,” he said. “If you have a nice green yard and over-fertilize it, it turns brown and dies. That’s what high levels of n...Read the full story

August 12, 2005 | Comments Off

Best Hikes for Huckleberries

Getting to Huckleberry Heaven
(via ESW organization Washington Trails Association)

Imagine you’re hiking along and suddenly you come upon bushes teaming with ripe, juicy purple mountain huckleberries. Ah… heaven on earth. The wildflowers will soon fade for the season, but any hiker worth his or her weight in huckleberries knows that late summer hiking has joys all its own… of a juicy, purple variety.

Although there are several varieties of huckleberrie...Read the full story

August 11, 2005 | Comments Off

Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "Wetland Restoration"

By Naturalist Kevin Mack from Earth Share organization PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, published in the August 10, 2005 edition of Wild Again

Part of the challenge of releasing wild animals is getting them to an appropriate release site. Sometimes this requires special equipment like boats, helicopters, off-road vehicles, or snowmobiles. Other times, this just requires a willingness to be uncomfortable. Such was the case on Tuesday, August 2nd as I stood on top of a crushe...Read the full story

August 10, 2005 | Comments Off

Spotted owl is on a dangerous decline

State to review areas of protection put in place 10 years ago

In Washington, the plan to save the spotted owl is not working.

The little-seen bird that launched the gut-wrenching timber wars of the early 1990s is declining in this state at nearly twice the rate predicted by federal scientists. And the pace at which the bird is spiraling toward extinction is quickening, researchers say. Some of the steepest declines are in the Cascades just east of Seattle.

Two-thirds of the owl nesting sites known in Washington a dec-ade ago have been abandoned, acco...Read the full story

August 09, 2005 | Comments Off

G8 Nations Flunk Climate Change Report Card

The international conservation organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF) [an Earth Share organization] has issued “G8 Climate Scorecards” to grade the world’s top economies on their efforts to address the climate change brought about by greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States ranked at the bottom of its class, but the conservation organization warns that the other members of the Group of Eight major industrialized nations are also failing to make the grade.

“All the G8 are far from securing a safe and stable climate,” says Jennifer Morgan, dire...Read the full story

August 08, 2005 | Comments Off

Pacific Coast life concerns scientists

SAN FRANCISCO — Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton - the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.

Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?

Few scientists are willing to blame global warming, the theory that carbon dioxide and other manmade emissions are trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and causing ...Read the full story

August 05, 2005 | Comments Off

Duwamish crab, fish are unsafe to eat, state warns

Concentration of PCBs dangerously high

People should not eat crabs or basically any fish other than salmon caught in the lower Duwamish River because they’re contaminated with dangerous amounts of PCBs, the state warned yesterday.

Seafood collected last summer showed higher levels of PCBs than scientists had previously detected, said officials with the state Department of Health.

“We’re really concerned about moms and babies developing in the womb and smal...Read the full story

August 04, 2005 | Comments Off

Smart Grid: Fewer Blackouts, More Greenbacks for the Northwest

New Report Calls for Regional Smart Grid Acceleration

An emerging revolution in electricity holds tremendous potential for the Pacific Northwest
economy and environment, a new report concludes.

The “smart grid” uses computing technology to dramatically improve reliability, keep electric
bills in check, make power use more efficient, and brings new renewable power on line more
rapidly, says Powering Up the Smart Grid: A Northwest Initiative for Job Creation, Energy
Security and Clean, Affordable Electricity. Issued ...Read the full story

August 03, 2005 | Comments Off

Unhappy Trails

By Eric de Place of Northwest Environment Watch, originally published in the Cascadia Scorecard Weblog.

For many northwesterners, summer means an all-too-brief window to capitalize on the region’s natural heritage. For a few months city-dwellers like myself become schizophrenics—living in an apartment during the week and waking up in a sleeping bag on the weekends. Northwesterners have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to trails ...Read the full story

August 02, 2005 | Comments Off

Drought: Dry weather of 2005 drains reservoirs and ruins orchards

But it’s not this year that worries farmers most

While the great drought of 2005 is proving less ruinous to most Washington farmers than expected, state officials say it has raised the risk of future crises by dangerously draining the region’s already drying water tables and reservoirs.

Though some farmers have plowed under entire sections of their orchards due to lack of water, the industry has saved large swaths of plantings by drawing heavily from state reservoirs. As a result, state officials are now more concerned about 2006 and beyond than ...Read the full story

August 02, 2005 | Comments Off

State bans cutting of trust old-growth timber

OLYMPIA — Washington will ban harvesting of old-growth timber from state trust lands in Western Washington, mostly on the Olympic Peninsula.

The state Board of Natural Resources informally agreed yesterday that preservation of the trees will be part of the Policy for Sustainable Forests that will be adopted in the fall.

The decision covers an estimated 88,000 acres. Nearly all of the old-growth stock already is off limits to logging due to habitat and conservation agreements and various regulations, said spokeswoman Patty Henson. Timber on about 1,0...Read the full story

August 01, 2005 | Comments Off