Monthly News Archive:
October 2005
Table of Contents:
- Journey to the Center of the EarthCorps
- Is salmon money flowing the right way?
- Give people sensible ways to recycle their e-waste
- Hanford cleanup scores gains but draws criticism
- Warm Oceans Threaten Caribbean Coral Reefs
- Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "The Most Important Thing"
- Uncertain Future: Climate Change and Its Effects on Puget Sound
- Measure 37: Down, But Probably Not Out
- Nearly Half of Americans Cite 'Too Little' Environment Regulation
- 2005 on pace to be hottest year on record
- Seattle School Board Adopts Strong Pesticide Reduction Policy
- EarthCorps gives ideas, hope to Afghans
- The truth about global warming
- 957 species at risk in Puget Sound area
- Energy bill triggers oil-spill fears in Puget Sound
- Orcas need cleaner Sound, more salmon, scientists say
- Judge rejects state logging plan
Journey to the Center of the EarthCorps
Su Thieda, EarthCorps program director, answers Grist’s questions
Questions from Grist editors
Q. What work do you do?
A. I am director of programs for EarthCorps.
Q. What does your organization do?
A. EarthCorps’ mission is to build global community through local environmental service. EarthCorps restores native habitat while training young leaders and enga...Read the full story
Is salmon money flowing the right way?
Chinook No. 33 thrashed and skittered across the metal tray, spraying the chilly water of the Cedar River on two Seattle city workers.
The 30-inch fish had already been funneled up concrete steps, corralled in a pen, lifted in the tray and had a chunk of its dorsal fin clipped off. Now it was being steered headfirst into a black rubber pouch. After several minutes of struggle, Chinook 33, as its handlers counted it, finally relented. It slid into the container, then was hefted up and poured into a channel leading back to the river.
All this so the fish could simply make it o...Read the full story
Give people sensible ways to recycle their e-waste
By Joan Crooks, Executive Director of Earth Share organization Washington Environmental Council, a statewide advocacy organization based in Seattle.
What’s more difficult than choosing a new computer? Figuring out how to get rid of the old one.
If you’re anything like me, you have an outdated computer or television stashed away in a closet or the attic because you don’t know what to do with it. And we’re not alone. Millions of unwanted computers, monitors and TVs are piling up in homes in Washington state, and that number is growing as consum...Read the full story
Hanford cleanup scores gains but draws criticism
A falling cleanup budget and growing plumes pose long-term challenges
RICHLAND, Wash. — Dick Wilde is on the verge of big trouble.
Ahead of him, the last free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River rolls through the Washington desert. Fall chinook salmon gather in famed spawning grounds, luring heron, bald eagles and people pulling 30-pound hogs from the water.
Underfoot, millions of gallons of water tainted with chemicals and radioactive elements flow toward the Columbia, a legacy of Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s...Read the full story
Warm Oceans Threaten Caribbean Coral Reefs
‘Bleaching’ may kill up to 90% of the colorful undersea polyp colonies in some areas.
The extremely warm ocean waters fueling this season’s record hurricane season are stressing coral reefs throughout the Caribbean and may kill 80% to 90% of the structures in some areas, scientists reported Monday.
These colorful undersea landmarks — homes for tropical fish and magnets for divers and snorkelers — are turning white, or “bleaching” in an area extending from the Florida Keys to Puerto Rico and Panama because of warmer-than-usual wa...Read the full story
Stories of a Wildlife Rescue - "The Most Important Thing"
By Naturalist Kevin Mack from Earth Share organization PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, published in the October 19, 2005 edition of Wild Again
You were discovered alone on the roadside. Your mother was nowhere to be found. The fact that you were found next to the road gave us little hope for finding her. We doubted that you were abandoned. We believed that you were orphaned, by a vehicle or bullet. You were brought to us as an emaciated five-pound pup. You feared us, and cowered at the back...Read the full story
Uncertain Future: Climate Change and Its Effects on Puget Sound
Report reveals climate change in Puget Sound is a ‘force to be reckoned with’
OLYMPIA – A new report commissioned by the Puget Sound Action Team (Action Team) reveals that a warming climate has already profoundly altered the Puget Sound environment and that bigger, more severe problems are likely to be in store.
“Climate change is clearly a force to be reckoned with,” said Brad Ack, Director of the Action Team. “It’s like a slow-motion natural disaster. This report shows that change is already happening and that more change...Read the full story
Measure 37: Down, But Probably Not Out
By Clark Williams-Derry of Northwest Environment Watch, originally published in the Cascadia Scorecard Weblog.
This is big news: last Friday, a judge in Oregon ruled that Measure 37 violates the state constitution.
To recap: Measure 37, which was approved overwhelmingly by Oregon voters last fall, required state or loca...Read the full story
Nearly Half of Americans Cite 'Too Little' Environment Regulation
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults agree that protecting the environment is important and standards cannot be too high, according to a Harris Interactive poll.
At the same time, nearly half of Americans surveyed say there is too little government regulation and involvement in the area of environmental protection, compared with about 19% who feel there is too much regulation and 32% who say it’s just right.
The telephone poll of 1,217 adults indicates concern about too little environmental protection has risen slightly from 39% in 2000, when ...Read the full story
October 14, 2005 | 
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2005 on pace to be hottest year on record
New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be the hottest year on record, continuing a 25-year trend of rising global temperatures.
Climatologists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies calculated the record-breaking global average temperature, which now surpasses 1998’s record by a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit, from readings taken at 7,200 weather stations scattered around the world.
The new analysis comes as government and independent scientists are reporting other dramatic signs of global warming, such as the ...Read the full story
October 13, 2005 | Comments Off
Seattle School Board Adopts Strong Pesticide Reduction Policy
In late September, the Seattle School Board unanimously adopted a cutting-edge policy to protect students from exposure to hazardous pesticides at school. The Seattle School District is now the largest district in the state to eliminate uses of the most toxic pesticides.
“Seattle Public Schools takes our commitment to the health of our students, staff, and the planet very seriously,” said district Board President Dr. Brita Butler-Wall, who pushed for adoption of the policy. “We have embraced the concept of healthy learning environments through a strong policy preve...Read the full story
October 13, 2005 | Comments Off
EarthCorps gives ideas, hope to Afghans
Volunteers teach visitors how to restore environment
At first, EarthCorps members weren’t sure what they could teach an environmental delegation from Afghanistan. But it turns out they could teach them quite a bit.
In war-torn Afghanistan, the environment has become another casualty, said Steve Dubiel, executive director of EarthCorps in Seattle. The environmental stewardship group was sought out by members of the Afghan Conservation Corps to learn more about reforestation, community involvement and rehabilitation.
The so-called “capacity building”...Read the full story
October 12, 2005 | Comments Off
The truth about global warming
The year was 1994 and the vice president was convinced rising temperatures were responsible for recent floods in the Mississippi River Valley.
He invited Wallace, a distinguished climate researcher from the University of Washington, to join a small group of scientists for a breakfast discussion in Washington, D.C.
As Gore sipped Diet Coke, Wallace nervously left the eggs on his own plate untouched.
“It was one of the more awkward audiences I’ve ever had,” he recalled with a chuckle. “I was trying, in a polite way, to ...Read the full story
October 10, 2005 | Comments Off
957 species at risk in Puget Sound area
Six-year effort tallies creatures and plants dying from habitat loss
From the Olympic Peninsula’s verdant rain forests to the depths of Puget Sound, this region is unusually rich in its variety of plants and animals. But many of those species are at risk of vanishing or are already gone, according to a sweeping report card released today by environmental groups.
Scores of imperiled creatures “are getting so little attention,” said Stephanie Buffum Field, executive director of Friends of the San Juans, a conservation group that worked on the...Read the full story
October 06, 2005 | Comments Off
Energy bill triggers oil-spill fears in Puget Sound
An energy bill expected to come before Congress this week could expose Puget Sound to unlimited oil tanker traffic and an increased risk of oil spills, a local lawmaker and environmental groups said Sunday.
Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and environmental, civic and business leaders met in Seattle to discuss the Gasoline for America’s Security Act, a bill that would reverse a 28-year-old law that protects Puget Sound by restricting tanker traffic and the capacity of oil refineries.
“We are greatly concerned,” Inslee said. “We cannot take another tanker dis...Read the full story
October 04, 2005 | Comments Off
Orcas need cleaner Sound, more salmon, scientists say
To return Puget Sound’s resident orcas to health, the federal government needs to rebuild salmon stocks, continue cleaning contaminated shorelines and make sure that whale-watching boats don’t disturb too many of the Sound’s signature whales.
That’s the assessment of a team of government scientists who released a plan yesterday meant to boost populations of so-called “southern resident” orcas that swim in and out of Puget Sound each year before disappearing to unknown parts of the Pacific in winter.
The plan comes two years after the Puget...Read the full story
October 04, 2005 | Comments Off
Judge rejects state logging plan
A controversial plan to increase logging in state-owned forests was dealt a defeat yesterday by a King County Superior Court judge, who ruled that the state Department of Natural Resources didn’t properly evaluate the impact on spotted owls and threatened salmon, and didn’t amply consider less-intrusive logging practices.
Judge Sharon Armstrong didn’t elaborate in her ruling, which she issued in a terse e-mail.
The ruling blocks further implementation of the plan, which called for a 30 percent increase in the amount of timber cut from state lands in Western...Read the full story
October 03, 2005 | Comments Off