Monthly News Archive:
February 2007
Table of Contents:
- Gregoire, Sims, and Poulsen Announce Strong Climate Policy Initiatives
- Asarco talks settlement, but taxpayers might get stuck with billions for toxic cleanup
- Scientists agree: Humans causing global warming
- UW study links auto pollution to increased health risks
Gregoire, Sims, and Poulsen Announce Strong Climate Policy Initiatives
Conservation leaders welcome climate leadership, call for 'solutions' campaign.
A broad coalition of Washington groups including Climate Solutions, Earth Ministry, National Wildlife Federation, NW Energy Coalition, Sierra Club, Transportation Choices Coalition, Washington Conservation Voters/ Washington Environmental Coalition, and WashPIRG marked today’s announcements by Governor Gregoire, King County Executive Ron Sims, and State Senator Erik Poulsen as strong and timely responses to the climate crisis.
The groups called on legislators to move...Read the full story
February 7, 2007
Add Comments...Asarco talks settlement, but taxpayers might get stuck with billions for toxic cleanup
TACOMA – Former mining and smelting giant Asarco is holding preliminary talks with federal regulators and a dozen or so states, including Washington, about settling more than $6 billion in environmental claims it faces in federal bankruptcy court.
But with the discussions in a preliminary stage and pressure increasing for the company to file a reorganization plan, Asarco asked the Texas-based court last week to sort out how much it owes to clean up the toxic legacy of its mining, smelting and other operations at nearly 100 sites nationwide.
The cour...Read the full story
Scientists agree: Humans causing global warming
Report today makes strongest assertion to date
Using their strongest language to date, the world's leading climate scientists are reporting today that they are basically certain that burning gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels has unnaturally heated the atmosphere -- and the effects are likely to last for centuries.
As report co-author Philip Mote, the Washington state climatologist, said in translating his fellow scientists' language about responsibility: "We did it."
"Scientists are pretty well done arguing about whether the warming in the last 5...Read the full story
UW study links auto pollution to increased health risks
Air pollution has long been known to be bad for the lungs. But new University of Washington research, involving thousands of older women in dozens of cities nationwide, shows that it also raises the risk of women dying from heart disease or stroke.
The increased risk comes from tiny airborne particles typically found in engine exhaust. And the damage they cause to arteries in the heart and brain is worse than previously believed, the study found.
"It looks like it's about three times as big as previously estimated ... That's a surprise," said Dr. Joel Kaufman, the UW profess...Read the full story
