Monthly News Archive:
October 2007
Table of Contents:
- Seattle reports milestone in cutting emissions
- More Dead Seabirds Reported Near Kingston
- Seattle ride sharing start-up takes off
- For a Devotee of Solar Energy, a Shot at Earning Respect
- Proposition 1 Redux
- Kokanee fail to garner protection
- A slice of life on the farm
- Recycling the Whole House
- Northwest's largest solar-power site about to come on line
- As traffic gets nastier, many of us are shifting gears
- Earth Saving Tips - Ensure a Strong Future for Forests
- More pollutants pumped in Sound than allowed by law
- Tacoma Zoo has a lot to howl about
- Study: high levels of toxic chemicals in younger orcas
- Washington State a leader in new energy sources
- U.S. Senate passes Murray bill to ban asbestos
- Hit the Trails, but Pack Extra Caution
- Scientists See Politics in Spotted Owl Plan
- These mussels tell a story
- Trailing An Apocalypse
Seattle reports milestone in cutting emissions
Seattle is one of the first major U.S. cities to claim it has cut greenhouse-gas emissions enough to meet the targets of the international Kyoto treaty aimed at combating global warming.
The achievement, at a time when the city has enjoyed a boom in population and jobs, sets Seattle apart both from the nation as a whole and other cities that have seen greenhouse gases soar in recent years.
But keeping a lid on such emissions in the future means confronting one of the city's most intractable problems: how to get people out of their cars and driving l...Read the full story
October 31, 2007
Add Comments...More Dead Seabirds Reported Near Kingston
KINGSTON--A ferry captain on the Kingston-Edmonds route reported seeing between 50 and 100 dead birds floating on the water Tuesday morning.
"We first thought somebody's net had gotten loose," said Tim Koivu, captain on the ferry Spokane. "They looked like white fishing net floats. Then we realized they were birds."
The birds were floating upside down, their white bellies facing up, Koivu said. He spotted the birds at about 10 a.m. in an area perhaps 300 yards across and less than a mile from the Kingston ferry terminal.
The finding follows ...Read the full story
Seattle ride sharing start-up takes off
SEATTLE--Think of it as online dating for the traffic-impaired. With a new twist on car-sharing, for-profit companies are paying people to share the fast lane.
Founded by 24-year-old former Microsoft engineer Nick Shiftan, Goose Networks sends text messages to drivers in the Seattle area that share the same route to work. Then, the company rewards those who choose to carpool — with cash.
After proving the system encouraged one out of 20 Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) employees to carpool, Goose Networks earned a two-year, $111,...Read the full story
For a Devotee of Solar Energy, a Shot at Earning Respect
TACOMA, Wash., Oct. 22 — The sun was shining for a change, which was good news for Richard Thompson, known throughout these parts as Solar Richard.
“Pennies from heaven,” Mr. Thompson said as his electric meter spun round — in reverse.
Not that a shining sun is required for the meter to spin backward. An overcast sky does the job. The meter just spins a bit more slowly.
That would be the meter attached to Mr. Thompson’s house, painted sunshine yellow with a large solar panel out front next to the bedraggled remains of giant sunflowers — “org...Read the full story
Proposition 1 Redux
Although Earth Share of Washington does not take an official stance on Proposition 1, or any political candidate or initiative for that matter, we do view this as an important environmental vote this election cycle. To better inform your decision, we've prepared a "reading list" of some of the recent news articles on the subject:
October 26 - Seattle P-I:
Greens split over roads vs. rails measure
October 26 - FM 88.5 KPLU ...Read the full story
Kokanee fail to garner protection
The kokanee of Issaquah Creek, ruby-red fish so rare that none have been seen in seven years, weren't important enough to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government announced Tuesday.
Four years after King County Executive Ron Sims declared the summer run of Lake Sammamish kokanee extinct, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finally responded to years of requests to save it.
The answer: No.
Tuesday, biologists with the agency said that the landlocked salmon, which once wriggled by the thousands up Issaquah Creek to ...Read the full story
A slice of life on the farm
The farmer's daughter has spiky black hair, 4-inch heels and rock-star dreams.
But under all of that, she knows apples. How to grow them, how to pick them, how to operate the machines. (How to wreck them, too.) Best, Jenny Madden, 20, knows how to sell apples: slice by slice in front of her family's Earth Conscious Organics bin at Whole Foods. You can find her most afternoons, brandishing her Global knife ("The best, man") and an innate sense of the power of produce.
I joined her at the Bellevue store recently, glad to shake the hand that knows the fruit that rolls around in...Read the full story
Recycling the Whole House
IF the idiosyncratic, ’40s-era cottage Alice Keller bought in Shoreline, a small city just north of Seattle, had a style, it might be called classic teardown. The ceiling in one room was so low she couldn’t stand up under it. A downstairs bathroom was so narrow she had to wiggle sideways to get to the toilet. None of the windows matched.
“It was livable, and quirky,” Ms. Keller said, “but in ways I didn’t find amusing.”
The place was crying out for a wrecking ball, but Ms. Keller, a 63-year-old retired teacher of English as a second language, who has an environmentally aware...Read the full story
Northwest's largest solar-power site about to come on line
ELLENSBURG -- The sun peeked through the clouds Thursday above the Wild Horse solar power project atop Whisky Dick Mountain.
When it comes to solar energy, every little bit of sunshine counts. The project's modules, which collect the solar energy, generated 114 kilowatts Thursday morning, enough to power 92 homes for the day.
That was much more than the amount generated from the neighboring Wild Horse Wind Farm. The unusually calm winds barely moved the farm's 127 turbines.
Puget Sound Energy, the Bellevue-based utility company that owns the...Read the full story
As traffic gets nastier, many of us are shifting gears
After years of commuting from his Greenwood-area home to his downtown job, Steve Kaiser decided last year to move closer to his office near Pike Place Market.
He now walks the few blocks to his job. His Volkswagen Jetta sits in its garage five days a week, and his driving has plummeted to about 4,000 miles a year — about 80 percent less than before.
"It just seemed excessive to be driving every day," he said.
A growing number of fellow King County residents apparently feel the same way.
Data from several key traffic measures indicate that as traffic congestio...Read the full story
Earth Saving Tips - Ensure a Strong Future for Forests
Green tips are provided by Earth Share of Washington organization, Union of Concerned Scientists
Forests provide habitat for more than half of all species living on land, help filter pollutants out of the air and water, and prevent soil erosion. They also play a major role in regulating global temperatures by absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in their cell walls. Unfortunately, the global benefits provided by trees are threatened by deforestation.
Earth loses more than 18 million acres of ...Read the full story
More pollutants pumped in Sound than allowed by law
New study cites aluminum plants, sewage facilities
Many industrial and municipal facilities are dumping more pollution into Washington's rivers, lakes and Puget Sound than is allowed by permit, according to an analysis released Thursday by an environmental group.
More than 37 percent of these facilities are releasing more metals, oil and grease, nitrogen, fecal coliform, solid materials, low-oxygen water and other pollutants than allowed by the federal Clean Water Act.
The analysis by Environment Washington, part of the non-profit Washington Public I...Read the full story
Tacoma Zoo has a lot to howl about
Red wolves aren’t native to the South Sound. They originally roamed the East Coast. But it’s Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium that has led the effort to save the species from extinction.
The species was declared extinct in the wild in 1980, but today there are more than 300 of them, about a third of which have been bred by Point Defiance at its breeding facility near Graham.
The zoo received the North America Conservation Award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums last month for its 30-year-effort to restore the species. This year marks the 30th anniversary of ...Read the full story
Study: high levels of toxic chemicals in younger orcas
Young Puget Sound orcas have more potentially toxic flame-retardant chemicals in their bodies than their elders, adding to evidence that the controversial chemicals could be hurting the endangered animals, according to a new report by Canadian and U.S. researchers.
In one case, a 3-year-old male orca had roughly twice as much flame retardants as his elders in his pod.
The findings, released today in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, surprised some researchers because they defy a notion that orcas become more contaminated as they age because the...Read the full story
Washington State a leader in new energy sources
WASHINGTON – The Evergreen State is getting greener.
When it comes to developing renewable energy sources, Washington is among the fastest growing states in the U.S. It ranks No. 3 this year, trailing only North Dakota and Montana, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Most of the growth comes from the major wind farms springing up along the Columbia River Gorge, in Kittitas County surrounding Ellensburg and in eastern Washington near the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla.Read the full story
U.S. Senate passes Murray bill to ban asbestos
Sen. Patty Murray has looked into the eyes of too many people who would die from exposure to asbestos.
Thursday, the Senate voted unanimously to pass Murray's ban on the importation of asbestos, which still is found in more than 3,000 consumer products. If approved by the House and not vetoed by the president, the United States will finally join more than 40 other nations that have banned the cancer-causing material.
Lots of tears were shed during Murray's six-year battle to get support for the ban. The Washington Democrat and her staff talked to George Biekkola, a taconite ...Read the full story
Hit the Trails, but Pack Extra Caution
Autumn is a fine time to get outdoors, especially since it's such a fine time to hit our hiking trails.
Crowds thin to a trickle, and nasty bugs like mosquitoes and black flies are history by now. Fabulous fall colors beckon. Early morning frost and fog shroud everything in mystery, often giving way to bursts of welcome sunlight as the day progresses.
Like any type of recreation, hiking carries certain risks, and your safety is best ensured with extra preparation and caution. But shorter days, colder nights and quickly-changing weather can make a simple day hike in autumn ev...Read the full story
Scientists See Politics in Spotted Owl Plan
More than 100 independent scientists suggested yesterday that political pressure may have led federal officials to water down protections for the northern spotted owl in a recently revised recovery plan for the threatened bird.
Six separate peer reviews, five of them funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, all suggest that the agency's revised plan downplayed the importance of protecting old-growth forest in the plan to manage a species that ranges from the Canadian border in Washington state to Northern California.
Yesterday, 113 scientists s...Read the full story
These mussels tell a story
Shellfish show what pollutants are in water
Mussels that cling to rocks along the shores of Puget Sound tell stories about what pollutants are floating in the water, from motor oil to pesticides to fire retardants.
They're so good at filtering poisonous chemicals out of the water that federal researchers use them to gauge the amount of pollution in water bodies across the country, including in Puget Sound.
Along Snohomish County beaches, mussels have been used to find high levels of hydrocarbons, the type of pollutants given off when oil washes into ...Read the full story
Trailing An Apocalypse
The ground trembling came first, Eastern Washington shuddering under the approach of an Ice Age flood of 500 cubic miles of water, weighing more than 2 trillion tons.
The sound next, an ominous rumble growing to an overpowering roar. A cloud of mist on the horizon. Beneath it, a towering, unstoppable wave.
The water was a brown slurry, soupy with silt, rocks, trees, icebergs and any animals unlucky enough to get in its path: mammoths, giant sloths, beavers the size of bears. Basalt columns were peeled off like string cheese. Some gravel from Montana would be carried all the ...Read the full story