In the News

ARCHIVES: FEBRUARY 2009 l MARCH 2009 l APRIL 2009

11/14/09
Chefs serve salmon with message as a side dish
Seattle diners who order the salmon will get their meal with a message this week. Chefs at more than a dozen restaurants are cooking up fish dishes that come with a special side: a warning that the creature's future could be threatened by a giant gold and copper mine proposed for Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon runs. Read the entire story from the Anchorage Daily News.

11/12/09
With New Baby in Tow, J Pod Moves South
A new killer whale calf has been born in J Pod, one of the three pods that frequent the Salish Sea, which includes Puget Sound. The new baby has been given the designation J-46, the next available number in sequence, said Susan Berta of Orca Network. The calf has been seen swimming close to J-28, a 16-year-old orca named Polaris who is presumed to be the mom. Read the entire story from the Kitsap Sun.

09/29/09
Senate climate bill tougher than House version
Senate Democrats are pushing for a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020 - deeper than what the House has passed and what President Barack Obama wants - according to a long-awaited bill that will test how serious the U.S. is about slowing global warming. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.

09/27/09
Killer whales love to dine on chinook salmon, which could further endanger their future
Killer whales attack prey as large as gray whales and as small as herring. But the resident killer whales of the San Juan Islands prefer to eat chinook salmon -- and that could be their ruin. Read the entire story from the Oregonian.

08/21/09
Feds review mountain-dwelling pika for threatened-species list
Could the call of the pika, that signature sound of the wild high country, be silenced by global warming? The feds are studying whether pikas should be listed as a threatened species. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.

08/20/09
In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record
WASHINGTON -- Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean Sunday - in Maine. The water temperature was 72 degrees - more like Ocean City, Md., this time of year. And Ocean City's water temp hit 88 degrees this week, toasty even by Miami Beach standards. Read the entire story from the Seattle PI.

07/22/09
Climate change could put the heat on California crops
The Lockes have tilled the rich soil along the Mokelumne River since 1850. Now Chris Locke, 57, looks forward to passing down his orchards of 40,000 walnut trees to his four sons. But the threat of global warming has him worried. "I talk to my boys about climate change," he said. When he was young, frigid fogs rolled off the delta into Lockeford, the town named for his forebears. "We would go a week without seeing the sun. But we don't seem to get that weather anymore." Read the entire story from the LA Times.

07/21/09
Governors say climate policy could create jobs
Three Democratic governors told a Senate panel Tuesday that efforts to curb global warming and spur the development of cleaner sources of energy have created jobs and new businesses in their states, a trend that could expand nationwide if Congress passes federal legislation. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.

07/21/09
State pushed to limit TransAlta emissions
In what could become a national test case, four national and regional conservation groups have told the Southwest Clean Air Agency that it has "the legal mandate and the moral obligation" to limit carbon dioxide emissions from Washington's only coal-fired electrical plant.Read the entire story from the Columbian.

07/05/09
California water plan could help Puget Sound orcas survive
A plan to restore salmon runs on California's Sacramento River could help revive killer whale populations 700 miles to the north in Puget Sound, as federal scientists struggle to protect endangered species in a complex ecosystem that stretches along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska. Read the entire story from the Bellingham Herald.

07/05/09
Green jobs sprout in Oregon
Much has been written about green jobs in Oregon. A new state report - "The Greening of Oregon's Workforce: Jobs, Wages, and Training" - puts those jobs in perspective. The report is based on a statewide survey that the Oregon Employment Department conducted this year, asking employers about their green-job employment in 2008. Read the entire story from the Statesman Journal.

06/26/09
Enviros sue FEMA over Ore flood plain development
Environmental groups sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday, saying the agency failed to consider how its national flood insurance program affects Oregon's federally protected salmon and steelhead.The National Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society of Portland and other groups say FEMA encourages building in flood-prone areas by providing insurance generally not available on the private market. Read the entire story from the Seattle PI.

06/17/2009
Scientists: Global warming is real, and it is only getting worse 
Man-made climate change is already lifting temperatures, increasing rainfall and raising sea levels around the United States — and its effects are on track to get much worse in the coming century, according to a new report released by federal scientists. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.

06/15/2009
Oysters in deep trouble: Is Pacific Ocean's chemistry killing sea life? The collapse began rather unspectacularly. In 2005, when most of the millions of Pacific oysters in this tree-lined estuary failed to reproduce, Washington's shellfish growers largely shrugged it off. In a region that provides one-sixth of the nation's oysters — the epicenter of the West Coast's $111 million oyster industry — everyone knows nature can be fickle. But then the failure was repeated in 2006, 2007 and 2008. It spread to an Oregon hatchery that supplies baby oysters to shellfish nurseries from Puget Sound to Los Angeles. Eighty percent of that hatchery's oyster larvae died, too. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.

06/08/2009
U.S. sends $15 million in stimulus for Oregon energy efficiency program
The Obama administration today announced $15 million in economic stimulus money for home weatherization programs in Oregon that are intended to boost job creation while improving energy efficiency. Oregon, Arizona, Kansas and Mississippi are the first four states to receive the latest round of weatherization funding. Read the entire story from the Oregonian.

05/26/2009
Adaptation Emerges As Key Part Of Any Climate Change Plan
Adaptation. For many in the climate change community, the word has had a traitorous ring, implying that its proponents were giving up on the notion that the world might mitigate the threat of global warming by significantly reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Adaptation was for quitters. Not anymore. Read the entire story from Yale Environment 360.

05/25/2009
Climate-change action picks up on three fronts 
THE climate-change debate has never lacked for passion and energy, but it has remained, despite various fits and starts, a debate. Until now.
A confluence of events, however coincidental in timing, point toward forward movement - real momentum - on reducing greenhouse gases and making it part of our daily lives. Last Thursday was an extraordinary moment in the country's journey dealing with climate-changing emissions, and Washington residents had a front-row seat. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.

05/22/2009
Washington governor orders cutbacks in emissions
Reporting from Seattle -- Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire sidestepped her Legislature's refusal to adopt a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases, signing an executive order Thursday to achieve similar reductions by ratcheting back coal-fired electricity and automobile emissions. Read the entire story from the Los Angeles Times.

05/22/2009
Bono Mack casts lone Republican vote for climate bill
Rep. Mary Bono Mack on Thursday night cast the lone Republican vote in favor of a massive climate-change bill as a key House panel passed the measure. The legislation would limit industrial emissions, redefine strategies for renewable energy, re-regulate energy production and use, and set up a system of carbon emission caps. Read the entire article from the Desert Sun.

05/22/2009
Upper Klamath water rights issue settled 
One of the most contested issues between irrigators and American Indian tribes in the Upper Klamath Basin has effectively been resolved, potentially simplifying talks on a much larger dam removal and restoration deal. On Thursday, Klamath water users and the Klamath Tribes announced a settlement of water rights claims that stretch back nearly 30 years. The settlement is contingent on the approval of a broad-scale restoration agreement for the Klamath River and a tentative deal to tear out four hydropower dams owned by Pacificorp. Read the entire story from the Times-Standard.

05/21/2009
‘Regular people’ cheer on climate action at Seattle rally
Climate organizer K.C. Golden stood with his back to a sparkling Elliott Bay in Seattle today, hushed the elementary-school students crowding a stage with him, and pointed to the glass wall of the convention center next door. “Here’s what’s transformational,” said Golden, of Climate Solutions. “The Environmental Protection Agency is in there working to be an agency that protects the environment. It’s that simple. Our leaders are leading.” Read the entire story from Grist.

05/19/2009
Salmon-recovery plan needs work, judge says 
PORTLAND — A judge is telling federal agencies they need to do more to help Columbia Basin salmon survive, or he will find the latest restoration plan in violation of the Endangered Species Act. A Monday letter from U.S. District Judge James Redden to lawyers for all sides in a long-running court battle says he continues to have "serious reservations" because the standard for success is not strong enough. Redden also wants a contingency plan that would include funding, congressional approvals and other steps needed to breach the lower Snake Rivers dams in the event other measures fail to restore salmon runs. Read the entire story from the Seattle Times.