In the words of Brian Stone: “Trees are, quite simply, the most effective strategy, technology, we have to guard against heat in cities.”
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Portland and Seattle shatter records amid historic heat wave
The Washington Post has taken note of the Pacific Northwest’s extreme weather, observing: “Portland hit 108, an all-time mark, and Seattle 102, a record for June. Loads of new records are anticipated Sunday in the Pacific Northwest as it turns even hotter.”
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25,000 barrels possibly laced with DDT are found off California coast
The New York Times reports that one researcher said the number of discarded drums far exceeded his expectations. “It was hard to wrap my head around the density of targets,” he said.
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Earth is now losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year. And it’s going to get worse.
“Global ice loss has increased rapidly over the past two decades, and scientists are still underestimating just how much sea levels could rise, according to alarming new research published this month, ” The Washington Post reports.
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Cascadia was poised to lead on climate. Can it still?
British Columbia, Washington and Oregon all aimed to slash emissions. After epic battles, they failed. Read The Tyee’s first installment on creating a zero-CO2 bioregion.
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Wildfire devastates Big Basin Redwoods State Park
A wildfire has destroyed all the historic structures in California’s first state park, leaving conservation advocates like Sam Hodder in mourning.
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Al Gore joins Joe Biden to talk about climate justice on Earth Day
In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden hosted a discussion to address one of the most pressing issues facing our country and the world with special guest Vice President Al Gore.
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Michael Moore’s partner Jeff Gibbs debuts new film Planet of the Humans — and it’s free to watch on YouTube
Planet of the Humans is “a documentary that dares to say what no one else will — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road.”
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Science under attack: How Trump is sidelining researchers and their work
In three years, the administration has diminished the role of science in policymaking while disrupting research projects nationwide.
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As Australia burns, its right wing prime minister Scott Morrison refuses to act on climate
The United States isn’t the only prominent democracy with a fossil fuel loving chief executive who refuses to act on climate. Australia’s current prime minister is an ignoramus who has no solutions to offer as the country chokes on horrific smoke from devastating brushfires.
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Progress *is* possible: Major cruise line to abandon plastic water bottles
Norweigan Cruise Line is phasing out plastic water bottles and switching to lower impact containers made by Just Water.
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Canada’s wildfire season is off to a ferocious start
“It’s become our new reality… I don’t like to say ‘normal,’ because that sounds like a plateau, and we’re on a trajectory where we’ll get more and more fire.”
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Trump regime renews its attack on climate science
There is a real Republican war on science going on and it’s hurting the United States’ efforts to combat climate damage. This war started during the Bush years and is now being escalated by Donald “It’s freezing out, give me some of that global warming” Trump.
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Largest e-recycling fraud in U.S. history sends owners of Kent’s “Total Reclaim” to prison
For years, people have taken used monitors and other electronics to Kent’s Total Reclaim, falsely believing that their gear was being responsibly recycled. But that wasn’t the case.
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America has a flooding problem it can’t manage. Vermont’s experience shows a possible way forward.
We can’t build our way out of future floods with better levees, just as we can’t build our way out of traffic congestion with wider highways.
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Trump’s executive order to open Arctic waters to oil drilling was unlawful, federal judge rules
A victory for clean water and climate justice, via The New York Times: “In a major legal blow to [Donald] Trump’s push to expand offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by Mr. Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic coast was unlawful.”
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Bill Gates: Why I’m for Washington state’s pollution fee
Bill Gates has thrown his support behind Initiative 1631, spearheaded by a coalition that includes the Northwest Progressive Institute.
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Garbage from Washington State’s booming pot industry clogs gutters, sewers and landfills
“Concentrated nutrients and fertilizers left over from cannabis growing operations are being dumped in public sewers and making their way past wastewater treatment plants into Puget Sound,” reports Kristen Millares Young. “And millions of pounds of weed harvest waste that could be composted are instead getting trucked to landfills.”
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Audit finds seventy percent of B.C. fish-processing plants do not comply with environmental regulations
“An audit of British Columbia fish-processing plants sparked by gory video of a pipe spewing bloody water into the Salish Sea has found that more than seventy percent of plants audited are out of compliance with environmental regulations, and some operate under rules decades behind modern standards,” Lynda Mapes reports.
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Thousands of marchers in British Columbia say no to Trans Mountain pipeline
“If the opposition movement in British Columbia and Washington state has a totem animal, it is the critically-endangered southern resident killer whale that travels the waters even more tankers will use if the pipeline is built,” writes Lynda Mapes
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Sorry, Hanford: Your radiation leaks aren’t as important as tax cuts
“The whole mess is like a metaphor for how the entire federal government is run today. There is talk about big needs, even as they cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy, making it harder to address those needs. We the people are distracted by our borrowed bonuses. The crippling disconnect from reality isn’t even acknowledged.”
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