Daily Score Blog

An article on energy security we just published in BC online magazine The Tyee has generated a spirited and interesting debate in the comments section about not only energy issues, but also the concept of Cascadia, economic colonization, the nature of transboundary environmental issues, migration, and a few other small issues.

A couple of excerpts:

"There is no Cascadia, there is BC, Canada, USA, Washington & Oregon State, etc...and may each keep their respective sovereignties"

"The fish, bugs, and forests don't recognize political boundaries; neither do greenhouse gases or smog."

"Raw logs, minerals and oil move across the border with impunity while people, who for some reason actually want to travel south of the 49th into Disneyworld, are subjected to all forms of gross indecencies. They're considered terrorists until proven otherwise."

Join in!

I'm no economist, so I have a hard time evaluating arguments that rely on statements like:

Which means that I have no idea if this paper (beware, pdf) by some Harvard economists is really top-notch scholarship.  But it makes the case that one of the chief reasons for rapid housing inflation between 1960 and 2000 was that, in high-priced places, local governments have been increasingly unwilling to issue housing permits -- the causes of which they can only speculate about.

Now, what's noteworthy to me about the study is this -- the researchers looked specifically at whether housing inflation could be attributed to rising residential density per se, i.e., to a falling supply of buildable land.  Their conclusion: not really.

Quick update to last week's post on salmon scarcity in the Lower Columbia River: managers are closing the lower river to sport fishing for the endangered spring Chinook (and also steelhead and shad). As of Monday, just over 1,500 kings had made it to the Bonneville Dam, compared with an average of 50,000 at this time of year over the last decade.

I don't mean to sound insouciant, but something is odd about this closure. Namely, why on earth is sport fishing allowed for an endangered species in the first place?

No, I'm not a fish-hugger. I'm an occasional sport fisherman myself. And yes, I know that sport fishing is not the only, nor even the biggest, threat to wild spring Chinook. The fish is also impaired by dams, river traffic, erosion, predation, pesticides, commercial fishing, irrigation... The bad news for the Chinook, of course, is not only that it faces a lot of threats, but that everyone can keeping avoiding meaningful reform by blaming the declines on everyone else.

Call me crazy, but it's hard for me to believe that we're very serious about restoring an endangered species when we kill it for sport.

The Haida people's standoff with Weyerhaeuser, which I've covered a bit in this blog, is moving from the backwoods to the boardroom. Weyerhaeuser's annual meeting tomorrow in Federal Way will be a hotbed of contention as the forest products giant tries to stave off attacks from indigenous claimants and environmental activists.