Editor's Take: June 03, 2008
Photo courtesy: Bejan, Flickr
Riding Clean: Public Transit Use is Quickly Growing
With fuel and airline prices soaring, more and more travelers are looking into public transit. According to the American Public Transportation Association, rail and bus use is up. Seattle commuter rail ridership bumped up 27.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008. Canada is making climate changes too, as the corporate world gears up for a green future.
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Travelers 'Get On the Bus,' and Train
Washington Post
06/03/2008
Soaring gas prices are pushing more Americans to take public transit, with streetcars, trolleys and other light rail experiencing a 10.3 percent increase in ridership for the first quarter of the year, according to a report released yesterday by the American Public Transportation Association.
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Seattle's Homegrown Food Aid
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/03/2008
Over the past five years, the amount of fruit and vegetables grown or harvested in Seattle neighborhoods for food banks and meal programs has doubled to more than 44,000 pounds.
Though just a fraction of what fuels the emergency food pipeline, it will help meet unprecedented needs this summer, given rising prices and lines of low-income people that have ballooned since the holidays.
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Finding the Balance: Farmers' Rights or Healthy Food?
Oregonian
06/03/2008
A vicious dispute between the California-based United Farm Workers and Beef Northwest, the state's largest feedlot, has shaken up the state's beef industry and forced retailers and others to pick sides in a disagreement that's cleaved two usually parallel values: sustainable food and fair treatment of farm workers.
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Montana is Last Chance for Clinton, Obama
Missoulian
06/03/2008
After months of national news stories, mounds of political literature, cyclical campaign advertisements, door-to-door canvassing, rallies and telephone polls, the country's last primary election is finally here.
On Tuesday, Montanans will flock to their neighborhood polling places to vote in a fierce and historic primary race headlined by the contest between Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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Corporate Canada Grapples with Climate Change
Vancouver Sun
06/03/2008
Climate change is increasingly finding a seat in boardrooms across the country, putting greenhouse gas audits and environmental assurance on the corporate agenda as companies grapple with regulatory and public pressure to account for their environmental footprint.
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It's Looking Windy for B.C.'s Power Industry
Vancouver Sun
06/03/2008
British Columbia is finally on the verge of joining an international rush to develop large-scale wind power resources, industry experts said Monday.
At present, B.C. is a blank spot on Canada's national map of wind-power generation, but that will change later this year with the emergence of two projects in northeast B.C., including the first stage of a 300-megawatt project on Dokie Ridge near the W.A.C. Bennett Dam.
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Views: Cheaper Power for Alaskans
Anchorage Daily News
06/03/2008
The state should use some of its excess billions to take public transit in urban Alaska into the 21st century. And kick in some for efficient utilities, too.
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Makah Whale Hunt Plan Gets Public Airing
KPLU
06/03/2008
In 1999, the Makah Indian tribe set off an international firestorm of protest when they resumed their traditional whale hunt after 70 years. If lots of people are still fired up about the tribe's desire to hunt whales, it was hard to tell at a public meeting in Seattle Monday night.
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Diluting Puget Sound with Sewage
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
06/03/2008
Dozens of sewage-treatment plants and industrial facilities are discharging pollutants into Puget Sound at levels that could harm marine life or human health, but environmental regulators allow the practice because the waste is supposedly diluted.
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Bankruptcy Rate Way Down in B.C.
Vancouver Sun
06/03/2008
The economy of mainland southwestern B.C. remained immune from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis in 2007, posting strong growth and a 10-year-low in business bankruptcies, according to a report released Monday by the Chartered Accountants of British Columbia.
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