Editor's Take: July 10, 2008
Credit: Creative Loafing
The Triple Bottom Line
What’s the “triple bottom line?” The notion that you can
make money on a development project by integrating economics with social
equality and environmental concerns. That’s exactly what planners in Vancouver, WA,
aim for with a new mixed-use,
LEED Platinum neighborhood. And they’re looking to Victoria, BC,
where a state-of-the-art
waterfront community is hailed as one of the most environmentally and
socially advanced projects of its kind.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Anna Fahey | View All Today's News
State-of-the-Art Sustainable Neighborhoods
Vancouver Columbian
07/10/2008
A new downtown Vancouver, WA development on 32 acres along the Columbia River will reclaim unfriendly industrial wasteland and incorporate green principles including sustainable treatment of water runoff, energy conservation and a biomass plant. Inspired by a Victoria BC project, developers envision a dense cluster of apartments, condos, offices, retail, restaurants and parks.
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Renewable Power in Alaska's Proposed Energy Plan
Anchorage Daily News
07/10/2008
State lawmakers here for a special session on the natural gas pipeline are quietly considering another blockbuster energy idea, plowing nearly $21 billion into "renewable" and "alternative" energy projects.
But some legislators say a dirty word, coal, appears all through the proposed legislation that's making the rounds in the Capitol.
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Emission Allowance Will Pay for Energy Education
Boise Idaho Statesman
07/10/2008
Idaho is considering how to spend a half-million dollars in energy-education money.
The money came from Idaho Power Co.'s sale of sulfur-dioxide emission allowances.
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Smelt May Become Officially Endangered
San Francisco Chronicle
07/10/2008
The delta smelt, a tiny but important fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, could officially become "endangered" under a proposal announced Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Smelt are an indicator of the delta's health, and nearly 750,000 acres of farmland and 25 million people from the Bay Area to Central and Southern California rely on water from the delta.
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Oregon: Links Between Breast Cancer and Pesticides
Eugene Weekly
07/10/2008
Each week in Oregon, 47 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and 10 will die from the disease, according the American Cancer Society. Oregon and Washington have the highest breast cancer rates in the country, and Ingrid Edstrom thinks she knows why. She is convinced it is linked to herbicide spraying.
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BC Seniors Struggling to Buy a Healthy Meal
Toronto Globe and Mail
07/10/2008
In Vancouver's affluent Westside, seniors are not getting enough nutritious food, social service agencies say. Housing costs in the area are skyrocketing and supermarkets in certain parts of the Westside are few. So, while younger residents can walk or drive to do their grocery shopping, some seniors wind up filling up on inexpensive, unhealthy food from their nearest convenience store.
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Vancouver, BC's Building Permits Go Green
Georgia Straight
07/10/2008
Vancouver, BC is pushing ahead with new requirements for building permits on single- and two-family dwellings, under its Green Homes Program.
The amendments will take effect on September 5. According to the staff report, which was approved unanimously by council on June 26, the changes will reduce the energy consumption of new homes by about 33 percent.
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Dirty Driving: Top 10 Worst Polluters
Forbes
07/10/2008
The Hummer H2 might be an obvious target for environmentalists, but unless it's caked in mud, the hulking sport utility vehicle isn't the filthiest ride on the road. That distinction goes to another SUV: the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI.
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50 More Years of Women Making Less Money Than Men?
Alternet
07/10/2008
The average 25-year-old woman who works until age 65 will earn $523,000 less over her lifetime than the average working male, according to a 2004 report compiled by Milwaukee-based 9to5 National Association of Working Women. Although the gender wage gap has narrowed over the last three decades, at its current rate it will take until 2057 to close, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
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Views: 'Automobility' the Real Menace to Island Living
Victoria Times Colonist
07/10/2008
Making ferry travel free for walk-on passengers and cyclists, providing discounts for high-occupancy vehicles, giving more aid for car pooling, investing in rural public transit and providing free parking at terminals all seem to be ideas that could make island living less dependent on automobility, more island-like and less disconnected.
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