Editor's Take: January 22, 2009
Credit: poeticallychallenged/flickr
The Silent Killer of Old Growth
Today brings scary new evidence that global warming is already affecting an old-growth forest near you: "If current trends continue, forests will become sparser over time, and average tree ages will decrease by half,” says a study author. Meanwhile, new polling indicates that environment has dipped as a priority--but is that the whole story? And in recession news, Olympia considers the role of payday lenders
in this economic climate.
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Your editor today is Elisa Murray | View All Today's News
Western Forests Dying at Increasing Rate
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
01/23/2009
Trees in old growth forests across the West are dying at a small, but increasing rate that scientists conclude is probably caused by longer and hotter summers from a changing climate. While not noticeable to someone walking through the forests, the death rate is doubling every 17 to 29 years, according to a 52-year study published in the Friday edition of the journal Science.
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Environmental Issues Slide in Poll of Public's Concerns
New York Times
01/23/2009
A new poll suggests that Americans, preoccupied with the economy, are less worried about rising global temperatures than they were a year ago but remain concerned with solving the nation's energy problems. In the poll, released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, global warming came in last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists.
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In Recession, Payday Lending Issue Takes New Spin
Seattle Times
01/23/2009
Payday loans, which give cash to customers after a fee and a postdated check, have been a contentious issue for years in many of the country's state capitals.
But a year-old recession, a gloomy economic outlook and the sour aftertaste of the subprime mortgage lending crisis are setting a different stage for this year's political battle of regulating the payday lending industry.
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Oregon's Storied Land-use System Needs Tweaking
Oregonian
01/23/2009
Oregon's storied land-use system makes the state an environmental pacesetter but it smothers regional differences and is complicated to the point of being "unapproachable," a review concludes. Also, challenges -- ranging from global warming to the cost of providing development infrastructure -- demand that the land-use system evolve.
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Recession Got to Puget Sound Late, But It's Here
Tacoma News Tribune
01/23/2009
It took about a year longer than the rest of the nation, but recession officially arrived in Seattle in December 2008, said Seattle economist Dick Conway. Thursday's announcement of the first major layoffs in Microsoft's history comes on top of thousands of pending cuts at Boeing and the gaping hole that the collapse of Washington Mutual promises to leave in Seattle's downtown business district.
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Brown's Prop. 8 Challenge May Backfire
Sacramento Bee
01/23/2009
The California Supreme Court, in one of its most important cases, is weighing a challenge to Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. If the court upholds Proposition 8, one of the people you can blame is Attorney General Jerry Brown. But wait a minute. Didn't Brown make headlines recently by filing a brief in the Supreme Court arguing that Proposition 8 should be overturned? Yes, he did. And that's the problem.
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New Orca Noise Findings Shaping Protections
Seattle Times
01/23/2009
Scientists already knew the orcas make longer calls to compete with background noise. But this is the first evidence that the southern-resident population of orcas that frequents Puget Sound is also making louder calls. The findings are shaping new regulations proposed to protect endangered southern-resident orca whales, including restrictions on whale-watching vessels.
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Flood Sparks Debate Over Future of Portland Land
Portland Tribune
01/23/2009
The early January flooding of Johnson Creek is raising questions about the future of one of the last large remaining tracts of underdeveloped industrial land in Portland — a site considered key to the future of Lents, one of the poorest parts of town.
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Views: Think Gordon Campbell Is a Global Warming Guru? Read On
Toronto Globe and Mail
01/23/2009
You wouldn't know it from his eco-hero photo ops with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger or the soft ride he gets from environmental groups. But, among Western leaders, Mr. Campbell is actually doing more than most to hasten global warming.
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Views: Collapse of the Clean Coal Myth
New York Times
01/23/2009
Taken together, the coal ash disaster and Judge Thornburg's ruling did much to undercut the coal industry's cheery "clean coal" campaign, whose ads would have us believe that low-polluting coal is here or just around the corner. It is neither. Coal remains an inherently dirty fuel, and a huge contributor to not only ground-level pollution -- including acid rain and smog -- but also global warming.
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